Teacher educators can learn an important lesson from strategies for teaching young children: (1) to question; (2) to practice; and (3) to reflect. These strategies lead to a more knowledgeable, supported, and empowered teacher--and ultimately an intentional one. "The hallmark of developmentally appropriate teaching is intentionality. Good teachers…

Instructional materials are essential tools in the English language arts classroom. They allow students to interact with words, images, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in multiple literacies such as reading, listening, viewing, thinking, speaking, writing, and technology. Because selection policies should reflect local interests and…

In this article the author explores how a new library classification system might be designed using some aspects of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and ideas from other systems to create something that works for school libraries in the year 2020. By examining what works well with the Dewey Decimal System, what features should be carried…

Sleep has been linked to a host of physical, behavioral, and emotional outcomes, and research has documented that youth across the globe are experiencing inadequate sleep. Despite this knowledge, however, very little research has been conducted on school-age children; much of the extant research has focused on infants, toddlers, preschoolers,…

Young children engage in essentialist reasoning about natural kinds, believing that many traits are innately determined. This study investigated whether personal experience with second language acquisition could alter children's essentialist biases. In a switched-at-birth paradigm, 5- and 6-year-old monolingual and simultaneous bilingual…

The current study is an examination of early childhood preservice and in-service teachers' beliefs and self-stated practices about social competence instructional strategies, developmentally appropriate practices (DAP), and the relationship between the two. Teachers in this study generally believed that the social competence instructional…

Eco(logical)-cultural Theory suggests that a daily routine results from individuals adapting cultural ideas to the constraints of a local context or ecology. Using Ecocultural Theory, this research examined family child care providers' descriptions of daily activities and overall approach to understand cultural models. The results highlighted a…

The Foundation Phase is a Welsh Government flagship policy of early years education (for 3-7 year-old children) in Wales. Marking a radical departure from the more formal, competency-based approach associated with the previous Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, it advocates a developmental, experiential, play-based approach to teaching and learning.…

The current status and future directions of early childhood inclusion in the United States are discussed from the perspective of 4 key goals: access, accommodations and feasibility, developmental progress, and social integration. Recommendations are put forward to promote inclusion goals emphasizing administrative structures, personnel…

Technology use among young children is increasingly a fact of life, and establishing a clear set of goals that are broadly accepted by stakeholders is critical to planning for the successful integration of technology into early childhood education (ECE). However, debates about the role of technology in ECE settings are ongoing, with some…

In 2011, Indigenous Initial Education teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, for the first time participated in an alternative teacher professional development effort (called a "diplomado") to initiate community appropriate bilingual programs for pregnant mothers and infants under 3 years old. Collaborating with parents and village authorities, the…

The Philippines and Malaysia are members of ASEAN who respond to the challenge of EFA goals and Work Plan on Education 2016-2020, particularly on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 4.2: "By 2030 ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for…

"Developmentally appropriate practice" (DAP) is a term tossed about by practitioners as if everyone understands exactly what it means. DAP seems self-explanatory in that it requires educators to use only those strategies for teaching and discipline that are appropriate for the age of the child. The basic tenet of DAP rests on the assumed knowledge…

Almost 60 years have passed since Dr. James Comer last saw three of his elementary school friends, yet he vividly remembers them. They were African American boys just like him. They, too, came from two-parent homes, and their fathers also worked in the local steel mill. But unlike Comer and his siblings, these three youngsters did not take an…

Although there is much interest in teaching mindfulness to college students and other emerging adults, traditional methods of teaching mindfulness and meditation are not always effective for reaching this age group. Koru is a program, developed at Duke University, that has been specifically designed with the developmental characteristics of…