The study aims to identify how kindergarten teachers perform early literacy assessments in the classroom and the challenges these teachers have in performing such assessments. During the study, the data were gathered through an in-depth interview in the form of a forum group discussion (FGD). Then, the phenomenological data were attained from 30…

In this paper, we explore how professional and policy contexts can mediate early childhood teachers' relationship with the official curriculum. Using their assessment practices as an impetus for discussion, we probed 28 Greek kindergarten teachers to talk about their engagement with the prescribed curriculum and explain how they construct its…

This study examines the existing literature on information and communication technology and establishes that although there is a strong potential for these resources to generate improved student science concepts outcomes, many teachers fail to recognize that potential. The study then presents qualitative data acquired from teacher questionnaires,…

This paper reports on the results of a narrative-grounded investigation of student teachers' intercultural experiences and learning during their teaching practice. Our interest is in the meaning of the intercultural contact zone and how education for diversities is conceptualised and reflected upon in Finnish teacher education. Critical event…

The dangers of a single story in current U.S. large-scale writing assessment are that assessment practice does not align with theory and this practice has negative effects on instruction and students. In this article, I analyze the connections or lack of connections among writing theory, writing assessment, and writing instruction, critique the…

This article presents a community-based pedagogical initiative for teaching vocabulary. The research took place in the Innu community of Unamen Shipu in northern Quebec. The study introduced a teaching method grounded in Indigenous knowledge theory that exemplified the multiliteracies pedagogy principles. This exploratory study used participatory…

In 2012, 14 states passed legislation geared toward improving 3rd-grade literacy through identification, intervention, and/or retention initiatives. Today, a total of 32 states and the District of Columbia have policies in statute aimed at improving 3rd-grade reading proficiency. The majority of these states require early assessment and…

Though pre-school education is not compulsory in Turkey, having foreign language education in kindergarten has been an upward trend lately. Besides, as there has been an increasing demand on language education in kindergartens, a large number of kindergartens have begun to give English language education so as to meet the demand. However, most of…

Increased emphasis has been placed on children's ability to enter kindergarten ready to learn, a concept referred to as "school readiness." School readiness has been defined by the Maryland State Department of Education as "the stage of human development that enables a child to engage in, and benefit from, primary learning…

Elementary general music teachers typically teach hundreds of students every week. Each child has individual learning needs due to a variety of factors, such as prior experiences with music, music aptitude, learning style, and personality. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore ways that experienced teachers used assessments to…

The Expressive Arts Outreach (EAO) project, housed at the Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood (the Center) at Western Illinois University, was funded in 2000 by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) as a 3-year outreach project. The target population was 3-8 year old children with a wide range of…

Culture plays a vital role in second language learning. This paper presents an action research study that investigates the role of culture in a Chinese language program in a kindergarten classroom. Three topics have been explored: (a) culture as the core in the development of a thematic unit on Chinese festivals, (b) a culturally responsive…