Previous research suggests that adult perceptions of children's social competence may vary depending on the socialization goals in a given cultural context. There is also ample evidence of cultural differences in values concerning emotional display, with East Asian collectivistic contexts favoring restraint and Western individualistic contexts…

This study investigated the development of length measurement ideas in students from prekindergarten through 2nd grade. The main purpose was to evaluate and elaborate the developmental progression, or levels of thinking, of a hypothesized learning trajectory for length measurement to ensure that the sequence of levels of thinking is consistent…

This comparative study explores the verbal communication between museum educators and young children, based on principles of developmental psychology. In early developmental stages, when student learning is greatly dependent on verbal communications from the teacher, observation skills may be developed through purposeful instruction. Through the…

East Asian children have consistently outperformed children from other nations on mathematical tests. However, most previous cross-cultural studies mainly compared East Asian countries and the United States and have largely ignored cultures from other parts of the world. The present study explored cultural differences in young children's early…

This study examined the role of family-related (mother's education, depressive symptoms and child's gender) and kindergarten-related (teacher's experience, teaching practices and class size) factors in mothers' and teachers' mutual trust in Estonia and Finland. Six hundred eighteen (206 Estonian and 412 Finnish) mothers of kindergarten children…

Most qualitative studies in international education take place in a single site in a single nation. When studies are of more than one country, they most often use more quantitative than qualitative approaches. Beatrice and John Whiting conducted the most systematic of comparative cross-cultural studies of child rearing in their "Six…

Background: Sedentary behavior refers to activities involving sitting down and reclining (eg, watching TV, using the computer) and has been associated with different health outcomes. In preschool, children are sedentary for 50% to 80% of the time, in the classroom as well as during recess. Because of the absence of qualitative studies examining…

Purpose: In this study, the authors aimed to compare vocabulary size, lexical composition, and late talking in large samples of Korean and U.S. children ages 18-35 months. Method: Data for 2,191 Korean children (211 children recruited "offline" through preschools, and 1,980 recruited "online" via the Internet) and 274 U.S.…

The early years of childhood are crucial for the development of the cognitive and social-behavioural skills of an adult. Thus, they represent a unique challenge and opportunity to invest in children. Extensive research has shown that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is effective in tackling the inequality which can tend to spring from…

Using nationally representative data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; N = 5,107), this study assessed prospective connections between children's early education and care (EEC) experiences from infancy through preschool and their cognitive and behavioral functioning in 1st grade. Incorporating 6 waves of data, analyses…

Research Findings: The present study involved using a questionnaire to investigate the mathematics teaching practices of 74 U.S. and 67 Chinese early childhood teachers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses yielded several key findings. First, U.S. teachers are less intentional in mathematics teaching than their Chinese counterparts.…

The purpose of this study was to examine similarities and differences in perspectives of fathering among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers. The participants in the quantitative survey consisted of 67 American in-service and 277 pre-service teachers, 118 Chinese in-service and 163…

In studies conducted in the USA, teacher dispositional factors such as enthusiasm, professional esteem and learning motivation often emerge as the most significant variables affecting student learning and achievement from the primary grades through higher education. Do these factors play as significant a role in student learning and achievement in…

This paper focuses on the expansion of design-oriented pedagogy that encourages approaching global phenomena such as sustainable development from the perspective of local environments, cultures and associated ways of doing things. It aims to determine how project members and teachers from eight different European countries (n = 221) who had…

Introduction: A growing body of literature suggest that the quality of teacher-child relationships is a determining factor in children's competence in social-emotional, behavioral functioning, and academic skills. Most of the research on student-teacher relationships has relied on these relationship perceptions. A well-known instrument to assess…