Adults' behaviour in interactions with children is assumed to influence children's playfulness. However, little is known about how the quality of teacher-child interaction in early childhood education and care affects the development of children's playfulness, although the interaction quality has been identified as a strong predictor of children's…

Kindergarten teachers from different cultural backgrounds attribute various meanings to children's autonomy. There seems to be cultural differences in early childhood education curricula with regard to how a child's autonomy is described and how it is supported. This qualitative study asks: how do teachers narrate their perspective and pedagogical…

Since the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England in 2008, assessment of children has taken a formal and standardized measurable approach. Such an approach goes against most findings of play-oriented research. Thus, the project reported here employed participatory action research with practitioners in order to identify…

This study investigates through observations and interviews what importance further education has for preschool teachers' practice in two music-profiled preschool and their way of conceptualising it. A distinction between music as a method for teaching, on the one hand, and as a content of knowledge, on the other, is used in the analysis. The…

The central goal of the present study was to examine how a child's emotion regulation ability may moderate the relations between teaching styles and anxiety in childhood. Participants were 33 children (21 males, 12 females; mean age 7.5 years, standard deviation = 0.42), their mothers and teachers. Children completed the Early Adolescent…

It is evident that all teachers have individual attributes relating to their teaching processes and they teach differently at different paces because of their biological and psychological differences. Naturally, mismatches often occur between the teaching styles of student-teachers in preschool and the teaching style of the cooperating teachers,…

Discusses the role of judgments and the teacher as judge in the classroom. Describes how judgments may be communicated through the written word, with emphasis on judgments communicated via school records. (RJC)

Describes limitations in the understanding of cognitive styles and the constraints these limitations place on the use of cognitive styles in early childhood education. Topics include historical problems of definitions, issues of early childhood education, and guidelines for educational applications and for research. (RJC)

Discusses the relation of individual differences to cognitive styles in the early childhood education classroom. Topics include the use of knowledge of cognitive styles in classrooms and in matching teachers to children. (RJC)

Considers research trends concerning cognitive styles in relation to various classroom factors. Explores relations between the field dependence-independence cognitive style dimension and instructional approaches and materials, classroom organizations, and teacher-student match and mismatch effects. (RJC)

Discusses personal power in young children. Focuses on the balance of power in the classroom, the relation of power to pedagogy, and the nursery school as an enabling environment. Describes a self-enhancement program. (RJC)

In a comparison of two early childhood teachers, Teacher N's environment was open and soft with complex and super units. But Teacher N failed to interact with the children. Although Teacher K's setting was closed, hard, and simple, she had good rapport with the children. (RJC)

Describes effects of field dependent and independent cognitive styles on teachers' instructional behaviors and compatibility between student and teacher. (RJC)

In this study we have tried to come close to, and at the same time problematize, what participation in educational practice might be. The overall aim is to study how a toddler's participation can be understood in two kinds of educational activities, where the degree of teacher control differs. The data in this study are video observations of…

Three studies investigated the influence of cognitive style on teaching practices of 114 teachers. Field-dependent teachers were more likely to use small group instructional techniques, while field-independent teachers were more likely to use group instruction, lectures, and direct teaching. (RJC)