Music surrounds us and students have plenty of experience in passive listening. However, they need to be deliberately taught how to deeply and critically listen to music. The National Core Arts Standards do not specifically measure listening as a skill but to evaluate musical works, critical listening skills are essential. This article outlines…

For more than a decade, the widely used "Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children" has been helping early educators use research-based practices to boost social-emotional development. Now there's a practical guide that makes it easier than ever to implement this highly effective framework in…

Back-and-forth conversations with adults are critical for developing children's language, and, therefore, an important part of the early childhood classroom learning environment; however, the specific nature of teacher feedback, one component of teacher-child conversations, on child language has not been widely studied. This article examined…

Back-and-forth conversations with adults are critical for developing children's language, and, therefore, an important part of the early childhood classroom learning environment; however, the specific nature of teacher feedback, one component of teacher-child conversations, on child language has not been widely studied. This article examined…

This report summarizes the first year of the prekindergarten partnership between AISD, United Way for Greater Austin, and participating child development centers that served 417 students. Classrooms and students displayed high quality of instruction and academic performance, and teacher professional development opportunities are summarized.

Dual language learner children (DLLs) benefit from early childhood education (ECE) and learning multiple languages, but research has predominantly focused on English monolingual children, with limited insight on the ECE and early development of DLLs. This study investigated whether DLLs' developmental assets assessed at pre-k entry (i.e. English…

Both early childhood maternal language input and the quality of classroom instruction in elementary school have been shown to be important environmental supports in predicting children's literacy skill development. However, no studies have simultaneously examined these two environmental supports in relation to children's early language skills and…

In Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs, the quality of teacher-child interactions is regarded to be important for children's vocabulary development. However, prior studies on the relationships between teacher and child, as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), and children's vocabulary skills are inconsistent.…

This study examined the extent to which classroom quality (emotional and instructional climate) moderates the associations between teachers' beliefs about children, self-efficacy, and children's early language gains (receptive and expressive vocabulary). The study employed multilevel modeling with 606 preschool teachers and 2,536 preschool…

For decades, higher education institutions such as Yale, Harvard, and Penn State University have recognized the value of implementing visual literacy teaching strategies in seemingly the most unlikely of places: the classrooms of future medical professionals. These schools, and many others, require their medical students to partake in robust…

Child-directed speech (CDS), which can help children learn new words, has been rigorously studied among infants and parents in home settings. Yet, far less is known about the CDS that teachers use in classrooms with toddlers and children's responses, an important question because many toddlers, particularly in high-need communities, attend…

Education has undergone a fundamental change driven by technological advances, significantly altering the way teaching and learning is conceptualized in the classroom. Currently the variety of learning and teaching platforms is extensive and in general, these have been very well received by language teachers. The use of these platforms is often…

Usage-based theories of language development underscore the importance of children using language to learn language. Few investigations have applied usage-based theories to dual language learners (DLLs), who comprise a growing share of children attending early education programs in the U.S. Three studies were carried out to investigate the role of…

Quotations yield the greatest insight from the fewest words. In addition to the wisdom and guidance quotations provide, teachers effectively use quotations in displays, presentations, speeches, research, writing prompts, classroom lessons, and discussions. Students employ quotations for speeches, classroom assignments, as sources of inspiration…

Children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their peers. However, open questions remain on whether and how children influence their peers' language development. The present study examined effects of peers' German receptive vocabulary (n = 1,871) on individual children's (n = 431)…