Despite increasing data on young children's patterning skills and evidence of a link between early pattern knowledge and later mathematics performance, little is known about the strategies children use to solve patterning tasks. This mixed-methods study examined 3- to 5-year-old children's informal strategies when solving eight patterning tasks…

Friedrich Fröbel is known as the founder of the modern kindergarten and for his development of novel learning materials called Gifts and Occupations. One of the foci of Fröbel's programme was mathematical education, which he addressed and taught through various activities that encouraged the largely implicit transmission of mathematical…

First-order and advanced theory of mind (ToM and AToM), and their structures and relations were investigated in 229 children aged 5-8 years. ToM was assessed using 6 tasks from the first-order ToM scale, while AToM was measured using an 18-item battery (higher-order false-belief understanding; strange stories; faux pas test; eyes test;…

Research Findings: This study examined the applicability of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) and its underpinning framework of teaching through interactions in typical Chinese kindergarten classrooms. A sample of 180 kindergarten classrooms in China was selected, and the CLASS was used to…

The present article investigates the effects of individual and contextual variables on children's early learning in French nursery schools and German kindergartens. Our study of 552 children at preschools in France (299 children from French nursery schools) and Germany (253 children from German kindergartens) measured skills that facilitate the…

Improving education outcomes is important for Germany's long-term economic performance and social cohesion. While student achievement is above the OECD average in science and at the OECD average in reading and mathematics according to the 2006 OECD PISA study, weaker students tend to do badly by international comparison and socio-economic and/or…

This article identifies the responsibilities for early childhood care and education (ECCE) in the German child and youth welfare system and shows the expansion of children's services. The official German statistics demonstrate that almost every child from the age of three to school age attends "Kindergarten". Current policies and…

In this article, I investigate preschool children's participation in organised activities. Current political and academic debates consider informal education as a prime vehicle for potentially diminishing social class inequalities in educational outcomes before school entry. However, studies point to unequal participation rates between social…