This paper uses the metaphor of trees and their tendency to sway with the wind and grow new leaves and branches to represent teacher candidates as diverse learners who come to our classes with their own experiences and understandings. This collaborative research study analyzed a particular cohort of candidates' evidence of sway and how the sway…

Service learning is often used in teacher education as a way to challenge social bias and provide teacher candidates with skills needed to work in partnership with diverse families. Although some literature suggests that service learning could reinforce cultural bias, there is little documentation. In a study of 21 early childhood teacher…

Children of today may be the first generation in the United States in more than 200 years to have a life expectancy shorter than their parents. Low levels of fitness caused by physical inactivity and poor nutritional habits of many of today's youth may be a contributing factor. Combating low fitness levels with physical activity is of utmost…

This article reports on aspects of a small-scale study conducted in the south of England that explored the learning experiences of three four-year-old children with identified special educational needs, who attended a combination of early education settings--one "more special" and one "more inclusive" (Nind et al., 2007). The…

This study addressed the effect of parent-child Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) interaction on cognitive development in early childhood. It measured the MLE interactions of 14 parents with their preschool children in the contexts of free-play and structured tasks. The children were assessed for their manifest cognitive performance and learning…

Synthesizing cutting-edge research from multiple disciplines, this book explores how young children acquire knowledge in the "real world" and describes practical applications for early childhood classrooms. The breadth and depth of a child's knowledge base are important predictors of later literacy development and academic achievement. Leading…

A preschool movement through dance program is a way to open the door to numerous cultural benefits and opportunities, and preschool skill facilitation. Creating new contexts for learning enrich young children and offer them different opportunities to understand and negotiate the world. Inclusive curricular integration and parent and community…

A Chinese script is represented by Chinese characters and each character is a square-shaped configuration with condensed strokes. Children in Hong Kong are explicitly taught to write at a very young age. They are guided to draw vertical and horizontal lines at age three, and are required to write simple characters with few strokes at age four.…

During the past six months the author was fortunate to travel to Hungary three times. Although all three trips had different purposes, they had one thing in common: professional conversations between colleagues from Hungary and the United States. In this article, the author would like to provide a short overview of these visits, which resulted in…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of early childhood play. Play is simply shorthand for everyone's capacity for curiosity, imagination, and fantasy--everyone's creative dispositions. What makes play unique is that it enables everyone to create new learning experiences. To illustrate, an infant who drops a rattle from the crib,…

"Standards," "guidelines," or "benchmarks" are different ways to describe curriculum-driven preschool requirements. Historically, children's education in the United States has been guided by content standards in grades K through 12. An educator may view the movement toward rigorous curricular frameworks and resulting…

Based on first hand field notes, I undertook to research the reasons why children interacted or did not interact appropriately with a common emergent literacy experience, the readaloud. I explored the reasons why parents/caregivers may not effectively participate in storybook reading, including reactions of parents/caregivers during four literacy…

This article is concerned with the attitudes and perceptions of a group of early years practitioners, without qualified teacher status, who were offered the opportunity to join a university in service course. Within this paper we reflect upon our realisation that pedagogy was the key to accessing meaningful learning experiences for our…

More states are recognizing that preschool is a vital first step toward helping children succeed in school. Ensuring that preschoolers have a high quality early learning experience provides them with the skills they need for later school success. In New Jersey, the poorest school districts have been collaborating with community-based child care…

This is one of a series of guides to self-evaluation building on the advice given in the publications "How good is our school?" and "The Child at the Centre." It also shows how the relevant National Care Standards can be applied alongside performance indicators and quality indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of…