This article studies early childhood musical experiences of Finnish pre-service elementary teachers (N=590). The article also analyses their connections between musical self-concept at student age and musical progress in teacher education. Research material was gathered by a questionnaire, which posed retrospective questions about childhood as…

This paper reports on the second phase of the Froebel Research Fellowship project "Ownership and Autonomy in Early Childhood" (2003-5). Based on the first phase of the project (Robson and Hargreaves, 2005), a questionnaire survey of 80 professionals working in the Foundation Stage (age 3-5) in England was conducted to obtain an overview of their…

Whilst there is broad consensus that the emotional responsiveness and sensitivity of staff are of high importance in interactions with babies and young children in nursery, there is not consensus about how far interactions should be organised to facilitate attachments with particular staff. This paper brings the "child's voice" into this debate by…

The "Out of the Box" Festival of Early Childhood is a unique public event in Australia designed to enrich the creative and cultural lives of children aged 3-8 years and their communities. The research linked to this festival is based on the premise that parents' participation in, and value of the arts, impacts engagements with, and value placed on…

Since the start of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) thematic review of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Policy in 1998, some 20 countries across the world have been involved in the project. Recently the OECD has had a very successful launch of the report from the second round--Starting Strong II. This…

There has been little research on play undertaken in the UK from the child's perspective. This article is based on a year long ethnographic study of children's role play in school. It draws on two main sources of data. First, data from the children concerning their perceptions of role play, what they liked and disliked about it, and secondly…

This Paper argues that the learning opportunities needed by pre-school children and adolescents beyond school have much in common: both confront what the pioneer of youth work Josephine Brew (1943) named the key problem of the "whole man": combining "social fellowship, recreation and education in one organisation". For both ages questions of "Who…

Studies in the area of developmental psychology--especially those carried out in the past thirty years--show that preschool quality, both at the structural and process levels, in combination with the quality of the family environment influences various areas of children's development and learning. The goal of this study is to determine the effect…

Early years classroom practice in Northern Ireland is perceived to be dominated by a traditional teacher-directed model to the detriment of a more constructivist, play-based and child-initiated learning environment favoured in many nations' early education provision (see for example Walsh, 2000). In 2002, the Northern Ireland Council for…

Three blocks of factors were considered as predictors of four year old children's (N = 286) personality, non-verbal intelligence and social behaviour in preschool: (a) personality characteristics at time 1 (T1) when the participants were three years old; (b) parental education and parenting practices measured at T1; and (c) age of child's entry to…

Children's accounts of their participation in sociocultural activity related to number are essential for their teachers in order that they can assist children in building their formal learning in number on informally acquired numerical understandings. Children's participation in sociocultural activity related to number will differ from child to…

Identifying gifted and talented children and providing appropriate educational experiences for them has been firmly placed on the educational agenda in England by the Labour government since 1999. In the U.S.A., gifted education has received a high profile for several decades. In both countries, however, the needs of the younger gifted child have…

The study has focused on the transition from day-care centre to school. Questionnaires were completed by staff at several day-care centres, at three schools recruiting pupils from these and by the parents of these children. Schools were asked what kind of information they thought it was important to receive from the other parties about children…

Gathering data about children's development and learning has long been the domain of adults. However, there is increasing interest in including children's voices in their education and, a more challenging task, in research that impacts on educational practice and policy making. Techniques such as Instant Video Revisiting (IVR) offer a way for…

In recent years, some researchers have been turning to children's views as a way to better construct knowledge about children and childhood issues. This article presents, firstly, a brief reflection on the image of child underlying this new perspective in research with children, an image that assumes, first and above all, a strong belief in…