The aim of this article is to reflect on the methodology and the ethical challenges emerging when researching children's perspectives on belonging in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Our study was conducted with children aged three to six years in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. We critically reflect on the research process as well as the…

Planned missing data designs allow researchers to have highly-powered studies by testing only a fraction of the traditional sample size. In two-method measurement planned missingness designs, researchers assess only part of the sample on a high-quality expensive measure, while the entire sample is given a more inexpensive, but biased measure. The…

Given the importance of social integration and participation in inclusive settings for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the purpose of this systematic review was to examine instructional outcomes and participant, teacher, group, and instructional characteristics that may be pertinent to successful group instruction for young…

Interpretation in cross-language qualitative research presents a range of methodological and ethical challenges. Among these are the interpreters' influence on data generation and interview power dynamics. Having translators review and/or produce an independent translation of recorded interview material for comparative purposes is regarded as one…

As ethnographers we are familiar with methodological debates problematising ethnography's inherited and inherent connections to ideas of authenticity commonly mobilised to legitimate modes of representation. In this paper, we engage with the post-structural philosophies of Jacques Rancière and Judith Butler, to argue that methodological tools of…

How do topics such as race and ethnicity "play out" in the preschool classroom? Are conversations surrounding these topics celebrated or discouraged? Do teachers actively engage young children to facilitate exploration and discussion of such topics? Do children naturally do this of their own accord? My first foray into qualitative…

Much of the currently available evidence on the causal effects of public prekindergarten programs on school readiness outcomes comes from studies that use a regression-discontinuity design (RDD) with the age cutoff to enter a program in a given year as the basis for assignment to treatment and control conditions. Because the RDD has high internal…

The authors conducted an integrative review of the research literature on the writing development, writing instruction, and writing assessment of young deaf children ages 3 to 8 years (or preschool through third grade) published between 1990 and 2012. A total of 17 studies were identified that met inclusion criteria. The analysis examined research…

Eighty preschoolers participated in a study of the usefulness of the lure-retrieval paradigm. Four treatment conditions were compared: In addition to play and training conditions, a questions condition and an alternative-materials control group were employed. Results prompted discussion of theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the…

To examine Fodor's (1992) argument that standard false belief tasks used in developmental research seriously underestimate young children's understanding of false belief, three- and four-year-old children were given three tasks of action prediction and explanation, belief preduction, and knowledge prediction and explanation. The overall pattern of…

A total of 64 preschool children were assigned to one of three conditions--fantasy play, play, or imitation--with common objects, or to an alternative-materials group. Subjects were tested for associative fluency for familiar and novel objects, both immediately and after a delay of one week. No significant main effects for condition were found.…

Despite much effort by scholars, the definition of play remains a problem. Observers of preschool children tend to rate constructive activities as play; this has implications for play criteria. Types of play recorded may be appreciably affected by the time frame of observations and the use or lack of supplementary interviews. (RH)

This report describes an experimental day care program in Amsterdam, begun in 1969 to investigate how a day care center could contribute towards the favorable development of children under four from unskilled and semiskilled families. Because it is only recently that day care for children under four has been used to any extent, this is the first…

Through children's self-assessment, teachers and parents have the opportunity to clarify what the children see as their strengths in learning, whether the learning goals that teachers and parents set for a child are shared by the child, and what skills the child feels he or she needs to improve. This paper examines how young children's…

Highlights two problems with examined study: (1) investigation is based on a misunderstanding of Goswami and Bryant's claims about the role of rhyme and analogy in beginning reading; and (2) methodological weaknesses, in particular unintended intra-list priming effects, limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the booklet analogy task. (Author)