Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care…

Purpose: Oncological diseases, especially if experienced in the first 3 years of life, expose young children to conditions of serious physical and emotional stress causing delays in their physical development, cognitive acquisitioning and issues related to their emotional and social functioning. This study examines the effects of the participation…

Research Findings: In the present study, we investigated the roles of children's social competence and immigrant background in the prediction of the quality of children's relationships with peers and teachers and school adjustment. Participants were N = 212 children (M[subscript age] = 58.32 months, SD = 10.72; n = 98 with an immigrant background)…

Parents play a vital role in identifying children's needs for support and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) features that support children's well-being. This study examined parental perspectives on features of ECEC that foster young children's well-being under and above the age of 3 years by interviewing 359 parents across nine European…

Digital technologies are increasingly present in young children's lives. How can early education systems get the best out of digitalisation while minimising its risks? This is especially urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated our reliance on digital tools -- tools that enabled young children to continue learning when early education…

The study explored the experience of young children from migrant families during their first entry into an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service and analysed how the children cope with the new context, which is socially, culturally and linguistically different from their home. The activities and social behaviour of two groups of…

We analysed effective and promising interventions, within the classroom and school microsystems, aiming to promote equality and belongingness for immigrant, Roma, and low-income children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) and primary education in eight European countries. Over 500 interventions were identified, and 78…

"Children Crossing Borders" was an ambitious study of the intersection of im/migration and early childhood education in five countries: England, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. This article looks back at this study a decade later, presenting the main findings and proposing suggestions about how in the contemporary climate…

The study analyzed the factorial and concurrent validity of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) using an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) approach. Participants were 368 Italian children aged 3 to 6 (M = 4.60, SD = 0.98). The three-factor ESEM solution fit the data better than the classical confirmatory factor analysis…

This report explores the different ways in which European Union (EU) Member States (MS) have attempted to ensure high-quality ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) for children and families in the era of COVID-19. The rationale for the report builds on the Conclusions of the European Council concerning the fight against COVID-19 in education…

The first years of life lay the foundations for a child's future development and learning. Many countries have increased their financial support for provision of early childhood education and care (ECEC) over the past years. More recently, the focus of debate has been shifting from expanding access to affordable ECEC to enhancing its quality. A…

Young children explore their world through manipulatives, playing with "technology" that may or may not be digital. To this end, I offer an exploration into how the existing framework of the New Media Literacies (NMLs) paradigm set forth by Henry Jenkins (2006) in "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education…

In this article, I will examine the use of picture books as a means of supporting the intellectual pursuits of young children. Theoretical frameworks will be discussed as they pertain to the integration of these books in the Municipal Infant Toddler Centers and Preschools of Reggio Emilia and Pistoia, Italy. The pedagogical framework of these…

This paper begins with some general comments regarding the concept of participation in educative processes as it has developed in the preceding decades from a rights-based perspective, following the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In order to discuss the notion of participation, the authors introduce a…

As the designer of primary and secondary educational facilities, the author has become familiar with educational thinkers such as Sir Kenneth Robinson, Peter Senge, Ewan McIntosh, Daniel Pink and Howard Gardner--each promoting an approach based on system-thinking, self-directed exploration and multidimensional, interactive learning. In 2009, he…