Examples are provided in this discussion to indicate the nature of professional judgment in a teaching situation likely to be encountered by most child care workers or preschool teachers. Specifically, this predicament involves a problem in turn taking among 4-year-olds. As used here, the term "professional judgment" refers to cognitive…

There are several ways in which children's early experience is related to later development. First, there is irrefutable evidence that less than best quality early experiences represent missed opportunities for substantial contributions to the rest of children's lives. Second, recent research has found that about 80 percent of all neurological…

The aims of the International Education Association's Preprimary Project are to examine developmentally relevant characteristics of the socialization environments of 4-year-olds in participating countries, and to ascertain the relationships between those characteristics and selected developmental outcomes. Phase I of the project consists primarily…

Theoretical issues of concern to teachers in early childhood education are discussed in this collection of four papers titled: "Some Generic Principles of Teaching", "Psychological Development and Education in Early Childhood", "Teachers as Consumers of Educational Information", and "Notes on the Distinction between Education and Excitement". The…

This presentation examines the state of preschool education in developed and developing nations, and discusses how the art-oriented, child-centered approach of the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, may be used to help improve preschool education worldwide. Although the majority of parents in many nations are satisfied with the educational…