Thematic work that integrates different knowledge areas is considered suitable for developing young children's knowledge and skills in early childhood education. This paper reports evidence from a survey of early childhood teachers' work with mathematics and art integrated in thematic work. In this study, we aim to explore how teachers perceive…

Research suggests that bullying behaviour begins at an early age (three to six years) and that preventive practices should target early educational settings. However, no previous studies focus on early educational settings (kindergartens) as an arena for bullying behaviour. The aim of this study was to find what kind of organisational and…

This article reports on the findings of a follow-up study, which examined parents' and teachers' perspectives regarding the quality of childcare for 3- to 5-year-old children in the United States, Russia and Finland between 1991 and 2011. The study aims to address a gap in early childhood education (ECE) research by examining how the quality of…

This study focuses on parents' and teachers' perceptions of practices aimed at easing the transition to formal schooling (e.g., familiarization with the school, discussions about the school entrants). A total of 230 preschool teachers, 131 elementary school teachers, and 2,662 mothers and fathers filled in a questionnaire containing items on how…

The current study investigated the ratings of Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Hungarian preschool teachers and principals regarding the professionalism of preschool teachers within a cross-cultural context. According to reports commissioned by the European Commission and OECD, the professionalism of preschool teachers is a key factor in ensuring…

The Finnish social pedagogical curriculum for early childhood education directs early childhood teachers to use documentation to assess and develop pedagogy and practise. This empirical study examines the challenges and benefits a group of Finnish preschool teachers experienced when they learned to document their work. Although the idea of…

Children's participation in the early childhood education context is a multidimensional issue and educators have a significant role in enhancing participation. In this paper, we focus on the existing challenges to children's participation and the ways that child care educators can work as teams to meet those challenges. The data were collected…

This study examined the role of family-related (mother's education, depressive symptoms and child's gender) and kindergarten-related (teacher's experience, teaching practices and class size) factors in mothers' and teachers' mutual trust in Estonia and Finland. Six hundred eighteen (206 Estonian and 412 Finnish) mothers of kindergarten children…

In this paper, we focus on Finnish pre-service elementary teachers' (N = 269) and upper secondary students' (N = 1,434) understanding of division. In the questionnaire, we used the following non-standard division problem: "We know that 498:6 = 83. How could you conclude from this relationship (without using long-division algorithm) what 491:6…

This paper focuses on the expansion of design-oriented pedagogy that encourages approaching global phenomena such as sustainable development from the perspective of local environments, cultures and associated ways of doing things. It aims to determine how project members and teachers from eight different European countries (n = 221) who had…

Research Findings: The aim of the study was to examine the applicability and psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM; D. J. Stipek & P. Byler, 2005) outside the United States. The ECCOM was used to observe 83 kindergarten teachers (49 in Finland and 34 in Estonia) in classroom situations.…

Every preschool age child in Finland has the right to day care and the expertise of educators is multidimensional. The aim of this article is to clarify the expertise of those early childhood educators, who have the competence of kindergarten teachers (n = 80). The data consisted of the early educators' stories of their growth towards expertise.…

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare kindergarten and special kindergarten teachers' perceptions of their own competence in early childhood special education (ECSE) in Finnish day care. This comparison is based on the kindergarten teachers' and special kindergarten teachers' self-evaluation. Teachers evaluated their theoretical and…

The article presents the findings of the comparative survey on attitudes (beliefs, preferences) of 222 Slovenian and 230 Finnish early childhood teachers (Turnsek 2005). They have completed the questionnaire on aspect of democratisation of early childhood education, which consisted of attitude (Likart) scales and questions of ranking the…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2019, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and…