Assessed language quality of 15 four-year olds with three conversational partners: a center-care teacher, an older child, and a younger child. Data coded included number of turns, utterances, gaps, statements versus questions, contingent responses, and amount of self-talk. Found that children take more turns with an adult but produce fewer…

Examines how the forms used by teachers to document planning and assess children's progress affect three child care center teachers' practice and expectations for young children. Narratives are constructed using qualitative methods to show how requirements for documentation may lead teachers to override goals of developmentally appropriate…

Questioned day care center children during free play about their collective activity to determine how the representation of cooperation is structured and what kind of transformation appears during development. Found a developmental trend of representation of group activity after age 2. Results highlight the importance of group and day care center…

Two studies documented gender differences in preschool children's responses to situations of vulnerability. Children playing with same sex friends showed no sex differences in time responding to vulnerability; some sex differences were noted in response type. Children's preferences for vignettes representing categories of response to the same…

Examined the association between kindergarten-level child care quality and legislated requirements regarding staff-to-child ratio and staff training, across eight Canadian provinces. Found that classrooms in provinces with the highest requirements for staff education levels had the highest quality ratings. Association between staff to child ratio…

Examined associations among day care center quality, selected structure variables, provincial legislation and funding, rural/urban location, and profit-seeking status across 48 centers in Canada. Found that average ratings of quality were between acceptable and good. Ratios and group size were acceptable. Found differences between for-profit and…

Examined effects of child care on mothers' levels of stress, and parental and life satisfaction. Found that all the child care variables contributed significantly to mothers' stress levels. However, the more satisfied mothers felt with child care arrangements, the greater their satisfaction as parents. Results suggest that adequate child care must…

Discusses how key ideas from ethnography can be translated into principles that can guide assessment and evaluation in early-childhood-education settings. Notes that when ethnographic principles are used in education settings, assessment and evaluation are integrated with teaching and learning, are interrelated, reciprocal processes, and are used…

Discusses the ways supervisors of early-childhood-education student teachers in their classroom practicum help their students connect theory and practice, based on research with early-childhood-education students. Discusses supervision techniques, including observation, student journals, and the seminar session, and the theoretical assumptions…

An inventory was constructed of social situations in which day care children may display problem behaviors. Child care workers using the inventory rate how often a child experiences difficulties in 38 social situations and identify children's usual reaction in each situation. A validation study indicated that the inventory has adequate…

Examined the influence of curriculum preparation on children's content knowledge of dramatic play centers' themes, dramatic play behavior, and theme-relevant conversation during play. Found that theme familiarity may have been a critical factor. Posttest content knowledge was positively related to frequency of dramatic play. Teacher effects on…

Uses results from study of home child-caregivers' attitudes to examine how public/private discourses on mothering, professionalism, work, and caring contribute to providers' constructions of home child-carework. Focuses on providers' efforts to set boundaries between their business and the caring relationships developed with children and families,…

Examined the cross-racial validity of friendship qualities and the value of reciprocity in friendship with 40 white and black fifth graders in a multiracial elementary school. Found that reliable alliance was considered significantly more important as a friendship quality by black than by white students, with 10 qualities, including reciprocity,…

Used multiple case studies to examine the writing of eight second graders in a dual curriculum school with Hebrew as an additional language. Findings revealed some letter and directional reversals, mostly conventional word boundaries, and invented spellings in both languages. Evidence suggests that learning to write in an additional language is an…

Used participant observation to investigate the beliefs and practices of two teachers with contrasting programs. Findings suggested that the teachers' practices were contrasting when interpreted from the points of view of philosophical constructivism and positivism but not from the teachers' own philosophical humanism. Findings implied that…