Numerous years in several New York City elementary and nursery schools resulted in this article, which investigates teachers' emotions, specifically vulnerable feelings, related to their work. Often, teachers are quiet about their struggles, not wanting anyone else to know that they struggle, not wanting to expose their vulnerability. However,…

Noting that early childhood education is one tool for violence prevention, this study examined the effectiveness of a preschool violence prevention program in influencing the knowledge and attitudes of Head Start teachers in a rural, heavily Hispanic, southern Texas community. Head Start teachers were nonrandomly assigned to a control group, a…

The views of teachers and directors in four Christian preschools and four Buddhist preschools are examined in this qualitative study of early childhood education in Japan. In Christian preschools, the guiding principle was that each child was a precious gift of God. This belief resulted in a play-oriented curriculum that maximized the choices…

Reports a case study of three kindergarten teachers who were introduced in a university class to emergent literacy research from a developmental perspective. Observations and interviews with the three teachers indicated teachers believed external constraints inhibited child-centered teaching. They held conflicting beliefs about child-centered and…

Contends that implications of Fantuzzo et al's study go beyond Head Start and pertains to other programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Suggests that when considering policy implications of the study, two issues should not be ignored: (1) the child within the context of a broader society; and (2) the importance of collaboration in…

The present article presents the results obtained from a research on Science Education ideas, practices, and needs of pre-primary teachers in Greece. A questionnaire was administrated to a sample of 130 pre-primary school teachers, and the data was analyzed through Multiple Correspondence Analysis. The results show that there are separate groups…

This practicum report describes an intervention designed to increase opportunities for children in a day care center and preschool to practice gross motor skills, and to help teachers gain confidence in their ability to foster children's maturation. It was expected that as a result of the intervention, 50 of 70 children would participate in gross…

This study examined 50 kindergarten teachers' perceptions of the success of students who were labeled "developmentally delayed," and of students who had not been so labeled. The term "developmentally delayed" is used to identify young children in need of early intervention. Teachers' perceptions about the teaching skills they…

This study examined the role of public preschool teachers in the construction of classroom literacy environments. Using qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, the research was intended to generate knowledge of teacher thinking and decision making for social and cultural phenomena taking place in a classroom. The study included ten…

A study of graduates of the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood Studies and the School of Early Childhood Studies (SECS) at the University of Melbourne in Australia identified changes in the professional attitudes of teachers during their first year of teaching. Early childhood teachers working in junior primary schools, preschool kindergartens,…

This study explored how early childhood practitioners perceive young boys and girls in the classroom. Specific research questions addressed include: (1) Are the perceptions that practitioners have of young boys and girls significantly different?; and (2) If there is a difference, what is the nature of that difference? The study identified whether…

The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the operational theories of six early childhood teachers in a child care center and kindergarten in New Zealand. It is suggested that teacher educators have a responsibility to address the significant gaps in some teachers' theoretical accounts of their own practice, and that practice is most…

The major objectives of this study were to: (1) develop a questionnaire based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children's 1986 guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education; and (2) use the questionnaire to obtain information regarding kindergarten teachers' beliefs and instructional…

Questionnaire responses suggest although educators know the learning value of problem solving, they rarely use it. Twenty-one educators were introduced to learning through problem solving. They were read a story and asked to overcome an associated problem. The questionnaire assessed children's literacy learning through problem solving, and…

This study was an attempt to discover practical ways in which a preschool director can institute positive change in socioeconomically mixed child development centers. Twelve socioeconomically mixed and six unmixed preschool centers in rural, urban, and inner-city areas participated in the research. Data was collected on 48 teachers, 127 parents,…