Kay Baker offers a look at the needs and manifestations (observed characteristics) of the developing human being, specifically of the second-plane child. She outlines key ideas in thinking about these needs and manifestations and discerns the pedagogy associated with each. She emphasizes that the pedagogy/practice must meet the needs of the child.…

This commentary discusses the three articles in this (2017) issue. The articles expand the published research base on the effectiveness of early education in the sub-Saharan Africa countries of Zambia, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Each of the three articles employs rigorous methods to better understand the impact of…

Young children today have greater access to culturally and politically sensitive information than at any other time in history. Although there are many positive aspects of children having greater access, negative consequences can also result, especially when they do not have sufficient structured and supportive opportunities to question, discuss…

Theatre for Early Years (TEY) audiences is a relatively new and growing area of practice. This article arises from empirical research with a group of children aged three and four, who made repeat visits to watch TEY performances at Polka Theatre in London. Drawing on literature from education studies, theatre studies and cultural geography, this…

Young children aged 4-5 years are online in rapidly increasing numbers. This is due to the accessibility of the internet afforded young children via touchscreen technologies. In Australian, the United Kingdom and United States of America, calls have been made for cyber-safety education to be provided for young children in their early childhood…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how STEM-focused professional development training influence early childhood teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and pedagogies. Four pre-K teachers participated in this study. The data collected was qualitative in nature. Interview data were transcribed, coded and emerging themes were identified. The…

Learn how exemplary countries are dealing with the challenges and joys of advancing the development of their youngest citizens. In this book, Sharon Lynn Kagan and her contributors systematically examine how six diverse countries go about envisioning, designing, and implementing their services to young children and their families. "The Early…

When observing skill and determining the competency of children and youth physical education teachers often focus on the coordination dynamics within the individual in the early years and then the individual's ability to play the game as they develop. But in these game contexts the focus is often still on the individuals' actions and not the…

In this study we analyze how learners constitute what it means to learn and know a song. This is investigated in the context of four 9- to 10-year-old children in dyads teaching each other to sing a song of their own choosing. How the children take on this task is studied in terms of how they dialogically co-construct pedagogical and musical…

Taking objects apart including old electronics, product packing, and living plants, helps children understand how things work. Documenting this "unbuilding" or "deconstructing" encourages children to first consider the entire object, then the parts, and finally, the purpose of the parts. This article provides a lesson based on…

Teachers spend the first few days of school teaching routines to children that will help transitions in the classroom between different activities. When children have difficulty, they move more slowly and/or require teacher prompting. A picture activity schedule intervention (Breitfelder in Teach Except Child Plus 4(5):2-15, 2008; Bryan and Gast…

The article adds to a growing conversation that recognizes and supports young children's civic capabilities, positioning them as citizens-now and not simply citizens in the future. They detail how three different classrooms sought to work with children to engage in social action on behalf of their broader community. This response wonders alongside…

The Vygotskian preschool education program (VPEP) is built around mediation in the context of preschool age-specific activities such as sociodramatic play, constructive play, listening and retelling fairy tales, playing with dollhouses, motor activities, and some others. We used the VPEP as part of the daily curriculum in two pre-K classes at PS…

Working memory has been proposed to account for the differential rates in progress young children make in writing. One crucial aspect of learning to write is the encoding (i.e., integration) and retrieval of the correct phoneme-grapheme pairings, known as binding. In addition to executive functions, binding is regarded as central to the concept of…

This paper analyses two Chinese sex education picture books for children aged between 3 and 6 years of age using van Leeuwen's legitimation framework, which identifies four types of legitimation strategies: authorization, moral evaluation, rationalisation and mythopoesis. Our findings suggest that personal authority tends to be vested in mothers…