Creativity has become an essential curriculum competence, playing a pivotal role in the successful response to the ever-changing demands of contemporary society. Yet, its complex, dynamic, and multifaceted nature seem conflicted with the predominant quantitative and easy-to-replicate curricular goals, resulting in potential incongruence between…

Parents offer unique information and are recognized as the main informants about children's social emotional functioning across time and situations. Inter-parental agreement was analysed with 100 preschoolers (M[subscript age] = 54.94 months) being rated independently by their mothers and fathers, using the Portuguese version of the Preschool and…

The growing interest in outdoor early childhood education, even in countries with a weak environmental tradition such as Portugal, tends to be associated with a concern over the alienation between urban/Western children and nature. While educational projects in nature criticize this separation, they still maintain a bad culture vs good nature…

This study aims to explore preschool educators' attitudes towards to information and communication technology (ICT), its factors and implementation of ICT tools in preschool education by the educators. To this end, a mixed-method research approach was applied, comprising qualitative and quantitative data, collected using survey and field…

In a new context of management and teaching action, framed by the organisation of the school into educational teams, middle leaders can play a key role in promoting learning communities, teacher development and improving teaching. Therefore, it seems relevant to understand the practices of these leaders that make their leadership effective. To…

Preschool education is an education process that prepares children for primary education, provides the training and upbringing conditions in the home and also aims to remove the inequalities in terms of language and society in the early period. The audit is to evaluate learning and all the factors that affect learning and also prepare the…

This study explores children's attitudes towards their peers with special needs (SN) at a preschool level. A total of 151 children were examined using the "Acceptance Scale for Kindergarteners -- Revised" and social demographic questionnaires to collect information from parents and educators. The research included preschool children…

Background: Phonological difficulties are prevalent in children with speech and/or language disorders and may hamper their later language outcomes and academic achievements. These children often form a significant proportion of speech and language therapists' caseloads. There is a shortage of information on evidence-based interventions for…

Research Findings: This study examined whether teacher-child interaction quality varied as a function of type of activity in toddler classrooms in four European countries (Finland, Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal). It also investigated whether specific activity settings, namely levels of adult involvement, use of whole group, and children's…

Goal: The problem of the authenticity of teacher questions has not received sufficient attention from educational researchers interested in the intersection between dialogue and argumentation. In this paper, we adopt a definition of authentic questions as dialogical units that prompt teacher-student interactions that are both productive (i.e.,…

It is broadly admitted that social contexts of reasoning may prompt children and adolescents to improve the quality of their reasoning. However, it is not clear how this quality may be assessed when it comes to arguments expressed within oral interactions in diverse settings (whole-class or small-group discussions) by students of different ages…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an important component of early school readiness and healthy child development. Research has shown that children's development of social and emotional skills at preschool age is critical for long-term school and life success. Teachers play a key role in this process. There is evidence to indicate that…

The educational transition between early childhood education and primary education is a complex moment of change with repercussions throughout the academic life of the students. For this reason, it is important to seek continuity between both educational stages. A successful transition produces for the social, cognitive and emotional well-being of…

The dialogue between knowledge, pedagogies and didactic resources gives meaning to learning. This learning when integrated in a transdisciplinary environment enhances the holistic development of the child. This study is part of the Master's Degree in Education of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education and Portuguese and History and Geography of Portugal…

This article analyses the impact on Early Years Education policy of the crisis provoked by COVID 19 pandemia and raises some questions about the future. For a better understanding of this impact COVID 19, I present the construction of this educational level since the nineteenth century contrasting two essential models -- the educational assistance…