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…

Though a host of research has explored the association between beliefs and practices, limited research has been undertaken exploring the association between beliefs and intentions. Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the present study aimed to examine what, if anything, Greek and Cypriot…

The continuum of beliefs reported by Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers and how those beliefs relate to classroom practices are explored in this article. Considering the potentially important influence of teachers' beliefs on their practices, the level of early childhood teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs) and…

Early childhood education and care is a multifaceted institution. Based on children's age, a number of different settings operate, which have usually two distinct aims. Kindergartens provide mainly education whereas day care centres provide care. Yet, in recent years, the need to establish programmes which provide both education and care to…

Early childhood education is a profession which requires the professional staff to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. The pressure from the demands this profession has can create a sense of physical and emotional exhaustion that often leads to burnout. Thus, previous research has linked perceptions of the work…

Although action-research is a well-known research methodology in the field of education, in the case of Greece there are few actions-researches carried out by early childhood teachers. The absence of action-research in early childhood education settings is related to the way many early childhood teachers shape their professional role as well as…

The experiences children have and the attachments they form early in life have a decisive, long-lasting impact on their later development and learning. The present study aims at exploring the continuum of the beliefs reported by Greek pre-service kindergarten teachers and how those beliefs relate to their intensions about the importance of…

In the light of the European Union's interest in creativity and innovation, this paper, drawing on data from the EU project Creative Little Scientists (2011-2014), explores the teaching and learning of science and creativity in Early Years education. The project's conceptual framework, developed from detailed analysis of relevant literatures,…

The study reported here examined Greek parents' perceptions of barriers to men entering the early childhood education and care profession and their recommendations for recruiting more males into the field. Parents were asked to respond on a Likert scale to statements regarding males' decision to enter the profession, possible benefits for male…

The present study is aimed at examining the level of quality and care provided by Greek preschool programmes, from the researcher's and early childhood educators' perspectives and verify whether they evaluate with the same way. Research results indicate that according to the researcher's assessment both preschool and infant/toddler classrooms…

Meta-analyses of the findings from 29 studies including 4,194 early childhood practitioners showed that different practitioner belief appraisals (endorsement, importance, self-efficacy) were related to the intent to use and the adoption and use of different kinds of early childhood practices (developmentally appropriate practices, curricular…

In 2003, a new curriculum was enacted in Greek preschool education, replacing the previous one of 1989 and following the development of new curricula for the other rungs of compulsory education. Within this context, the new curriculum development policy aimed at an equal integration of preschool education into the unified design of primary and…

Though quality in early childhood education and care has attracted last decades enormous research interest there is still not a unanimous agreement about its definition. Yet, almost all definitions attempted include interaction, group size, adult:child ratio and early childhood educators' level of education, as important indices of quality.…

In this study, we explored some of the factors related to the acceptance of evolution theory among Greek university students training to be teachers in early childhood education, using conceptual ecology for biological evolution as a theoretical framework. We examined the acceptance of evolution theory and we also looked into the relationship…

The researchers studied humour among Chinese and Greek preschool children in relation to cognitive development. The sample included 55 Chinese children and 50 Greek children ages 4½ to 5½ years. Results showed that both Chinese and Greek children's humour recognition were significantly and positively correlated to their cognitive development, but…