Measures of teaching are used internationally to understand and improve quality in early education with little consideration for ecological validity. In this study, we analyze videos gathered in 58 K-1 classrooms in Central Mexico to evaluate the validity and reliability of scores from an observational tool developed in the U.S. and used…

This study adopted a qualitative approach and analysed interviews from seven parents with children enrolled in nursery and kindergarten in Ghana. The interviews examined parents' descriptions of play and learning and how they perceive the value of play in children's learning. The findings revealed that the parents generally have doubts about the…

Guided play, a balanced approach to involvement in play that includes child- and adult-direction in learning activities, holds great promise for children's effective and engaged learning in education. Recent studies in laboratory settings show benefits for academic and socio-emotional outcomes, while retaining a focus on child-centred exploration.…

Many children in developing countries do not acquire functional literacy skills despite being in school. We apply a cumulative risk (aggregate over a range of risk) and protection framework to assess Ghanaian kindergarteners' early academic skills (N = 1,852, M(age) = 5.3 years; 50.2% female), considering how family-level risk factors and…

This study explored options for pedagogical photo documentation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) practices to hear the voices of children, parents, and guardians in ways that make developing the documentation manageable for practitioners. Two Japanese kindergartens participated in an action research project entitled 'Wall Newspapers…

Ambivalence is a relatively little advanced concept for studying young people's engagement in education. We present a case study in which a teacher of a kindergarten-first-grade classroom works within an activity called a "playworld" to engage a child who had been excluded from certain classroom practices, after having been perceived by…

Teachers' perceptions of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) profoundly influence how children experience ICT-supported activities in kindergartens. In China, given that the adoption of ICT in educational settings has been part of national development goals, kindergarten teachers' perceptions of it deserve more in-depth…

In this study, we make the case for using texts children create as part of their play as a means for assessing their developing print literacy knowledge. We assessed 4- and 5-year-old children's authentic texts using categories and criteria from the "Assessing Young Children's Marks/Drawing/Print" tool, a research-based, classroom…

Using interview data, this paper explores issues which head teachers and teachers in a sample of Saudi kindergartens in Makkah face in implementing an adapted curriculum and pedagogy which appear to conflict with the local culture. The Saudi Self-Learning Curriculum for Kindergarten has been developed from Western models of child-centered…

The study of yoga offers much to the field of education. Yoga consists of postures, breathing activities and relaxation techniques geared toward promoting self-regulation. Several yoga interventions for preschoolers have demonstrated significant gains on self-regulation outcomes. Although these benefits are promising, there are limited qualitative…

This study focused on developing parent-professional partnerships in promoting school readiness skills for children with disabilities entering first grade. A mixed method was used to evaluate the readiness skills of 15 children from two preschools. The development of an intervention plan was the focus of the first phase of evaluation, and several…

The theme for this article is parents' and centre leaders' opinions regarding what makes a good kindergarten. Both stakeholder groups agree on statements expressing child-centred values as indicators of a good kindergarten. However, their opinions differ regarding children's learning and work with letters and numbers; more parents than centre…

The aim of this article was to shed light on problematic issues related to the practical element in early childhood teacher education. We approach these questions mainly through scrutinizing and interpreting this part of kindergarten teachers' university education in Finland. We then expand our analysis to include the broader issues of job…

Young children develop understandings about literacy from birth through experiences of print in their home environments. Today, written text is often present in children's homes in both print and "digital" forms. What kind of technologies are young children accessing at home and for what purposes? This paper discusses research findings…

Researchers and teachers explored a new form of teacher-child interactions in two early childhood settings as a means of eliciting complex language. The primary mode of assessment in New Zealand early childhood education takes the form of 'learning stories' that teachers write, with photos, and that are collected into a portfolio book. Eight…