This study examines early childhood preservice teachers' beliefs about the importance of music in early childhood and explores factors influencing those beliefs. The study found that preservice teachers in this study held relatively strong beliefs about the importance of music, including aesthetic, quality-of-life, and social-emotional benefits.…

Children whose native language is one other than English face formidable challenges when they enter English-dominant schools. The task of learning English, progressing in one's native language, and acculturating to the school environment is a complicated one that requires the child to develop many new skills. In the past, children who were English…

In the of Fall 2006, our large, urban community college implemented digital portfolio development for all of the preservice early childhood educators registered in the infant-toddler and preschool-early elementary programs. Three years after implementation of the program, we conducted survey research to assess our students' perceptions of their…

Growing evidence suggests the importance of practitioners implementing promotion, prevention, and intervention practices to foster children's social-emotional competence and address challenging behavior within schools. Limited research exists, however, on how to support teachers of school-age children to implement with fidelity comprehensive…

A clustered randomized design was used in which 28 inclusive preschool classrooms were randomly assigned to receive 2 years of training and coaching to fidelity in the LEAP (Learning Experiences and Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Their Parents) preschool model, and 28 inclusive classes were assigned to receive intervention manuals only.…

The purpose of this article is to propose performance as a creative instructional strategy to convey complex competencies related to understanding and working effectively with families in early childhood education. Performance derives from performance ethnography, which is a qualitative research methodology. Its application to professional…

What began as a case study of intergenerational initiatives in university-based early childhood programs evolved into a comparative study of two different program implementation processes. Despite operating with the same goals, university partners, and resources, two early childhood centers pursued fundamentally different strategies for launching…

We investigated whether attribution retraining instruction (ARI) embedded in mathematics lessons in a second-grade classroom could help students (a) attribute their successes and failures to effort or lack of effort, (b) not attribute their successes and failures to uncontrollable factors, and (c) increase their mathematics scores. One…

The early childhood profession needs to establish a different discourse to describe what has been referred to as "play" in early childhood. The authors draw from literature on inquiry theory to provide a theoretical lens for discussion and offer a model for inquiry through the Project Approach for the early childhood setting. The authors posit…

The purpose of this study was to discover the interpretations and perspectives of 4 low-income parents who received a free early readiness program for their child. Two interviewees were parents who had a child enrolled the year data was collected, and the other two interviewees were parents whose children had participated previously in the early…

In 3 second-grade classrooms within diverse educational settings, the theory of culturally responsive teaching was utilized in combination with the strategy, Text Talk. Text Talk is a strategy generally used with young children during read-alouds to foster oral language and comprehension. Culturally response teaching builds on students' prior…

This article explores conversations between preschool children and their teachers in the classroom environment. Teachers have an opportunity to engage students in cognitively challenging conversations at critical times during the day: book reading, playtime, and mealtimes. The article provides examples of the types of conversations preschool…

This observational study examines the classroom dynamics occurring in a collaborative math lab activity in a third-grade classroom. Specific classroom interactions are identified as resources for cultivating children's interest and understanding of mathematical knowledge. Dialogic interchange and physical positioning of teacher and students is…

This article presents the findings of an exploratory study designed to look at the issue of removal of children from childcare due to behavior problems. A survey was sent to a random sample of nonresidential licensed day care centers (DCCs) in Texas. Results from the survey indicate that 50% of DCCs have removed a child from care due to behavior…

Explored herein are historical roots of preschool through elementary grade education in the East Africa nation of Ethiopia. Also included are current difficult challenges to educational improvement as well as promising developments such as greater involvement of private institutions, organizations, and individuals in supporting Ministry of…