Teachers' noticing of students' mathematical thinking plays an important role in supporting student learning. Yet little is known about how online professional development (PD)--a growing setting for PD in the USA--can cultivate this noticing. Here, we explore the potential of using two online tools for engaging video to support K-2 teachers'…

Remaining continually curious about students' mathematical thinking is challenging, yet worthwhile, in teaching practice. This paper describes and analyzes two video-based professional learning (PL) activities designed to help teachers go beyond their initial perceptions of what students understand and to identify what else they might learn about…

Make-believe play (MBP) provides kindergarteners with an authentic form of engagement that is particularly favourable to the development of oral and written language. As part of an action research study, an activity-oriented professional development (PD) program incorporating video was established to provide kindergarten teachers with guidance on…

Programs that engage young children in movement and song to help them learn are popular but experimental evidence on their impact is sparse. We use an RCT to evaluate the effectiveness of Big Word Club (BWC), a classroom program that uses music and dance videos for 3-5 minutes per day to increase vocabulary. We conducted a field experiment with…

Children's peer social worlds as part of language and literacy learning are often "hidden" from researchers and teachers alike. This article reports on collaborative research between a researcher and veteran kindergarten teacher into these hidden worlds. We draw upon ethnographic documentation (videos, interviews, field notes) and video…

Purpose: This work describes community-based participatory research (CBPR) to support language and literacy development with Pre-K and kindergarten African American boys. Method: The aim and goals of the project were designed using the CBPR model. Interventionists were trained with researcher-designed videos. Interventionist fidelity to training…

With the advance of technology, additional opportunities for professional development are available through nontraditional means. In this review, we examine the effectiveness of technology-mediated language and literacy professional development (Tech PD) programs for teachers and students in early childhood settings. We review Tech PD…

Using data from a 2-year empirical project in an urban school within the United States, this article describes how educators of preschool, transitional-kindergarten and kindergarten (PreK-TK-K) altered perceptions and practices as a result of participating in a purposefully crafted professional learning community using collaborative enquiry.…

This study was aimed to calculate teachers' effective use of time in scientific inquiry lessons. The research was designed as a case study. The study group of the research consists of 5 pre-school teachers determined by the convenient sampling method. Before the study, the participants were taken in-service training program on scientific inquiry.…

Cognitive activation is one of the central quality characteristics of teaching. Studies which analyzed cognitive activation in science instruction and its influence on the achievement and the interest of students, took most of the times place in higher grades. Since scientific thinking can be taught at a very early stage and, in particular,…

Educators, administrators, and researchers continue to search for a solution to return play to kindergarten classrooms while encouraging the use of technology to meet federal education standards. A review of the literature showed a gap in strategies for implementing play, findings were lacking on video games with digital badges in education, and…

In discussions about how to implement learning through/in/at play, there is still not a commonly agreed view. This qualitative study investigated Chinese teachers' and parents' perspectives on learning in play to attain a co-constructed picture of learning in play through real classroom practices and perceptions using the Mosaic approach. Fourteen…

Research has consistently established the positive impact of sharing books with young children. Evidence suggests several important factors when evaluating book sharing with young children, including the quality of educator practice = and the nature of groupings, as well as the frequency and duration of book sharing sessions and access to books.…

Background/Context: Young children's engagement with mathematics is occurring in a context in which school transition and readiness concerns that invoke increased institutional rules and disciplinary practices involving power dynamics are coming into play. These trends made us curious to undertake an in-depth investigation of the different ways…

Early childhood education provides an important arena for fostering valuable habits and practices for sustainability. This paper contributes to understanding the educator's role within early childhood environmental education in foraging and gardening practices. What pedagogical approaches does the teacher provide to foster the children's…