Developing early reading skills is important for long-term academic success. Too often, however, young children do not have the foundations of literacy they need. One-third of Tennessee students read on grade level (Tennessee Department of Education, 2021), and in the state's capital city of Nashville, three out of four 3rd graders are not reading…

An extraordinary number of young children are exposed to trauma that impacts their development and well-being. Early care and education (ECE) programs are uniquely positioned to support children exposed to trauma yet may lack access to resources and professional development to enhance their capacity to deliver trauma-informed care. Using a…

This article shares a case study of a classroom of multicultural and multilingual children in an early childhood center to explore how iPad apps can support young children in learning English as an additional language. Situated in Sydney, Australia, this study found that iPad apps have the potential to promote 4- and 5-year-old children's language…

The study aimed to investigate factors influencing participation in pre-school education and its implications for quality-education. The descriptive survey research design was employed through stratified random sampling to collect pertinent information through questionnaires and observational checklists. The first finding was that 68.92% of the…

Professional development (PD) is a potentially important mechanism for enhancing classroom practices and children's learning. In this large-scale randomized controlled trial, we examined the effectiveness of language and literacy PD, with and without coaching, offered at scale to early childhood educators (n = 546) across 1 state. Relative to the…

Early childhood professionals can use this one-of-a-kind work to better serve Korean American and other Asian American children in the United States. Four transnational mother-educators share the lived experiences of Korean American children and their families through candid and vivid narratives that counter stereotypical and prejudicial beliefs…

Teacher reflection has been at the core of teacher development efforts for almost 100 years, yet inconsistency in the literature results from a lack of clarity on how reflection is conceptualized--from its purpose to processes, and how they relate to refining teacher practice. This article draws from research in cognitive science to explain how…

Background: Well-managed, emotionally positive preschool classrooms promote academic and social success (Mashburn et al. in "Child Dev" 79(3):732-749. https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01154.x, 2008). Therefore, learning standards and practitioner guidelines emphasize the maintenance of a positive, well-managed classroom climate…

This mixed methods study examined whether participation in a virtual community of practice (vCoP) could impact the implementation of new skills learned in a professional development session and help to close the research to implementation gap. Six participants attended a common professional development session and completed pre- , mid- , and…

In 2015, AMS Board members suggested that the board create a program that would meet the need for more AMS-credentialed leaders, to assist with succession planning for both AMS and Montessori schools. An advisory committee was created to oversee the program and ensure that its mission was upheld. What came out of this work was AMS's Emerging…

This article derives from my Master thesis on the development of processes of Context Based Participatory Professional Development undertaken with a group of educators and a pedagogical leader. This study narrates the journey of professional development of one of these educators working towards the transformation of the pedagogy developed with her…

Robotic education is a popular topic in recent years. There are robotic education courses from pre-K to K-12 and these courses claim that they support STEM education. However, the teacher's perception of these activities and needs for this education is the missing part of the chain. The aim of this study to find out the perceptions and suggestions…

Coaching is becoming widely recognized as a tool to help early childhood educators enhance teaching and build professional skills. Although effective, the use of an external coach can be cost and time prohibitive. This study examined the effectiveness of internal peer coaches as compared to external coaches in implementation fidelity of an…

Across public and private settings, about 250 preschoolers are suspended or expelled each day, according to a Center for American Progress analysis of the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (Malik, 2017). The U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection has exposed serious inequities in exclusionary discipline practices.…

Many young children entering early childhood programs demonstrate challenging behaviors that place them at risk for emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs), which impact their future success in school. The purpose of this study was to conduct a conceptual replication of BEST in CLASS by examining child outcomes from BEST in CLASS--Web, a web-based…