Early Childhood Education Journal最新文献

Young children are natural scientists, exploring the world around them from infancy. While early childhood classrooms abound in opportunities to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), early educators need to intentionally design and implement accessible learning experiences so that all children can develop STEM knowledge and skills. As such, it is essential to understand teachers’ perspectives toward STEM instruction in their everyday classroom practice. Guided by the integrated STEM framework, we examined eight preschool teachers’ STEM teaching practices through in-depth interviews. We present themes related to teachers’ implementation of transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and independent exploratory STEM teaching approaches, their observations of both STEM-specific and non-STEM-specific learning outcomes, strategies teachers employed to create equitable and inclusive STEM learning experiences, and their orientation and confidence toward teaching STEM. This study contributes to the literature by exploring the realities of integrated STEM teaching and learning in everyday preschool settings and offering insights into better supporting teachers in this area.

The home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children’s early literacy learning. Texting programs are an increasing feature of family literacy interventions that support parent engagement in their children’s learning. Unlike face-to-face interventions, texting programs can offer sustained parental support at low cost and large scale. Messages can be translated into other languages, saved and shared, thus potentially widening the influence on children’s HLEs. Most early literacy texting programs target families from disadvantaged communities, yet research suggests all families may benefit from guidance on supporting their children’s early literacy. This study examined the receptiveness of a universal early literacy texting program, Kindytxt, by parents of kindergarten children from low, medium and high socioeconomic communities. Kindytxt was developed as a component of a universal book gifting program that uses a library-school model of program delivery and has statewide reach. Parents received 90 texts over 30 weeks and were invited to provide feedback via SMS at several intervals. Non-parametric tests were used to compare parent responses based on community-level socioeconomic status. Similarly high levels of parental support were evident across all socioeconomic strata. We argue that a universal approach can avoid the stigma and potentially lower uptake of programs that target disadvantaged families. Moreover, the Kindytxt cooperative delivery model allows targeted strategies to be incorporated within the universal program. Teachers and librarians can proactively bolster recruitment to the texting program and support parents to differentiate the literacy activities to suit their child’s cultural context and level of literacy development.

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to understand early childhood teachers’ perceptions surrounding the topic of childhood scribbles as they relate to emergent literacy. Sociocultural theory provided a foundation for this research because of its focus on relationships between children, other children, and teachers to foster learning experiences. Additionally, social semiotic theory also guided this research because childhood scribbles represent children’s “signs” which can also influence communication and literacy skills. The participants were nine preschool, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade teachers (N = 9) who volunteered to complete an open-ended survey, follow-up interviews, and a short survey before and after participating in a “Scribbles Workshop”. This study was guided by a central research question: What are early childhood teachers’ perceptions of children’s scribbling in the classroom environment, with regard to emergent literacy? Findings highlight an overarching theme: Scribbling promotes student and teacher interaction, which is critical to increased emergent literacy. A “Scribbling Interaction Cycle” is interpreted from the data and instances where teachers mentioned the importance of the student and teacher interacting to obtain meaning. Fourteen additional themes are presented which correspond to each explored construct. Findings are discussed and implications are given which relate to improved teacher education at the university level, policy changes at the state and national level, and revising kindergarten and first grade English language arts standards to include developmentally appropriate guidelines.

The present study focuses joint school and university development work in preschool-projects try to increase educational quality. The aim of this study was to explore perceived conditions and perceptions of projects among participants in development projects in eleven preschools. In addition, we were interested in the perceived outcomes of the projects. All projects were aimed at strengthening the preschool principal’s and staff’s competence regarding children’s language and emergent literacy development. The studied projects lasted up to three years. The results are based on phenomenographical analyses of thirteen focus group interviews with principals and staff, including eighty-eight participants, during the project period. Follow-up interviews were conducted with twenty-four representatives from the participating preschools one year after the closure of the projects. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Field notes from visits in the preschools contributed to the empirical material. Our findings indicate that the perceptions of a project, contributed to the understanding of a project as loaded with expectations that the development project is limited in time and that it will add extra-curricular work demanding extra resources, which led to the perception that when the project is over, development work is over. The word project, thus, per se functioned as a limiting factor, if on-going development work, was aimed for. Lack of anchoring the development work in the local context was perceived as problematic, with effects for the participants’ experience of agency. Furthermore, difficulties in managing large staff turnover during the project was perceived to cause the development work to come to a stand-still. Active leadership, and shared responsibility were perceived as favorable factors for the progress of the development work. Our conclusions encompass participants’ perceptions of adjustment to the local context, shared responsibility and seeing development work as exceeding time limits as vital components of successful development work.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of introductory meetings conducted in preschools on children’s school adjustment and teacher burnout. The study included 110 children in the treatment group and 109 children in the control group. A total of 24 participating teachers, with thirteen in the treatment group and eleven in the control group, were involved in the research. Teachers in the treatment group planned and implemented a one-on-one meeting day with children and parents, lasting approximately half an hour. Six weeks after the schools opened, teachers evaluated the children’s school adjustment levels using the School Adjustment Teacher Rating Scale and assessed teacher burnout using the Teacher Burnout Scale. Additionally, they responded to open-ended survey questions probing the impact of the school adjustment process on children, parents, and teachers. The results indicated that teachers conducting introductory meetings received significantly higher scores in all sub-dimensions of the School Adjustment Scale, including school avoidance, school liking, cooperative participation, and self-directiveness, compared to teachers who did not conduct introductory meetings. There was no significant difference in teacher burnout data between the groups. Open-ended responses data further emphasized that teachers who implemented the practice perceived it as effective in facilitating the school adjustment process.

Math language plays a crucial role in early math skill development. However, previous studies have measured math language using children’s knowledge or the environmental input of mathematical language, often limiting the scope to specific types of mathematical language. This study examined both numerical (e.g., number-related) and non-numerical (e.g., geometry, measurement, and spatial relations) mathematical expressions used by parents and young children during play and explored how combinations of these math language types related to early math skills. Fifty-eight children aged four to six years and their parents participated in laboratory-based tasks, including a 15-minute play session and a standardized math assessment. The results showed that numerical and non-numerical expressions were used at similar frequencies, and there were strong correlations between parents’ and children’s math language across various types. Mediation analyses revealed that children’s use of math language mediated the relation between the mathematical input they received and their early math skills, but this effect emerged only when advanced numerical and geometry language was considered. These findings emphasize the significance of children’s active use of math language and highlight the need to integrate numerical and non-numerical content in research on early mathematical development.

This study investigates translation strategies that enhance idea generation and linguistic construction in early childhood composing, focusing on high language-growth prekindergarten to first-grade classrooms. Our sample included 28 teachers from two under-resourced districts in the Northeastern United States, serving 324 children. Using an exploratory sequential mixed-method approach, we analyzed 28 video recordings of small group composing sessions to identify specific strategies employed by teachers. We found teachers’ use of strategies for idea generation and language construction were positively associated with children's receptive vocabulary growth. Teachers in high language-growth classrooms were approximately three and half times more likely to use translation strategies than teachers in low language-growth classrooms. Five strategies emerged that facilitate memory retrieval, comparative thinking, and idea synthesis related to idea generation. Additionally, five strategies related to language construction emerged for transitioning children’s language from contextualized to decontextualized forms, enhancing vocabulary, and constructing more complex sentences. These insights provide a framework for teachers to support early writing development through targeted and intentional instructional strategies to facilitate the idea-language translation process, thereby promoting significant gains in children's language skills.

The transition to school is an important developmental milestone for children and their families and sets the foundation for further educational experiences. There is a paucity of evidence-based interventions to support families during their child’s transition to school. To meet the needs of families during their child’s transition to school, better understanding of parents’ experiences is necessary. This systematic review identified 61 studies which reported on parent experiences of their child’s transition to school, although only a minority of studies explicitly focused on this outcome. Most studies were cross sectional, qualitative and focused on typically developing children. Six themes were identified in a narrative synthesis of the included studies: (1) Parent emotions about the transition to school; (2) Child’s school readiness and adjustment; (3) Parent factors; (4) Positive aspects of transition to school; (5) Practical transition issues; and (6) School partnership and communication. Overarching parent experiences focused on the ecological system within which the transition to school takes place, and we consider the implications for practice based on this framework.

Differentiated instruction (DI) is a teaching philosophy which addresses the learning needs of individual children. This multiple case study aimed to investigate the extent preschool teachers differentiated content, process, assessment, and learning environment within multicultural classrooms. Four early childhood teachers’ experiences were examined through observations, interviews, photographs, and field notes. It was found teachers used multiple strategies to differentiate their instructional process and content. Strategies of demonstration, providing physical support, peer observation, or repeating directions were prominent for concrete learning. Also, it was determined that teachers implemented several strategies such as using visual materials and activities, and/or diversifying the types of activities for similar topics to differentiate educational content in multicultural classrooms. Moreover, teachers used a limited number of strategies including managing time and resources flexibly as a means of differentiating the learning environment. Similarly, they rarely reported, nor were observed to differentiate assessment. Thus, teachers’ differentiated practices, especially those based on learning environment and assessment, should be developed with effective educational policies. Overall, the value of this study is undeniable in terms of providing a perspective to be able to handle these challenges of educators in implementing culturally responsive education in different countries.

A growing number of early childhood education (ECE) programs are using trauma-informed trainings to support teachers in better managing children’s trauma-related challenging behaviors. However, there is not a great deal of research on how effective these programs are for improving children’s school-related outcomes. This study examines whether a 6-hour trauma-informed training provided to preschool teachers was related to children’s child expulsion risk, teacher perception of child behavior, and student-teacher relationships. Seventy-four teachers from 7 elementary schools in the Mountain West region received a six-hour trauma-informed training over three months. Children’s school-related outcomes were collected through teacher report in pre- and post-training surveys. Linear growth modeling was used to estimate change in children’s outcomes over time, adjusting for child gender and student-teacher racial/ethnic match. There were significant decreases in child disruption, a subscale of expulsion risk, and improvements in student-teacher closeness following training; no other child outcomes changed significantly. More evidence-based research is needed to support or refute whether trauma-informed training is effective and promotes positive child outcomes.