Early Childhood Education Journal最新文献

Increased stress among teachers during the pandemic has driven global concern about burnout, and initial evidence suggests teacher turnover and attrition increased during the pandemic. Burnout and attrition are of particular concern in early childhood education, where teacher turnover was already high pre-pandemic and is negatively associated with program quality and child outcomes. We interviewed 25 public pre-kindergarten teachers in Michigan, United States to understand their experience teaching during the first year of COVID-19. By asking them to choose the meme that best described their experience at two time points—April 2020 and April 2021—we gained insight into how their confidence in their ability to navigate challenges associated with teaching during the pandemic fluctuated over time. We draw on the concept of self-efficacy to make sense of the change from “survival mode” to “#winning” during a time of great uncertainty when teachers were being asked to adapt to entirely new—and shifting—modes of teaching. This study contributes to our understanding of how teachers experienced the first year of the pandemic, adds nuance to existing narratives about teaching during the pandemic (which tend to focus on exhaustion and burnout), and highlights teachers’ ability to successfully navigate unprecedented professional challenges.

Writing for publication is a formidable challenge for emerging scholars (graduate students and early career faculty) tied to high-stakes outcomes. One substantial challenge in writing for publication is successfully navigating the blind peer review process. This study focuses on the revision experiences of nine emerging scholars who have successfully published their first solo-authored publication and uses multiple datasets, including an interview and an analysis of publication documents (initial article submission, editorial feedback, revised manuscripts, and final published works). We triangulate between direct observations of writing and revision processes, analysis of peer review and editorial feedback, and self-reported perceptions and emerging scholars’ experiences. Our results include a taxonomy of the most common feedback and revision processes for emerging scholars, including frequently requested and challenging scholarly moves. Drawing upon Kellogg’s (J Writ Res, 1(1), 1–26, 2008) framework of knowledge telling to transforming to crafting, we demonstrate how emerging scholars’ understanding of writing for a disciplinary audience aligns with both the “what to say” and “how to say” aspects of publishing, advancing them from the transforming stage to crafting stage. We also describe the social support systems that emerging scholars use to navigate peer review feedback and engage in effective revision. From these findings, we offer recommendations for supporting graduate students and early career faculty in building confidence and knowledge, including enhancing writing instruction and publication courses, creating structured mentoring opportunities, facilitating writing groups and peer support networks, and cultivating positive dispositions and mindsets towards publication. Contributions of this work include a comprehensive view of how emerging scholars successfully navigate blind review processes and receive feedback, which allows faculty mentors and graduate programs to strengthen their writing for publication support.

Gratitude writing exercises are a common tool used to promote gratitude. However, understanding of the specific writing features that are associated with written expressions of gratitude is limited. In this study, we investigated how fundamental characteristics (words, punctuation marks) of early elementary student’s writing relate to their gratitude. Specifically, we reexamined a subset of data from Nguyen and Gordon (J Happ Stud 25(34), 2024). The data included 4932 gratitude expressions composed by kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and third graders (N = 2806) who had participated in an annual community writing activity that prompted them to write about what they were thankful for. During this activity teachers submitted students’ writing to local newspapers for publication and circulation online. We found that the number of gratitude categories expressed by students correlated with features of their writing, namely word count and punctuation marks. We also found that student grade level influenced the breadth of gratitude categories they wrote about. These findings have implications for education, providing a basis for developing innovative classroom gratitude writing activities that may foster students’ gratitude across a myriad of categories.

The prenatal period is an ideal time for interventions and social service programs to initiate supports for families, such as is done in many home visiting and two-generation programs, including Early Head Start (EHS). EHS works with pregnant people enrolled in the program to determine what their specific needs for services are, and then either provide the services or offer referrals to them in the community. However, there is incredible variability in what the specific services that programs offer are comprised of. This study explored (1) the availability of prenatal services EHS offers across home- and center-based program approaches; (2) associations between different types of prenatal services and children’s socioemotional skills at age 2 among families enrolled in both program approaches; and (3) differences in these associations across subgroups of children who attended home- or center-based EHS at age one in light of prior research showing differences in EHS’ effect on children’s socioemotional skills across program approaches (Chazan-Cohen et al. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 78:93–109, 2013), using data from the Early Head Start Child and Family Experiences Study 2009–2012 (Baby FACES). We found that the availability of services differed based on program approach, and that the availability of comprehensive services in particular were linked with toddlers’ socioemotional development, especially for those who attended home-based EHS at age one. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed, particularly in relation to the work being done to support expectant families in home-based Early Head Start programs.

This study examined parents’ beliefs and potential links with their children’s (1) interest in science, (2) competence in learning science, and (3) science learning opportunities offered to their children. The study included a sample of 1,490 parents who had young children enrolled in U.S. preschool (3 years old, 55.9%) and pre-kindergarten (4 years old, 44.1%) classes. Data were collected via online surveys, which included three components: Perceived Science Motivation for Children-Parents Form, Parental Expectation and Support for Learning Science Questionnaire, and socio-demographic questions about parents and their children. Based on rankings of science and other curricular areas, parents’ responses were classified into three groups: Low, Moderate, and High Preference for Science. Few parents prioritized science over other curricular areas in early learning classrooms, and parents’ preferences for science were not associated with their incomes, levels of education, or the children’s ages or sex. Parents’ gender, however, was related to their preferences for science. Their beliefs about children’s interest in science and competence to learn science were associated with home science resources, science-related conversations, and parental preferences for learning science in early childhood classrooms. Results from this study suggest that parents’ beliefs about children’s interest in science and competence to learn science predict the science learning opportunities provided to their children.

In Aotearoa New Zealand autism identification is often delayed due to the limited availability of trained professionals. Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) could play a critical role in referral for autism assessment, given their frequent contact and familiarity with children in their centers and their vast developmental knowledge. Within this study, we evaluated data from 73 ECEs who received Monitoring of Social Attention, Interaction and Communication (MoSAIC) training, designed to equip them to use the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R); an evidence-based autism detection tool. Participants completed surveys pre- and post-training, and at 12-week follow-up to ascertain changes in autism knowledge and identification confidence, and perceived acceptability of the tool and training. Post-training interviews were also conducted. Participants’ overall confidence and autism knowledge improved pre- to post-training, and improvements were maintained at follow-up. The training was rated as highly beneficial and culturally appropriate for their work as ECEs. Nationwide MoSAIC training for ECEs could support developmental surveillance and diagnostic processes for Autistic children and their families.

The early childhood education (ECE) workforce shapes the developmental outcomes of the next generation. Despite the critical nature of this role, ECE providers face high demands and low resources, impacting their well-being, burnout, and turnover intent. Thus far, there is limited evidence on rural–urban differences in the relationship between job demands, resources and experiences of burnout and turnover. This study investigated if perceived job demands and resources differed for rural and urban ECE providers and if the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout and turnover varied by geographic setting, controlling for socio-demographic factors. With regards to socio-demographic factors, a much higher percentage of our rural sample identified as being Hispanic, had lower family incomes, and lower levels of education. There was a statistically significant difference in the emotional exhaustion element of burnout, such that the rural sample had a lower level of emotional exhaustion, on average, than our urban sample (16.2 vs. 21.0) (t-value = -2.03, p < .05), after controlling for significant socio-demographic variables. Predicting both burnout and turnover intent, the individual resources*rurality interactions effects were statistically significant (burnout: = 0.15, p < .05; turnover intent: = 0.14, p < .05), controlling for sociodemographic factors. It appears that individual resources for urban providers may be more protective against burnout and turnover intent. This is the first study to examine rural–urban differences in the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout and turnover. Findings suggest the need for policies that target individual-level resources, such as enhancing professional development and improving resource allocation to address socioeconomic disparities. Such policies and practice improvements could enhance well-being and retention for this essential workforce that educates young children throughout the United States.

While informational texts have been shown to enhance vocabulary and content knowledge, most prior research indicates that early childhood teachers seldom read such texts to their students. This study offers an updated perspective on the frequency of informational text use during read-aloud sessions by kindergarten teachers. These teachers work in a large urban U.S. district committed to building content knowledge through read-alouds during ELA instruction. Over the course of a semester, 38 teachers completed 174 reading logs, covering 310 titles, which yielded three key findings: the average proportion of informational text read-alouds was higher than reported in previous studies, there was considerable variation among teachers in how often they used informational texts for read-alouds, and informational texts related to social studies and math were read aloud less frequently than those focused on science concepts. Furthermore, the study examined the relation between the frequency of informational text read-alouds and kindergarten students’ gains in vocabulary and content knowledge over one academic year. The results indicated that the frequency of informational text read-alouds did not significantly correlate with students’ vocabulary and knowledge gains, suggesting that the current instructional practices during these read-alouds may not be sufficient to effectively support students’ learning in these areas.

Let’s do Engineering was a research and engagement project running for 2 years in Scotland, aimed at broadening perceptions of engineering in the early years (ages 3–7). Engineer role models and creative practitioners co-created educational resources which were tested across a variety of settings, including preschool and primary schools. Twenty engineer role models developed over thirty different activities, reaching in excess of 4000 children across Scotland. This article focuses on the impact of the project on the engineer role models, creative practitioners and educators using a mixed methods approach, with data from surveys, interviews and focus groups (n = 49). This study draws out best practices for fostering collaborations between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals and creative practitioners (artists) as well as for designing engineering activities for early years audiences. Key evaluation findings were that teachers reported high pupil engagement and valued the diversity of engineering role models, but challenges were identified in linking the resources with child-led early years pedagogies, and the complexity and length of some activities and resources. We have gained knowledge on what educators of 3–7 year olds are looking for when searching for STEM learning materials, and have identified factors that help or hinder the use of learning resources in classrooms.

Emergent literacy skills are essential for reading development, yet autistic students face a greater risk of reading difficulties. This qualitative-driven, mixed-methods study explored public preschool teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in teaching emergent literacy to autistic children. Findings from questionnaires and interviews with ten purposively selected, licensed public-school teachers revealed general knowledge of emergent literacy and autism but highlighted gaps in areas like phonemic awareness. Teachers acknowledged challenges in effectively teaching emergent literacy to autistic students and expressed a need for additional training. Notably, they lacked familiarity with research-supported instructional strategies for autistic learners and often prioritized social and behavioral skills over emergent literacy instruction. These findings emphasize the need for targeted professional development and further research to enhance emergent literacy instruction in preschool settings.