Defining intelligence is a puzzle that has challenged educators and researchers for years. More recently, professionals are acknowledging that individuals possess many facets of intelligence and that learning is a complex combination of genetic factors, environmental influences, and life experiences that affect learning in unique ways (Salvia,…

"Learning to Teach in the Early Years Classroom" helps teacher education students understand the complexities of teaching in early years' classrooms. It integrates research and theory with practice through vignettes, based on authentic classroom case studies, in order to show students how educators make decisions and achieve expected outcomes.…

For the leader of an early childhood program, the ability to delegate is an important skill to develop. Increased staff motivation, increased competence, and more vibrant connections between team members are just some of the positive benefits that can occur when delegation is used as a leadership tool. Delegating is not about dumping work on…

This study demonstrates the merits of evaluating a newly developed battery of executive function tasks, designed for use in early childhood, from the perspective of item response theory (IRT). The battery was included in the 48-month assessment of the Family Life Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 1292 children oversampled from…

The purpose of this study was to discover what variables or teacher descriptors yield classroom democracy and a willingness to engage in critical pedagogy. While teachers' gender or teaching experience yielded no significant effect; their age, cultural background, and marital status had a significant effect on their perception of the factors for…

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…

Many studies have demonstrated that infants can attribute goals to observed actions, whether they are presented live by familiar agents or on a computer screen by abstract figures. However, because most, if not all, of these studies rely on the repeated action presentations typical of infant studies, it is not clear whether infants are simply…

Analyses were conducted, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) database, to compare teachers' judgment of reading skill with direct measures of reading performance for kindergarten, first grade, and third grade students. Teacher judgments of kindergarten students' reading skill significantly predicted first and…

Research examining child-care providers' beliefs and behaviour has produced contradictory evidence perhaps because analyses commonly examine providers as a homogenous group. Among providers in the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we used cluster analysis to identify groups based on profiles of beliefs. We found evidence for five…

This study investigates the career trajectory of primary school physical education teachers (PSPETs) in Hong Kong. It is focused on the problems arising from apparent overload and the multiple roles of physical education teachers' career development in Hong Kong brought about by education and curriculum reforms. The specific research question is,…

This study examined the experiences of three primary teacher education students participating in early childhood-focused community play sessions, as well as their perceptions of early childhood and primary philosophy and pedagogy. The purpose was to explore perceived differences in primary and early childhood pre-service teacher courses, which may…

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students' growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students' growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a…

In a previous publication the authors examined selected aspects of the structure and curriculum of fifteen childcare centers located in three geographically distant locations in North America and determined that contrasts within and between the regions in terms of structure and curriculum guided by the National Association for the Education of…

This paper will explore the role of gender in the construction of shared narratives around outdoor spaces. The paper draws on findings from a long-term project investigating young children's learning and the outdoor curriculum. The project is ongoing and involves children aged 3- to 4-years in a nursery school in England. The children are given…

To address issues of equity with young children, early childhood educators must become interventionists. They must reconsider how they interact with children to identify the subtle ways that power structures classroom life and shapes children's identities. It is important to attend to the materials in the classroom to ensure that they are…