Researchers at the FPG (Frank Porter Graham) Child Development Institute recently completed a study on a new approach to teaching pre-kindergartners called Recognition & Response (R&R). Designed specifically for use in pre-k, R&R is based on Response to Intervention (RTI), an approach that is gaining widespread acceptance in schools…

Some features of project work are of value for toddlers, while others are best left until children are older. This article shares the process through which teachers and administrators at a private school in Mexico City gained awareness of the importance of listening, observing, and documenting children's activities to determine how to adapt…

Research Findings: Sibling teaching and learning behaviors were investigated in 2 studies of children in early and middle childhood. Study 1 addressed individual differences in teaching/learning and associations with dyadic age, age gap, gender, birth order, and relationship quality in 71 middle-class dyads (firstborns M age = 81.54 months;…

The affluence in the United States in the recent past has made it tempting to indulge children in individual achievement within a culture of abundance. Parents and teachers worry over how to teach compassion in a culture of abundance and competition for personal success, where children's time is over-scheduled and they are geographically dispersed…

The goal of this research is to seek information from the Cleveland (Ohio) and Buffalo (New York) area kindergarten teachers about their experience in development of caring dispositions in children. Two hundred questionnaires were sent, one hundred to each city. There was a low response rate of less than 10% from both cities. A qualitative method…

As social creatures, humans relate to one another in environments that are created through interactions with one another. Because these environments are created through one's communication and interaction, they may be called verbal environments. With a renewed interest among educators in children's self-perceptions and the development of social…

The aim of this study is to explore whether there is a difference between the student teachers' opinions about in-class teaching skills before and after applying micro-teaching. This study was carried out with the participation of second-year students of the Child Development Program of a Vocational School in the full term of 2005-2006 academic…

In the early childhood education field, the way children are conceptualised has substantially shifted in recent times. Child development theory has been unsettled as the single canon of early childhood practice. This has in turn challenged constructions of educators as keepers of a universal knowledge base, and as apolitical, non-interventionist…

Losses come in all shapes and sizes. However, because of their intensity, sensitivity, and depth of thinking and feeling, gifted kids often have far more difficulty coping with losses. Dealing with loss can be a powerful means of personal transformation, and it helps one clarify which aspects of life are important. Regardless of the type of loss,…

This article begins by revisiting an old dispute between the children's writer Chukovsky and the child psychologist Vygotsky on whether and how child literature should mediate development. It then considers child language language lessons in South Korea for clues about how such mediation might happen, and finds the development of rote language,…

The Workshop on the Role of Language in School Learning: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap was held to explore three questions: What is known about the conditions that affect language development? What are the effects of early language development on school achievement? What instructional approaches help students meet school demands for…

This study investigates the effects of teaching and learning environments on student teachers' approaches to teaching and compares a lecture-based setting to a student-activating teaching environment, in which self-discovery learning by means of authentic tasks is central. Data collection (N = 852) was obtained by a pre-test/post-test design…

In this article, the author shares her experience in setting up a unique imitative play through which children try on roles and imitate "grown-up" activities, thereby developing feelings of confidence and competence. As children play, they gain communication and negotiation skills; if conflicts arise, they engage in creative problem solving.…

This article describes the story of the bridge. The story illustrates the essence of outdoor experiences for children from the perspective of the classroom teacher. The children's ideas, images, and words are extremely meaningful, demonstrating that children are very capable at even young ages when supported by adults. Teachers support the theory…

The purposes of this content analysis of action research studies on teaching composition are two-fold: to examine action research studies on teaching classroom compositions to learn more about classroom composition pedagogy, including the values and beliefs that shaped the instruction and findings; and secondly, to demonstrate how narrative…