The present study examines the quality and domains of teacher-toddler interactions and associations with structural characteristics using data from 95 German early childcare settings. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure of interaction quality assessed by the CLASS Toddler: emotional and behavioural…

The study examined conceptualisation and implementation of play-based curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood education in preschools in Oromia Regional State. The study employed mixed research method with concurrent triangulation design. A researcher selected the samples of the study by using purposive, availability, stratified and simple…

Current conceptualizations of process quality in early childhood education highlight a variety of global classroom indicators that directly link to improved child outcomes. This conceptualization may need to be extended, however, to facilitate more meaningful change in children's development and readiness for kindergarten. To enhance our current…

Cross-national comparisons represent an avenue for investigating milestones achieved by one region that can help improve standards in another country. This study compares the development of executive functioning in Hungarian and Kenyan preschoolers as they prepare for school readiness. The study's cross-sectional design entailed sampling…

Low pay and unequal wages make it hard to recruit and retain the high-quality early educators that young children need to thrive in early care and education (ECE) programs. Not only are early educator wages lower than those of comparable workers, but there may also be racial and ethnic wage disparities within the ECE workforce. Using a…

Despite the burgeoning literature that describes the most effective ways of engaging early childhood educators in professional learning, very little empirical work in North America has examined the processes, dialogs, and engagements in which educators participate to address quality as a social construct. This article (1) describes a model of…

High-quality learning environments are critical to support students' learning and development. This study supported eight lead teachers of Starting Strong classrooms in four different early learning programs to try to improve teachers' knowledge, self-efficacy, and use of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) within their classrooms. Four…

The Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn; Sprachman et al., 2009) was used to measure the quantity and quality of language interactions in English and Spanish in 143 preschool classrooms serving Spanish-speaking dual language learners. Both teachers (n = 112) and assistant teachers (n = 92) were included in analyses with a total of 461…

This study reports on a medium-scale Jamaican study, The Early Interactions Project, which measured environmental quality in 42 childcare facilities in Jamaica using Infant and Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-3). One of the overarching goals of the project was to quantitatively measure programme quality with the goal of providing…

Educators are charged with ensuring all students receive quality instruction that addresses their needs regardless of their varying ethnic backgrounds. In places where student populations include a diverse English Language Learner (ELL) population, teachers' roles are expanded to incorporate instructional strategies that support learning relative…

Despite the acknowledged complexity and time pressures of early childhood educators' work, very few studies have examined the nature of this work, minute-by-minute, over the working day. This paper reports on data gathered through 10,155 time-use diary (TUD) records provided by 321 educators participating in the Exemplary Early Childhood Educators…

Going down a slide, dancing to music, and pushing someone on a tire swing are more than simply "play activities" or a means to staying physically fit. Engagement in motor play provides important opportunities for preschoolers to develop a variety of skills, including gross motor, social, communication, and cognitive skills. However,…

The existing literature on early childhood education (ECE) quality is predominantly from the US or other developed countries. In low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), systematic research on ECE quality, however, is very limited. In the present study, we explore variation in structural and process indicators of ECE quality in two Eastern…

Early childhood education (ECE) programs are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa. But the quality of these programs, and their effectiveness when implemented at scale, remains unclear. Defining quality is not simple, as learning environments are shaped by cultural values and societal sociodemographics. Framed within sociocultural theory, this…

The normative cohesiveness idea in education, which constitutes a norm in thinking and practice that is inherently shared across the stakeholders, was adopted in order to understand and reflect on the existing issues of preschool teacher education programmes (PTEPs) in north-western China. The State, teacher trainers and preschool teachers'…