Much interest exists among parents and researchers regarding the benefits and drawbacks of delaying kindergarten entrance to acquire academic advantage ("redshirting"). How evident is this assumed advantage at the kindergarten level and beyond? The authors evaluated large-scale test data from Grades K-8 to investigate the difference in performance…

This study explores the relationship between cognitive, motor, social and personality development of 3-year-old children and the age of their entry into preschool, which ranged from 10 to 45 months. 247 children from 17 preschools in different regions of Slovenia, all implementing the same National Curriculum, participated. Preschool teachers…

In this article, the authors explore the ideas that revolve around improving the quality of the teacher workforce through the pursuit of two related goals: (1) teachers who are hired by school districts will have as beginning professionals the acquired knowledge, habits of mind, and skills necessary to meet the needs of the students within the…

Constructivist Internet-based learning environments are advocated by contemporary educators, but few studies investigated students' preferences toward the environments for learning a specific school subject such as science. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire to explore students' preferences toward constructivist…

This article describes a national school improvement project involving five compulsory schools for hard-of-hearing pupils, located in different parts of Sweden. Using action research, the teachers tried to change the communication patterns among the pupils by changing their own classroom practices, In this process the teachers tested and used…

In contrast to the many studies that have examined parenting in low-income families from a deficit perspective, this study examines their strengths by proposing and testing a model of parenting goals derived from social and developmental theories on goal-orientation, motivation, attachment, and child socialization. The model posits two categories…

This article describes the development of a computer-based assessment system for children in early childhood programs, The Indiana Assessment System of Educational Proficiencies: Early Childhood (IASEP: EC). Skills in five developmental domains (i.e., cognitive, communication, social, sensory motor, and self-help) were selected and content…

In this qualitative study, I use grounded theory methodology to investigate the influences on the ethnic identity development of 10 Latino/a students during their first two years at a highly selective college. The findings indicate that two categories were salient in the first two years: Situating Identity (conditions: environment where they grew…

This study addressed concerns about the potential for differential gains in reading during the first 2 years of formal schooling (K-1) versus the next 2 years of schooling (1st-3rd grade). A multilevel piecewise regression with a node at spring 1st grade was used in order to define separate regressions for the two time periods. Empirical Bayes…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has ushered in an era of increased accountability and assumed universal proficiency at a time when there is significant variability in children's abilities as they enter kindergarten. Despite NCLB's emphasis on the use of evidence-based practices to improve students' achievement, it explicitly recommends grade…

This collection of essays illustrates various aspects of the recent trend to situate accounts of cognitive development. The essays examine contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of perception and cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the child's difficulty with reasoning in…

If, as research suggests, exposing children to two languages and two cultures provides a cognitive advantage, it could be assumed that a child exposed to two languages may be accelerated in a more advanced cognitive stage (as defined by Piaget) than a child exposed to only one language. This study sought to determine when Hispanic children from…

Research in Bahrain has demonstrated that children in educationally-oriented day care centers made significantly greater gains in cognitive, social, and emotional measures than children in care-oriented centers or at home. This study provided further data and addressed the question of whether there are differences in the daily learning experiences…

This guide is intended to be used in conjunction with the third module of the Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers (PITC), a four-module video training course for providers of family and center day care. The videos illustrate key concepts and caregiving techniques for a specific area of care, and the guides provide extensive in-depth coverage of…

The concept of self-regulation--the process whereby students activate and sustain behaviors and cognitive paths which are systematically oriented toward attainment of learning goals--is increasing in importance among educators. Self-regulation includes activities such as attending to instruction; organizing, coding, and rehearsing information;…