The present research investigates the perceptions of kindergarten students, and pre-service teachers from the Early Childhood Education Department at the University of Athens, concerning the frequency of the Moon's appearance in the night sky. ?he sample consisted of 15 people from each population group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted…

Superstitious behaviors persist across time, culture, and age. Although often considered irrational and even potentially harmful, superstitions have recently been shown to have positive effects on stress levels, confidence, and ultimately, performance. However, it remains unclear how people conceive of superstitious behaviors, specifically,…

This study addresses the dearth of research on preparing pre-service early childhood educators to support young children's language development. Taking a design-based approach to an undergraduate course for early childhood majors, qualitative data analysis examined the seven participating pre-service teachers' knowledge of, perspectives on, and…

Adults have a vertical attention bias (VAB) that directs their focus toward object tops and scene bottoms. This is consistent with focusing attention on the informative aspects and affordances of the environment, and generally favoring a downward gaze. The smaller size of children, combined with their relatively limited interactions with objects…

Although home visiting is growing as a service for families with young children, the field does not adequately prepare the home visiting workforce, and higher education courses on home visiting are rare. Many home visitors are prepared through higher education as teachers, social workers, or nurses, which provides knowledge but few of the skills…

Number line estimation (NLE) tasks are widely used to investigate numerical cognition, learning, and development, and as an instructional tool. Interpretation of these tasks generally involves an implicit expectation that responses are driven by the overall magnitudes of target numerals, in the sense that the particular digits conveying those…

This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of a professional development program aimed at enhancing early childhood education (ECE) teachers' abilities to identify and address developmentally appropriate versus maladaptive behaviors in young children. Utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the study involves pre- and…

In a climate of pandemic recovery and taking this opportunity to be reflective and reflexive in our practice we set out to examine how we can make a change to the playful experiences of children aged 4-6 years old in Irish infant primary classrooms. As teacher educators in play and play-based learning, in higher education, we are confronted by…

The majority of the world's children live in low- and middle-income countries, yet the majority of early childhood cognitive research is done with a small proportion of high-income countries. These findings cannot be assumed to apply across all contexts. It is therefore necessary to confront entrenched systems of power and privilege in early…

The objective of the study was to characterise how pre-service kindergarten teachers used a Hypothetical Learning Trajectory on length and its measurement to notice children's mathematical thinking. A total of 64 pre-service kindergarten teachers enrolled in an Early Years Education mathematics teaching course were asked to notice teaching…

This essay entails a critical review of the origins, discourses and contemporary manifestations of NAEYC's enduring commitment to 'developmentally appropriate practice' (DAP); and proposes a reconceptualisation of DAP as an open question and incentive for place-based collaborative inquiry. Brief discussion of ECE's early history highlights…

Cross-situational word learning, the ability to decipher word-referent links over multiple ambiguous learning events, has been documented across development and proposed to be key to vocabulary acquisition. However, this work has largely focused on learning from one-to-one structure, where each referent is consistently linked with a single label.…

Project Construct is a learner-centered constructivist framework that emphasizes positive teacher-student relationships, autonomy, and child-led experiences. Constructivist pedagogy promote cognitive, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Yet, novice teachers struggle to grasp constructivist teaching practices and tend to emphasize teacher-directed…

Preparation of early childhood special educators, including early interventionists, includes knowledge and application of different practices than either early childhood generally or school-age special education. Several organizations, including the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, have identified relevant…

A large body of research literature suggests that quality formative assessment has the potential to promote positive outcomes for young children. This paper posits that early childhood educators learn how to use developmentally appropriate assessment practices to effectively assess young children and use these data to make decisions that matter…