Teachers' perceptions are important in identifying and serving gifted children. However, little attention is given to gifted education in the early years in China. This study aimed to investigate teachers' perceptions of young gifted children (aged 3-6), exploring teachers' understandings, feelings, practices, and perceived challenges. Qualitative…

Exploring explored principals' and teachers' perceptions concerning the role of play in early childhood programs was this quantitative inquiry. All early childhood participants identified play as a learning tool but noted it was being eliminated from the curriculum due to high stake accountability. There was a significant difference between…

This paper documents the development of an online qualitative questionnaire to be used with teachers of young children experiencing parental separation and divorce. The questionnaire forms the first phase one of a larger project where it will be used to determine teachers' thoughts, opinion, and beliefs regarding their preparedness for working…

This article presents a snapshot of the mathematical competencies of children aged four to five years in Australian early childhood education settings, as perceived by their educators. Data are presented from a nationally-representative sample of 6511 children participating in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The results…

The dearth of attention to leadership in early care and education (ECE) undermines the field's capacity to deliver the high quality care that makes a difference for children and families most in need. Almost no opportunities or systems exist to develop and support ECE leadership for improvement and innovation. Unlike in many other professions,…

This report is based on an exploratory case study of a private multilingual preschool language program that integrated a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) project into the curriculum of five/six year-old children whose native language(s) is/are Russian and/or Tatar. The purpose of the study was to reveal teachers' and parents' perceptions…

We explore early childhood teachers' lived experiences learning and teaching mathematics with young children, adding finer-grained context and detail to broader research descriptions. We interviewed ten early childhood teachers in a university laboratory school about their mathematics training, classroom mathematics curriculum, who controls their…

Involvement is the cornerstone of the educational process, especially in the early years settings. It is a fundamental factor in people's actions particularly when they are deeply concentrated in an activity. However, little research has been conducted in the early years settings, with focus on teaching and learning. This piece of research…

Soroban abacus training is called as mental arithmetic training in our country. It is known for mental arithmetic to increase the ability of four mode operations. Besides this, how is the situation for the students which are having Soroban abacus training in the terms of problem solving abilities, creativity, development of concepts, attraction…

Play is an essential part of young children's lives. This symposium highlights the integral role of play in young children's mathematics learning and examines the teacher's role in facilitating and extending this. Papers examine key tenets of play, contributing to theoretical understandings and presenting data on teacher's perceptions of play and…

School leadership today demands skills, knowledge, and attitudes much different than those required a short time ago. With the increased accountability for principals to achieve and maintain adequate yearly progress, test scores are often seen by teachers and parents as principals' top priority. Relationships are seen as secondary and they should…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of gender in young children's teasing and bullying behavior. Observations and interviews were conducted with children in K-3 public school classrooms in urban and suburban locales with racially, ethnically, and economically diverse student bodies. The observations documented the gender of…

Using the theoretical framework of hermeneutics and guided by the conceptual framework of Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice, two studies examined how preschool teachers perceive young children's gender differences in relation to the pedagogical considerations. Participants in Study 1 were 121 early childhood educators attending…

This paper discusses strategies and techniques that early childhood educators can use to encourage self-esteem and responsibility in young children. It examines Kohlberg's theory of moral values, which states that children progress through three stages of moral development: (1) the pre-moral stage, based on rewards and punishments; (2) the moral…

During 1998 and 1999, the Starting School Project at the University of Western Sydney-Macarthur conducted a survey across New South Wales (Australia) of parent and teacher opinions about children's successful transition to school. Survey responses were received from 240 teachers and 243 parents of young children. Respondents were grouped according…