Preschool special education students' lack of personal-social skills is affecting their kindergarten readiness and placing them at risk for exposure to school discipline in a large school district in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of this quantitative investigation was to examine the relationship between the quality of school…

School readiness occurs within a broad context that includes the four components of community, educational environment, family and the individual child. These four components function as interdependent systems of support that have multidirectional influences. Early childhood experiences, from birth through age 8, are necessary for school success…

In October 2015, the Kansas State Board of Education announced a new vision for education in Kansas. The Kansans CAN Vision - "Kansas leads the world in the success of each student" - became the branded theme for Kansas education. This initiative motivated the creation of this document. Kindergarten Readiness is one of five Kansas State…

Through an examination of the reflective comments of 42 pre-service Early Childhood Education Teachers (PS-ECETs), this study describes how an infancy course within an Early Childhood Education program used four different ways of organizing learning to unravel details of infant pedagogy, focusing on the role of the teacher. It is vital to theorize…

Debates on how best to educate young children have been raging over the last 100 years--more often fuelled by ideological preferences rather than empirical evidence. To some extent this is hardly surprising given the difficulty of examining pupil progress in a systematic and comparative way. However, the introduction of a new child-centred…

Maltreated infants and toddlers are more likely to be placed into foster care than any other age group of children. They also remain in foster care longer and are less likely to be reunified with their birth families. Thus, it is important that child welfare and other practitioners use the best strategies available to ensure children's expeditious…

Educators and educational theorists frequently employ a gardening metaphor to capture several child-centred principles about teaching and children, i.e. teachers must respect a child's unique interests and abilities, recognise what is developmentally appropriate for students, and resist pursuing a narrow set of outcomes. Historically, however,…

Literary scholar Clare Bradford gives voice to a pervasive anxiety that arises when a child audience meets unsettling ecological narratives. She remarks: "to explain to young children that pygmy hippos are under serious threat or that elephants are still being killed for their tusks or that wilderness areas are disappearing is to construct a…

This comprehensive text gives pre-service early childhood educators a balanced, accessible introduction to early childhood education that also covers the content areas. It shows readers how to teach and care for children by identifying and focusing on five essential elements: understanding child development, play, guidance, working with families,…

With growing emphasis on the development and use of competencies (knowledge, dispositions, skills) for training and evaluating the early childhood workforce, this study aimed to identify sources of variation in undergraduate students' beliefs and knowledge related to competencies identified by the Collaborative for Understanding Pedagogy for…

"Preparing Children to Thrive: Standards for Social and Emotional Learning Practices in School-Age Settings" is designed to help organizational and program leaders see clearly what social and emotional learning (SEL) among children (ages 5-13) would look like and feel like in real program settings, and to draw attention to promising…

Technology is moving faster than teachers and children can keep up with. "Teaching in the Digital Age" guides teachers of preschool and kindergarten aged children toward integrating technology across the curriculum so it can have an authentic, meaningful, and developmentally appropriate impact on children's exploration and learning. Full…

In a world where children are likely to experience early-life trauma, relationships matter, and trust is a key in forming healthy working relationships. Intentionally teaching adults and teachers how to evoke calmness in ourselves and breathe to handle negative situations, trusted educators can then teach children to do the same. It is important…

The aim of this article is to introduce an effective, evidence-informed, and developmentally appropriate framework of practice for Environmental Education (EE) in the early years, with the ultimate goal being to achieve environmental sustainability. Initially, the author will briefly examine the current state of EE in the early years,…

Parents and non-parental adults who interact with children influence child development. This study evaluates the knowledge of child development in two large and diverse samples of adults from Alberta in 2007 and 2013. Telephone interviews were completed by two random samples (1,443 in 2007; 1,451 in 2013). Participants were asked when specific…