Background: In the digital age, fostering young children's computational thinking (CT) and executive functions (EFs) through programming has emerged as a significant research issue. While unplugged programming activities are commonly adopted in preschools, robot programming activities have recently gained attention for the potential to enhance…

Offering choice and opportunities for play in the classroom are ways to increase children's motivation by appealing to their needs for autonomy and competence. Research shows that implementing choice-based learning in the classroom is beneficial for children and provides multiple opportunities for collaboration and discussion. In this study, the…

Early intervention includes approaches to responding to young children may profit from targeted services. This study aims to synthesize recent evaluations of intervention programs of Big Math for Little Kids, Building Blocks, and Prekindergarten Mathematics Intervention Program in preschool and kindergarten children to determine the effectiveness…

A pedagogical strategy called "play-based learning" was one of the new visions, purposes, and objectives introduced by the kindergarten program. Play-based learning is a child-centered approach that emphasizes play-based learning in the curriculum material. This qualitative study's goal was to investigate the pedagogical methods…

State laws that mandate in-grade retention for struggling readers are widespread in the U.S., covering 34% of public-school third graders in 2023-24. This study investigates the impacts of Michigan's third-grade reading law on subsequent test scores and school progress outcomes for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 third-grade cohorts. Using a regression…

An animation-based drawing learning model involves simple animation from the beginning to the end of the drawing, with the teacher acting as a facilitator and guide. The research is based on the fact that there are still many children who have difficulty expressing themselves through their drawings due to low imagination. The goal of this study is…

Integrating hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education with a focus on the engineering design process into elementary school curricula has been associated with positive outcomes, including enhanced student understanding and increased interest in the topics. Here, we evaluated third grade student interest and perceived…

Parent training assists parents in acquiring the essential skills and knowledge across various developmental areas. This study, grounded in the hypothesis that family education programs, which have demonstrated positive effects on both families and children, can enhance the quality of preschool education, seeks to evaluate and enhance parental…

Programs that engage young children in movement and song to help them learn are popular but experimental evidence on their impact is sparse. We use an RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of Big Word Club (BWC), a classroom program that uses music and dance videos for 3-5 minutes per day to increase vocabulary. We conducted a field experiment with…

Reading fluency has been a tenacious problem in our schools. Studies have addressed the national decline in reading fluency in elementary schools. Tennessee's data outlines a similar pattern of findings. Approximately one third of Tennessee students complete third grade without becoming fluent readers (Tennessee Department of Education, 2023). New…

This paper presents the results from a randomized controlled trial of Chapter One, an early elementary reading tutoring program that embeds part-time tutors into the classroom to provide short bursts of 1:1 instruction. Eligible kindergarten students were randomly assigned to receive supplementary tutoring during the 2021-22 school year (N=818).…

Public policies targeting individuals based on need often impose disproportionate burden on communities that lack the resources to implement these policies effectively. In an elementary school setting, I examine whether community-level interventions focusing on similar needs and providing resources to build capacity in these communities could…

Children in Florida who will be 4 years old on or before September 1st of the school year are eligible to attend a Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK), provided by either the public school districts or other private providers, regardless of family income. There are several different VPK programs, including Head Start, Title I, and…

Not only children but also adolescents and adults encounter great difficulties in learning to reason proportionally. Despite these difficulties, research increasingly shows that proportional reasoning emerges early, before it is being instructed in school. There have however been very few attempts to stimulate this early emerging ability. The aim…

The number of students who are deficient in literacy is increasing worldwide, possibly exacerbated by concurrent behavioral difficulties. This international challenge leads to the question of how and when to support children. Support should start in kindergarten and be focused on the acquisition of phonological awareness. Based on this premise, we…