This article contributes to knowledge about mentoring in preschool, which is important as research on mentoring of preschool teachers is limited. The study examines how in-service preschool teachers perceive their assignment as a mentor. The aim is to develop the understanding of "mentoring as support" among pre-school teacher mentors in…

Few matters are of greater importance to high quality early childhood education than the content and mediation of curriculum. In spite of this, early childhood curriculum practices are rarely examined through the lens of curriculum theory. This research employs educational connoisseurship and criticism as a methodology to shed light upon the…

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…

Pretend play is an important, universal activity of early childhood, but research to date contains multiple inconsistencies in definitions and measurement of pretend play. To begin to resolve this issue, we conducted a first study of the multiple different behaviors of pretend play in the preschool years (3-5 years), and investigated their…

The quality of early childhood programs plays a crucial role in improving outcomes for children. Play-based practices are considered a vital component in early childhood development as they offer opportunities for children to learn and grow. Despite this, the field is still trying to understand the role of teachers in facilitating play and their…

This cluster-randomized pre-post comparison study examined the effects of using Sesame Workshop's Little Children, Big Challenges: General Resilience (LCBC) digital media toolkit in preschool classrooms over a 12-week period. Participants included 157 preschool teachers and 766 preschool children from 159 preschool classrooms in 38 Head Start…

Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is a relationship-based, collaborative support designed to improve the capacity of early childhood professionals to promote children's mental health. Social and emotional development is the foundation for success in learning and in life. It begins in children's early relationships with…

ECEC-based physical activity (PA) interventions have reported modest changes; however, those that are underpinned by theory seem to report more favorable outcomes. To date, no ECEC-based PA interventions have been underpinned by professional development-focused theories, despite professional development being a consistent component in such…

Although professional development is widely used to improve the impacts of early childhood education, little is known about the conditions under which such interventions promote child outcomes. This study applies newly developed methods for quantifying intervention impact heterogeneity to understand whether educators' collective workplace stress…

"Research Findings:" Playfulness is an important personality tendency with an important role in the well-being, mental health, and various other aspects of an individual's life. Previous studies have shown that the development of children's playfulness is related to parents' playfulness. However, limited research has been conducted on…

Decades of evidence demonstrates that a strong foundation in early childhood leads to healthier, more successful life outcomes. Developing socio-emotional skills and executive functions in this period of life improves academic outcomes, school readiness, and wellbeing, as well as work, health, wealth, and public safety outcomes. Thus, social and…

The goal of this pilot study was to test a bilingual interactive read-aloud intervention designed to develop the oral language proficiency of three-year-old dual language learners (DLLs). The eight-week intervention--Cultivating Oral Language and Literacy Talent in Students (COLLTS)--was aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes…

The aim of the study is to develop a Likert-type scale to determine the play preferences of children attending pre-school education. The research was designed and carried out according to the survey research model. Data collected from 3 different study groups were used in the scale development process. The study groups consist of parents of…

It is widely assumed that (1) children with challenging behavior may lack the social-emotional skills to be successful in classroom settings and (2) instruction in social-emotional skills can help prevent the occurrence of young children's challenging behavior. However, no data are available to indicate whether specific social-emotional skills…

This study, aiming to reveal preschool children's mental models of their environment, was carried out with the participation of 225 children aged 36-72 months attending 8 different preschool education institutions. It is based on qualitative research designed around a case study. The Word Association Test and Drawing were used as the data…