This book, a collection of articles by early childhood specialists, represents an attempt to identify issues and major concerns in the field, and analyze selected aspects of knowledge pertaining to early childhood education. The articles are: (1) "Introduction: From a Time of Plenty" by Bernard Spodek and Herbert J. Walberg; (2) "Affective and Social Learning in the Early School Environment" by Patricia Minuchin; (3) "Contrasting Views of Intellectual Functioning and Their Implications for Education" by Herbert Zimiles; (4) "Cognition in Early Childhood Education: A Historical Perspective" by Barbara Biber; (5) "Perspectives on Bilingual Education" by Vera John-Steiner and Ellen Souberman; (6) "Understanding Infants" by J. R. Ronald Lally; (7) "Early Education of the Handicapped: Issues and Alternatives" by Merle Karnes and Reid Zehrbach; (8) "Curriculum Construction in Early Childhood Education" by Bernard Spodek; (9) "Behavior Analysis Applied to Early Childhood Education" by Sidney Bijou; (10) "Education and Evaluation: Cutting Throught the Rhetoric" by Edna Shapiro; (11) "The Socialization of Teachers" by Lilian Katz. (MS)