Teacher-student connection is influenced by several factors and one possible factor is teachers' creative-thinking preferences (CTP). The present study investigated the extent to which teachers' CTP predicts their view of favorable student characteristics. Teachers' CTP was measured by FourSight that featured four preferences: clarifying,…

This photo essay focuses upon the literacy practices of two groups of preschoolers as they built, illustrated, and dictated stories in response to their participation in a "Castle Project." Data, including literacy artifacts, photodocumentation, sociodramatic play scenarios, and conversations are qualitatively analyzed, coded, and…

Teachers' ratings of conflict and closeness as well as observed emotional support are known predictors of children's social functioning. Consistency in emotional support represents an emerging line of research. The goal of the present study is to understand whether the relation between the consistency of teachers' emotional support and children's…

Over a decade ago, Bredekamp asserted (1996) that the field of early childhood education lacked a research base to document the effectiveness of approaches to producing highly skilled and effective early educators. The National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education's (NCRECE) Course and MyTeachingPartner (MTP) Coaching were developed to…

In the current study characteristics of the teacher and classroom that influence teacher responsiveness to the course or consultancy are explored. If classroom quality or characteristics of teachers, such as anxiety levels or efficacy in teaching prior to intervention participation are predictive of responsiveness, then future programs will be…

Researchers have recognized that quality early education programs yield positive long-term benefits, but have failed to examine the relationships between these teacher characteristics and teacher-child interactions. This quantitative study was nonexperimental with data gathered through naturalistic observation. The extent to which years of early…

The National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education's (NCRECE) program of research is a series of experimental studies of specific approaches to training early childhood (EC) educators to be effective in implementation of curriculum and instructional interactions focused on promoting language and literacy skills, two domains that operate…

Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature…

Research literature suggests that adults from working-class minority backgrounds demonstrate authoritarian and coercive tendencies in their choices of disciplinary strategies when compared with adults from middle-class, "white", "Anglo", or "North American" backgrounds. However, in a recent study in New York City,…

State-funded pre-Kindergarten is a growing phenomenon in the United States. The majority of 4-year-olds now spend time every weekday in care outside of their home and many of these children are being served in preschool classrooms funded with state education dollars. The public strongly supports such programs and there is generally bipartisan…