An educational innovation experience developed as part of the curriculum for the Early Childhood Education degree is presented within the framework of the scientific dissemination project entitled 'INFA-CIENCIA: From the girls of today to the scientists of tomorrow', which pursues two objectives: (1) To bolster future teachers' knowledge of women…

The ontological turn in the humanities and social sciences has prompted some scholars of education to shift their focus of inquiry away from questions of epistemology (i.e., knowledge) to metaphysical matters related to being and the nature of existence. In this paper, I turn to ontology and make an argument for integrating and explicitly teaching…

This grounded theory study seeks to 1) understand what barriers North Carolina kindergarten teachers experience as they implement a new authentic formative assessment, the North Carolina Early Learning Inventory (NC ELI), and 2) identify factors that increase implementation fidelity with the new measure. Data were collected from 10 teachers, from…

This study examined the natural social interest of 193 (95 boys, 98 girls) typically developing preschoolers aged 41 to 77 months (M = 61.71 months, SD = 8.48 months) toward their included peers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; N = 16, M = 66.8, SD = 8.80). A hierarchical linear model examined the role of endogenous (within-child) and exogenous…

The purpose of this study was to explore how P-12 school drama teachers infused culturally relevant (CR) social emotional learning (SEL) into their drama instruction. In addition, this study explored the experiences of students of color with disabilities who were involved in P-12 classes that employed CR SEL drama activities. The epistemic…

In 1998, Sturrock and Else introduced the Play Cycle which has been integrated into both playwork theory and practice. An online survey with 157 responses found that playworkers' understanding Play Cycle varied to how they were first introduced to the theory. In addition, understandings of the six elements of the Play Cycle were significantly…

The importance of a Piagetian approach is recognized in South African early childhood educational practices and teacher training, but the reality of the implementation of teaching and learning in the domain of early years opposes his philosophy in many ways. Our Early Childhood Education policies strongly advocate a Piagetian approach such as the…

This study investigated the relationship between task-based teacher training and novice English language teachers' cognitions and implementations of tasks in Honduran bilingual schools. After participating in a four-week training program on task-based language teaching, teachers with little or no prior teaching experience designed task-based…

Young American children in today's public schools live in a world in which tensions around about identity (i.e., ethnicity and race, gender continuums, language backgrounds and proficiencies, cultural values and beliefs, economic resources, schooled experiences, literacy, and im/migration history) are part of everyday conversation. However, many…

Increasing numbers of international students are enrolling in Australian universities in early childhood teaching degrees. For many of these students understanding the early childhood education pedagogies and approaches is a different way of viewing teaching and learning from their own cultural perspective. Many of these students struggle to…

Given urgent need for culturally competent early childhood educators and the strategic encouragement by colleges for students to travel internationally, this analysis focuses on the question: What is the relationship between international experiences and preservice early childhood educators' cultural competence? More specifically, three questions…

A unique partnership among six museums and Loyola University Chicago's "Teaching Learning and Leading with Schools and Communities" teacher preparation program provided cross-disciplinary field sites for understanding and witnessing developmental and learning theories. Pre-service teacher candidates were able to identify constructs and…

The continued standardisation of publicly funded early education programmes has led to teacher educators and researchers focusing in on what works in preparing teachers and their students to succeed in these environments. Such a focus prioritises an epistemological understanding of teaching and learning and leads to investigations examining…

Recent research evidence has revealed that Greek preschoolers' physical activity (PA) levels are not satisfactory. Taking into account the amount of time spent daily in preschool settings as well as the finding that preschool appears to be a significant predictor of children's PA, the aim of the present study is to provide an overview of the role…

Synthesizing research with practice in a meaningful manner continues to be a challenge, particularly in relation to securing the place of play in the school setting. The struggle for early childhood teacher educators in dealing with the realities of this research-to-practice dilemma requires constructive action. A theoretical framework that is…