The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain understanding of how Midwestern kindergarten teachers use developmentally appropriate play-based practices to support the standards in their classrooms. Five participants were selected based on meeting the criteria of being a kindergarten teacher in a Midwestern school district who incorporates…

Early childhood teachers had to restructure instruction when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and instruction was completed online. The problem was that early childhood teachers faced challenges using developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to…

The purpose of this study was to determine current kindergarten teacher understandings of early phonics instruction and how teachers are meeting readers' early phonics needs during guided reading instruction. Using Vygotsky's (1979) social constructivist theory and Ehri's (1995) connectionist theory and by focusing on age-appropriate instruction,…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: This quantitative study aimed to investigate the influence of principal preparation on the leadership behaviors of elementary school principals who supervise, support, and evaluate prekindergarten teachers in Mississippi public schools. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine if statistically…

High-quality learning environments are critical to support students' learning and development. This study supported eight lead teachers of Starting Strong classrooms in four different early learning programs to try to improve teachers' knowledge, self-efficacy, and use of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) within their classrooms. Four…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how kindergarten teachers describe their use, as well as the effectiveness and value, of developmentally appropriate practices for teaching kindergarten curriculum in a mid-size urban school district in New Jersey. It was not known how kindergarten teachers describe their use, as…

Kindergarten-second grade teachers often have to navigate conflicting paradigms as they attempt to honor the developmentally appropriate practices best suited for their young learners while working within the demands of the current educational paradigm of high-stakes testing and standardization. This challenge is acutely experienced in the…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the significance of how pre-K and kindergarten teachers' perception and implementation of instruction prepares children for literacy in both grade levels. Three research questions guided the study: Are pre-K and kindergarten curricula aligned with implementing emergent literacy skills in…

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into how a PreK teacher's beliefs on readiness shaped how she adopted/adapted to a new practice that was intended to provide responsive mathematics education. To explore these issues, I constructed one descriptive case study of a teacher's beliefs and practice based on data from a broader research…

This study examined kindergarten teachers' developmentally appropriate beliefs, developmentally appropriate practices, and their opinions about the current state of the kindergarten curriculum through the lens of teachers' beliefs. A sample of 107 kindergarten teachers participated in the study by completing the Teacher Questionnaire on-line. The…

This study investigated Delaware parent and teacher perceptions of developmentally appropriate technology usage for preschoolers. The study used a non-experimental cross-sectional descriptive design using a researcher-designed, web-based survey instrument. A sample of 300 teachers and 300 parents was invited to participate in the study, which…

Developmentally appropriate practices aim to promote success in students and provide a framework for teaching for teachers (NAEYC, 2009). These developmentally appropriate practices are found in research and support the growth and development of young children. One of the most important developmentally appropriate practices for the birth to 8…

The role of early childhood educators (ECE) is changing as a result of increasing numbers of young children with autism participating in natural preschool classrooms. To understand what ECE know about autism and the evidence-based practices (EBP) that support children with autism to make progress in learning and development, 125 preschool teachers…

Using Shulman's theory of teacher knowledge as the theoretical framework and a phenomenological research design, this qualitative study used Seidman's three-interview protocol to understand how 11 kindergarten teachers perceived the CCSS affected their use of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and their instructional discretion. This…

Instructional technology use in United States preschool classrooms remains a limited and widely debated practice. In urban communities, preparing preschool students for academic, social, and economic success is further threatened by the well-documented digital divide. This qualitative phenomenological study included ten subjects and examined the…