The increased diversification of classrooms in recent years has placed additional demands upon teachers who strive to facilitate the learning and participation of all pupils. The aim of the current study was to explore how primary teachers across Europe understand and respond to diversity in their classrooms. A total of 35 teachers from 7…

The purpose of this article is to answer the question of how teachers could better understand and respond to differences among their pupils. It is based on the authors' belief that inclusively oriented schooling is the most efficient tool in the fight against discrimination and in providing education for all. We can examine how these ideas are put…

This article is part of a larger exploratory study that followed preservice early childhood teachers through their program and into their first year of practice, giving voice to their understandings of quality teaching and learning, and insight into the ways their preservice program prepared them for the challenges of teaching in diverse settings.…

Despite contrasting views on the overlap of early childhood education and teacher education, opportunities abound for expanding the role of early childhood educators in broader teacher education discourse. University-based early childhood education and kindergarten-through-grade-12 teacher education share purposes, philosophies, and resources that…

Classroom-based experiences, alternatively known as practica, are an integral component of undergraduate teacher preparation programs, which provide students essential opportunities to apply knowledge in practice. Though much is known about student teaching, much less is known about students' earlier classroom-based experiences. This…

The purpose of the current study was to examine if preservice teachers' (PSTs) mathematics anxiety decreased and if their beliefs and stereotypes changed after they completed their early childhood mathematics methods course. It was hypothesized that by using and modeling concrete materials or manipulatives (Thompson, 1992; Vinson, 2001) and…

The purpose of this study was to better understand the learning opportunities within a university writing methods course centering on a unit of study experience. Specifically, we wanted to investigate what early childhood education preservice teachers (PSTs) learn about poetry and the writing process when engaged in a poetry unit of study. Our…

This article provides a description of service learning implemented in a course entitled "Working with Socioculturally Diverse Families" for teacher education candidates (preK-grade 5). Students participated in 30 hours of service learning in which they provided support and service to diverse mentor families and implemented family events…

This article explores the potential of tailoring the inherent principles of the Strengths Approach (McCashen, 2005) for preparing early childhood educators to work with children and families with complex needs. The term "Strengths Approach" (capitalized) is presented in the article as the name of a specific approach developed by St.…

Preparing early childhood educators to support effective instruction of English language learners (ELLs) is an important dimension of teacher preparation programs, yet often difficult to enact. This article reports on a collaboration between early childhood education (ECE) faculty and teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL)…

This study compared Chinese kindergarten teachers' values and perceptions of program quality with trained raters' assessments of quality in order to gain insights into effective professional development for improving teacher quality. A total of 284 Chinese kindergarten teachers self-assessed the quality of their classroom teaching and…

In order to help children gain a more robust understanding of place value, teachers must understand the connections and relationships among the related concepts as well as possess knowledge of how children learn early number concepts. Unfortunately, teachers' familiarity with the base-ten number system and/or lack of an understanding of…

Teacher education faculty are experiencing increasingly diverse higher education classrooms. In many ways, the diversities present in collegiate classrooms mirror the differences in classrooms of young children. The diversity may be a result of a range of ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic differences. Or it may be differences resulting from…

Technology has been shown to foster children's motivation and interest in instructional materials. In addition, researchers have found that technology results in higher levels of student engagement and greater levels of comprehension. Researchers have also found that educators must have the knowledge and skills in technology necessary to…

Recent calls for change in teacher preparation programs stress the importance of field experience and the need for preservice teachers to have ample opportunities for peer collaboration and feedback. The paired placement model, with two preservice teachers working with one cooperating teacher, has shown to provide many benefits. However, the…