Early childhood and elementary education emerged from a variety of knowledge and research bases. Tensions emerged as they were brought together in a unified public kindergarten through 12th-grade educational system. This review describes how standards and accountability policies have exacerbated tensions between early childhood and elementary…

This comprehensive text gives pre-service early childhood educators a balanced, accessible introduction to early childhood education that also covers the content areas. It shows readers how to teach and care for children by identifying and focusing on five essential elements: understanding child development, play, guidance, working with families,…

Teachers are often challenged with trying to determine the most effective way of developing task progression. Following developmentally appropriate steps that will lead to effective skill development can facilitate student learning. Using the acronym NEMWPT--which stands for No equipment, Equipment, Movement, Wall work, Partners, and Teams--may…

Economic maps in school atlases are specific types of maps that represent extra-complex maps with multi-layer and fast-developing content over time. The objective of this article is to discuss a multi-stage curriculum in connection with the results of an assessment of the usability of economic maps by lower and upper secondary school students. The…

How physics can be made interesting is a question that needs no answer. That's because physics is interesting! It's a field of study jam-packed with fascination and wonder. The general public has an enormous thirst for physics knowledge, as indicated by the great numbers who purchase science magazines and books and watch "NOVA" and other…

With growing emphasis on the development and use of competencies (knowledge, dispositions, skills) for training and evaluating the early childhood workforce, this study aimed to identify sources of variation in undergraduate students' beliefs and knowledge related to competencies identified by the Collaborative for Understanding Pedagogy for…

Recommendations derived from research evidence regarding program implementation in school-based mental health [SBMH] require knowledge of the intervention outcomes as well as the potential to translate program components into schools. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) analysis was applied to major…

"Preparing Children to Thrive: Standards for Social and Emotional Learning Practices in School-Age Settings" is designed to help organizational and program leaders see clearly what social and emotional learning (SEL) among children (ages 5-13) would look like and feel like in real program settings, and to draw attention to promising…

The increasing accountability framework in Kindergarten education has put pressure on teachers to ensure that students reach certain literacy milestones before proceeding to the subsequent grade. One result of this shift is a tension between an emphasis on academic learning and the use of developmentally appropriate practices, such as play.…

Practitioners in play-based learning contexts face the challenge of developing developmentally appropriate practices while meeting rigorous academic curriculum standards. To date, play and academic learning have been predominantly conceptualized from an adult perspective. Considering that children are key agents in classroom play contexts, it is…

Within the United States, publicly funded pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) is a borderland of teacher practice--somewhere between early childhood and Elementary approaches to pedagogy. For pre-K teachers, this can mean negotiating many different, and oft-competing conceptions of what curriculum and practice should look like in order to support the…

Rural areas have a higher teen pregnancy rate when compared to national averages; research indicates that adolescents in rural areas are more likely to have had sex and less likely to use contraception compared to teenagers in metropolitan areas, highlighting a need for better interventions. Although effective school-based programs have been…

Technology is moving faster than teachers and children can keep up with. "Teaching in the Digital Age" guides teachers of preschool and kindergarten aged children toward integrating technology across the curriculum so it can have an authentic, meaningful, and developmentally appropriate impact on children's exploration and learning. Full…

This study sought to examine the experience of early childhood pre-service teachers participating in facilitated research analysis with discussion-case application. Specifically, we were interested in the impact on teachers' knowledge of and attitude towards the role and value of play in the classroom. This study describes the qualitative phase of…

There is a need for developmentally appropriate Computational Thinking (CT) assessments that can be implemented in early childhood classrooms. We developed a new instrument called "TechCheck" for assessing CT skills in young children that does not require prior knowledge of computer programming. "TechCheck" is based on…