The goal of the present study is to explore the use of developmentally appropriate practices in Asian Indian early childhood classrooms. This information is critical for all early childhood educators and teacher educators because the society we live in is fast becoming extremely diverse and our classrooms are becoming a cauldron of various…

Background: School readiness, conceptualized as three components including emotional self-regulation, social competence, and family/school involvement, as well as absence of conduct problems play a key role in young children's future interpersonal adjustment and academic success. Unfortunately, exposure to multiple poverty-related risks increases…

"Standards," "guidelines," or "benchmarks" are different ways to describe curriculum-driven preschool requirements. Historically, children's education in the United States has been guided by content standards in grades K through 12. An educator may view the movement toward rigorous curricular frameworks and resulting…

"Curiosity Corner" is an early childhood curriculum emphasizing children's language and literacy skills. It comprises two sets of 38 weekly thematic units--one for three-year-olds and one for four-year-olds. Program staff conduct daily lessons using sequential daily activities. One study of "Curiosity Corner" meets the What…

Preschoolers are passionate about learning, and a high-quality preschool program offers rich learning experiences in the areas of language and literacy. This engaging book gives teachers and other professionals fresh ideas, inspiration, and practical tools for integrating age-appropriate literacy instruction into the preschool curriculum.…

Four sample bilingual lessons designed to help teachers develop their own bilingual programs are presented in this teacher's guide. The lessons were written in Spanish and English for preschool Spanish-speaking children and provide teaching material which centers around concepts such as colors, community helpers and workers, farm animals,…

Reviews the emphases of different preschool curriculums. (SB)

This paper describes an innovative pilot project at the University of Canberra aimed at providing pre-service early childhood teachers with the skills, confidence and ideological change required to include technology-enhanced learning as part of the early childhood curriculum. The impact of the project was evaluated through participant…

This paper starts from the premise that teachers' discourse communities influence how ideas for reform are implemented. In order to understand some of the discourse surrounding the reforms proposed by GAISE, an online focus group activity was conducted. The focus group consisted of pre-service and practicing teachers responsible for teaching…

"Ready, Set, Leap!"[R] is a preschool curriculum that focuses on early reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-sound correspondence, using multisensory technology that incorporates touch, sight, and sound. Teachers may adopt either a theme-based or a literature-based teaching approach, and for each…

This report systematically reviews research on the outcomes of programs that teach young children in a group setting before they begin kindergarten. Study inclusion criteria included the use of randomized or matched control groups, evidence of initial equality, and study duration of at least 12 weeks. Studies included valid measures of language,…

An alarming number of American pre-school children lack sufficient language and literacy skills to succeed in kindergarten. The type of curriculum that is available within pre-kindergarten settings can impact children's academic readiness. This work presents results from an evaluation of two language and literacy curricula (i.e., Let's Begin with…

Presented is a rationale for the use of B. Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives in the development of preschool curriculum units for the gifted and talented which translates taxonomical objectives into activities. (BB)

Chapin Hall has been conducting an implementation and evaluability study of the ECCI (Early Childhood Cluster Initiative) project since the midway point of its first year. As described in the authors' first report (Spielberger & Goyette, 2006), the initiative made considerable progress in its initial year, particularly in implementing the…

Among risk factors associated with reading difficulties, poverty and underdeveloped oral language skills can be particularly detrimental to reading success. The City Early Reading First (CERF) project implemented a comprehensive curriculum, professional development, intensive mentoring, and home supports to enhance children's language, literacy,…