To help parents address those aspects of their child's development which may need special encouragement, support, or intervention, this digest delineates 11 categories of behavior for assessment. Parents should not be alarmed if their children are having difficulty in only a few categories, and they should not judge their children's permanent…

Discusses the power of early childhood education to overcome longstanding social, psychological, and economic problems. (Author/RK)

The best childhood predictor of later adult adaptation is the adequacy with which a child gets along with other children. Because social development begins in the early years, it is appropriate that early childhood programs include regular formal and informal assessment of children's acquisition of social competence. This digest presents the…

To help parents address those aspects of their child's development which may need special encouragement, support, or intervention, this digest delineates 11 categories of behavior for assessment. Parents should not be alarmed if their children are having difficulty in only a few categories, and they should not judge their children's permanent…

Since the groundwork for social development is laid during a child's early years, early childhood programs should include regular, periodic, formal and informal assessments of children's progress in the acquisition of social competence. One assessment tool that can be used is the Social Attributes Checklist, which lists attributes of a child's…

This paper addresses two questions relevant to practices and policies in early childhood education (ECE). The first question addressed is, Given the worldwide focus on ECE, what are the priorities in practice-oriented research in school life? Educators struggle with the issue of whether research makes much difference to practice. It is suggested…

This monograph consists of a paper that examines the construct "disposition," and explores its relevance to curriculum and teaching practices in early childhood education, and a selected ERIC bibliography relating to this subject. The paper is organized in two parts. Part 1 provides a definition of disposition and definitions of the…

Unlike teacher directed experiences that often do not provide children opportunities to take initiative and responsibility for the work undertaken, the project approach allows in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about. Projects are undertaken by a child, a small group of children within a class, or sometimes by the whole class,…

Examines six dilemmas endemic to teacher education: coverage versus mastery emphases; evaluative versus affective emphases; emphasis on current versus future needs of candidates; thematic versus eclectic approaches; emphasis on current practices versus innovative practice; and specific versus global assessment criteria. (SM)

A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about, usually undertaken by a group of children within a class. The goal of a project is to learn more about a topic rather than to find answers to questions posed by a teacher. Project work is complementary to the systematic parts of a curriculum. Whereas systematic…

A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about, usually undertaken by a group of children within a class. The goal of a project is to learn more about a topic rather than to find answers to questions posed by a teacher. Project work is complementary to the systematic parts of a curriculum. Whereas systematic…

A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about, usually undertaken by a group of children within a class. The goal of a project is to learn more about a topic rather than to find answers to questions posed by a teacher. Project work is complementary to the systematic parts of a curriculum. Whereas systematic…

The aims of the International Education Association's Preprimary Project are to examine developmentally relevant characteristics of the socialization environments of 4-year-olds in participating countries, and to ascertain the relationships between those characteristics and selected developmental outcomes. Phase I of the project consists primarily…

This Spanish-language ERIC Digest addresses the question of what young children should be learning that will best serve their development and learning in the long term. Two major dimensions of development--normative and dynamic--are explored, and four categories of learning goals are discussed: (1) knowledge; (2) skills; (3) dispositions; and (4)…

This Korean-language digest addresses the question of what young children should be learning that will best serve their development and learning in the long term. Two major dimensions of development--normative and dynamic--are explored, and four categories of learning goals are discussed: (1) knowledge; (2) skills; (3) dispositions; and (4)…