Despite dramatic increases in the percentage of 5-year-olds enrolled in full-day kindergarten, initial discussions about whether to offer public full-day kindergarten are still controversial in many communities. This report examines claims about benefits and detriments of full-day kindergarten, presents research findings, and describes reasonable…

Provides a list of developmentally appropriate activity areas for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers which could be used in multi-house, module, or medium-sized child care centers. Describes these age-appropriate physical, academic, sensory-motor, fine arts, and multi-use areas, and provides suggestions for inexpensive materials, toys, storage,…

Provides suggestions for meaningful field trips through collaborations between schools and informal education organizations. Discusses guidelines including ensuring connections to curriculum, connecting to multiple content areas, including informal educators in planning, ensuring developmental appropriateness, involving informal educators in…

This reaction paper offers evidence for the effectiveness of nondirective instructional models with special needs young children. The construct of "developmentally appropriate practice" is viewed as a working hypothesis and as a continuous variable, not a dichotomous variable. Relationships between early childhood education and early childhood…

Profiles current kindergarten policies and practices concerning six issues. Issues include (1) school entry age; (2) length of school day; (3) placement criteria; (4) retention practices; (5) beginning reading instruction; and (6) teaching strategies and instructional resources. Reviews research on policy alternatives and identifies the optimum…

Reviews research concerning the effects of retention of kindergarten and first grade students and alternatives to such retention. (BB)

Focuses on the problems and conflicts experienced by a teacher intern who was attempting to implement a developmentally appropriate discovery curriculum into a direct-instruction primary grade classroom. (BB)

Discusses the reasons for mediocre child care programs and how programs could be improved by examining the relationship between high quality care for children and the organizational climate for adults. Shows how research findings are often not put into practice. Outlines Model Work Standards, standards that have the potential to improve programs…

Describes an approach based upon the constructivist model of learning and curriculum development for using the computer as an integrated curriculum tool in early childhood classrooms. Includes discussion of constructivist theory and its application and characteristics of curriculum in constructivist classrooms. (KB)

Reflects upon, and makes recommendations for, teaching young children to read, write, and spell. Focuses on meeting children's emotional needs, essential components of healthy emotional development, how reading is typically taught, and learning letters and phonics. Stresses the importance of paying equal attention to developmental ages and stages,…

The purpose of this literature review is to look at brain research and its effect on educational practice. For the last several years, educators, parents and policymakers have become increasingly interested in the potential role of positive early childhood experiences in promoting a child's emotional and intellectual well-being (Ellison, 2001).…

Drawing on experiences in North America, the United Kingdom, and other countries, this book examines the debate over the overall vision for early childhood education. The nature and quality of the United Kingdom's and other countries' culture is questioned in respect to the future it provides for children. The question of who is able to provide a…

Research concerning the effects of television violence on children--particularly young children under the age of six--has found that it tends to desensitize them to aggressive behavior and, in some children, promotes aggressive behavior in their play and other interactions with children and adults. This guide is designed to assist early childhood…

This book and video are based on a symposium on ways to foster giftedness in children in kindergarten through third grade. Emphasized throughout are DISCOVER projects, federally funded research and development projects to assist Arizona educators in identifying and planning programs for gifted children from diverse cultural, ethnic, and linguistic…

A curriculum is a repertoire of learning experiences, planned and organized according to the program's educational goals. The curriculum development process of early childhood education differs in many ways from that of other levels of education. Intended for curriculum planners, education policy-makers and other early childhood education…