The purpose of this study was to describe to what extent four preschool teachers in Turkey have developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices related to two dimensions of classroom management. The participants of the study were four female teachers working in Ankara. The data of this study were collected through a demographic information…

Background/Context: Early childhood education joined the standards movement in 2002 with the Good Start, Grow Smart initiative (Brown, 2007), with advocates arguing that standards were a tool for creating more continuity and coherence in PreK systems (Bowman, 2006; Kagan 2012). Critics posed concerns about a perceived poor fit between…

Kindergarten has become increasingly academic in nature. One of the primary dilemmas arising from this shift is the tension between the use of developmentally appropriate practices and the obligation to teach academic standards. To gain a deeper understanding of how kindergarten is enacted in the evolving curricular landscape, we look beyond these…

Social inventions are new ways of solving human problems. This article reports on an action research project designed to find social inventions to reduce structural lag in four programs that support the transition to adulthood of marginalized youth in Latin America. The investigators engaged youth and staff members in identifying important…

In this year-long qualitative multi-site case study, researchers identified how eighth and ninth-grade teacher practices may support students' basic and developmental needs across the middle-to-high-school transition. Data were collected throughout 2009, including individual interviews, focus group interviews, observations, and artifact data of 23…

The guidelines published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children on the use of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) have, over the last two decades, had an important influence on young children's educational experiences. The efficacy of these guidelines for changing children's outcomes has been examined by only a…

Environmental degradation, childhood obesity, and aggression of youth are societal problems that appear unconnected. However, their cause (and possible solution) may be linked to a common experience--the amount and quality of time spent in the natural world. Environment based education, significant life experience research, and studies involving…

Considering the increased influence of digital technologies on daily life (Fallows, 2004) and young children's increased use of interactive technologies ("Children Now," 2007), early childhood educators are beginning to think about the role of technology in their classrooms. Many preschool programs are beginning to purchase iPads, or…

This article describes collaboration between preschool and university educators focused on adapting the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) standards for Effective Pedagogy for use in early childhood (EC) settings. The CREDE standards are strategies of best practices for culturally diverse K-12 students. Teachers…

To address arts education disparities in middle level schools, this paper explores evidence that infusing the visual and performing arts into language arts, math, science, and history/social studies courses is a pedagogical approach that meets the developmental needs of early adolescents and fosters a relevant, challenging, integrative, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a preschool program followed the recommendations outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in their joint position statement "Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good…

Explored beliefs and practices of Head Start, kindergarten, first-, second-, and third-grade teachers. Found that belief measures were moderately correlated and observed practices supported what teachers reported as their beliefs and practices. Beliefs were significantly more appropriate than practice at every grade level. As grade level…

Six children (5 boys, 1 girl; aged 36-60 months) participated in this qualitative study. Each child was enrolled in a different family child care facility. The authors rated the child care providers in 3 of the facilities as using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) most of the time and rated the providers in the 3 other facilities as…

The major objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a questionnaire based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children's 1986 guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education; and (2) use the questionnaire to obtain information regarding kindergarten teachers' beliefs and instructional…