Head Start, special education, and general preschool teachers (n=586) completed a survey designed to examine their use of assessments and curricula. They provided a range of responses, including reported use of 21 commercial assessments and self-developed and program-developed checklists. A majority listed curriculum-based measures acceptable in…

Surveyed 154 nursery school teachers in Greece concerning their perceptions of the nature and extent of behavior problems exhibited by their pupils. Found that geographic region and the location of the nursery school (city, town, or rural area) affected teachers' perceptions of children's emotional and developmental problems, but not conduct…

Introduces the articles in this issue on caregivers. Emphasizes that the papers focus preferentially on the adult facilitator of early learning and development and on the relationship and interaction of adult with child, rather than exclusively on the child. Each article underlines a different facet of the important job of mentoring done by…

Analysis of focus group discussions involving 13 parents of young children with disabilities and 32 professional service providers examined participants' perceptions of inclusion and early intervention. Discussion focused on awareness of early intervention services, barriers and supports to inclusion, notions of service coordination, experiences…

Correlated parents' reports of children's literacy prepared when they were 3 and 4 years old with children's subsequent test performance and teachers' evaluation. Found that parental reports accounted for about a quarter of the variance in kindergarten tests and grade 1 teacher assessments and over a third of the variance in a decoding assessment…

Compared external expectations about preschool teachers and their role with the way teachers think about their own practice. Responses suggest that it is possible to establish an external, decontextualized framework that sets out the teacher's role and reflects current policy, research, or political and cultural agendas, but that it is important…

Draws on Foucault to critically analyze interviews with Scottish preschool teachers. Suggests that, in contrast to preschool education's ideals of individual freedom and self-expression, greater governmentality and actual professional practices may lay the foundation for the production of governable subjects. Compares socialization,…

Developed, tested, and validated a model of Head Start classroom quality incorporating characteristics and beliefs of teachers and aides and classroom structural dimensions. Found that teacher/aide education level directly affected inappropriate beliefs, which impacted inappropriate instructional activities, which influenced classroom quality.…

A survey was conducted in Scotland's Lothian region to ascertain views on education provision for children under age 5. Subjects were over 400 nursery nurses, more than 1,100 parents, and staff members, at 175 nursery schools. The research questions covered six areas: (1) background information on parents and children; (2) benefits of nursery…

This study examined the relationship between the family day care home provider and the mother, and the effect of this relationship on treatment of the child by the provider. Interactions between 25 family child care providers and mothers, and between providers and children, were observed. Observations of interactions between mothers and providers…

This practicum was designed to provide a multicultural, bilingual inservice training program for the staff of six early childhood centers serving a large Hispanic population. The inservice training consisted of weekly seminars, guest lectures, classroom observations, and feedback interviews with center directors and executives of agencies that…

Two studies were conducted to examine teachers' and young children's perceptions of persistence in classroom settings. In the first, 35 elementary school teachers responded to interview questions about (1) the appropriateness of persistence in relation to other strategies children could use to accomplish difficult tasks, (2) children's…

An experienced teacher, certified in the education of the gifted, designed and implemented a practicum that offered opportunities for enhancing the cultural literacy and creative play of preschool children who received little individual, reading-related attention from their working parents and caregivers. Play that enriched the imaginative…

Despite guaranteed access to primary education and seemingly comprehensive enrollment, many Latin American countries have high rates of illiteracy. Four sets of factors affecting academic performance have been identified as contributors to the situation. External material factors include: the impact of malnutrition on intellectual development; the…

This booklet describes methods that teachers can use in recreational reading in early childhood and elementary classrooms and suggests ways to help parents promote voluntary reading in their children. The first section deals with "Promoting Voluntary Reading through Classroom Library Corners." Discussed are the value of classroom library corners,…