Urie Bronfenbrenner is almost certainly best known for his theoretical writings about the ecology of human development. His interest in theory was not, however, separate from his practical concerns, particularly those related to early education and care of children and the families and teachers who interact with them. From the role that he played…

Broadly speaking, the teaching of spoken language in Spanish schools has not been approached in a systematic way. Changes in school practices are needed in order to allow all children to become competent speakers and to understand and construct oral texts that are appropriate in different contexts and for different audiences both inside and…

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and mechanisms of "Hitkashrut", a "common elements" co-parent training (PT) program for early intervention with preschoolers (3-5 years of age) at risk for conduct problems (CP). Method: A randomized controlled trial with 140 participants in PT and 69 in a minimal intervention control…

The preschool assessment and diagnostic process offers many opportunities for collaboration across disciplines that can enrich the professional's understanding of the young child. This article addresses the advantages and complexities of such collaboration including opportunities for infusing collaboration across the multiple steps of assessment.…

The relationships between preschool children and their teachers are an important component of the quality of the preschool experience. This study used attribution theory as a framework to better understand these relationships, examining the connection between teachers' perceptions of children's behavior and teachers' behavior toward those…

Children with significantly advanced development are not a tiny minority. Although some 8-15 percent of young children fall into this category, teachers in the early grades identified only 2 percent of such children. Characteristics of preschoolers who learn at an accelerated pace and guidance in supporting them are readily available in the…

Lev Vygotsky is no doubt one of the leading educational theorists in history. His theories have been used to guide teaching and learning in public school classrooms for over a century. Vygotsky was considered to be one of the most creative psychologists of the twentieth century. This article covers a brief accounting of his birth, life…

Marc Prensky coined the term "digital native" in 2001 to describe those who have grown up with a constant interaction of technology, including television, video games, and the Internet (Prensky, 2001). For these people, many of them now in their twenties, life has always included the presence of screens--televisions, cell phones, iPods, video…

This article presents a historical description of and research related to the development, validation, and combined use of the multiple editions of the Bracken Basic Concept Scale and its companion curriculum, the Bracken Concept Development Program. In tandem, the scale and curriculum were designed to assess and teach more than 300 basic language…

The simple view of reading (SVR) provides a conceptual framework for describing the processes involved when readers comprehend text. Strong evidence for the SVR comes from factor-analytic studies showing dissociations between decoding and comprehension skills. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether predecoding and comprehension…

In 1927, nursery school educator Lucy Sprague Mitchell heralded Jean Piaget's psychology as of "outstanding interest" and wrote in "Progressive Education" that it should be of "immense service" to psychologists, teachers, and parents. In 1929, psychologist Lois Meek praised Piaget's research in the National Society for the Study of Education's…

Seven months after Hurricane Katrina, 183 five- to eight-year-old children were surveyed about their own intrusive thoughts and tested on their level of cognitive functioning (knowledge about the mind and the mind's operations). Basic developmental research suggests that children who lack sufficient knowledge about the mind should have…

By bringing together neurologists, developmental psychologists, pediatricians, and economists, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child offers a unique knowledge base from which early childhood policy and practice can be informed. By communicating how and why early experiences have a lasting impact on brain architecture--and what…

The ultimate goal of peace education is "to minimise and eventually eliminate various forms of violence through consciousness raising, vision, and action" (Brantmeier, E. (2003) Peace Pedagogy: exposing and integrating peace education in teacher education. Paper presented at the "Association for Teacher Educators" meeting, p. 6). Our position is…