Early Childhood Education Journal最新文献

While teacher-child relationships vary across sociocultural contexts, most research has focused on Western settings. Given Korea’s collectivistic culture and the hierarchical nature of adult-child relationships, this study examined how teacher and child perceptions of their relationships influence children’s math skills mediated by instructional quality. Participants included 283 children and 16 preschool teachers. Findings reveal that child-perceived negativity and conflict were negatively associated with children’s math skills, with concept development mediating these effects. In contrast, teacher-perceived closeness and conflict did not have a direct effect on math skills. These results underscore the critical role of children’s perceptions in math development, particularly in Korean cultural contexts. We discussed nuanced approaches for teachers to respond to children’s perceived conflict in collectivistic and hierarchical cultural contexts, such as Korea.

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Transition to School Teacher Professional Development Program (TSTPDP) in promoting school readiness and social-emotional adjustment among preschoolers in Southeastern Anatolia, Türkiye. Using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design, 40 preschool teachers and 152 children aged 48–72 months were assigned to either the TSTPDP intervention or a control group. The 12-session TSTPDP, grounded in Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and the Ecological and Dynamic Transition Model, was implemented online over four weeks before the start of the school year. Data were collected using the School Readiness Scale, adapted to the Turkish context by the researcher, and the Preschool Social Competence and Behavior Assessment Scale (SCBA-30), and reflective journals completed by the participating teachers. Results indicated that children in the TSTPDP group exhibited significantly higher levels of school readiness and social-emotional adjustment compared to the control group at the end of the first semester. The qualitative data enriched these findings, providing insights into teachers' changed perspectives and practices. These findings highlight the potential of comprehensive teacher professional development programs in facilitating a smoother and more positive transition to preschool for young children.

Computational thinking (CT), defined through its dimensions of abstraction, generalization, algorithmic thinking, and evaluation, fosters cognitive skills for solving problems logically and systematically, preparing individuals for the challenges of the digital society, where interaction with machines is essential. This empirical pre-experimental study arises from an individualized intervention with students aged 4–6 (N = 82), aimed at measuring their level of CT. Its originality lies in involving them in a story featuring a robot, whose mission is to help a turtle recover its habitat. To achieve this, they must program the robot to follow a predetermined route and overcome various challenges. Thus, the CT-Robot-DST scale was designed and validated, consisting of 14 indicators with 4 performance levels, to record the observed level of CT during the intervention (27′ 30′′ per child). This scale assesses their skills in task planning and sequencing, logical reasoning, lateralization, spatial orientation, understanding and identifying the buttons to program the robot’s movements, memorization, counting, eye-hand coordination, problem-solving, effectiveness, and engagement with the story. The results show that the majority of the students engaged in the story, expressed interest in planning and executing the required tasks, successfully programmed the robot, solved problems, and overcame the proposed challenges. Thus, 78.1% of the students scored close to the high CT level. The more autonomous students performed better. Undoubtedly, this intervention, focused on completing various tasks structured around a narrative featuring a robot, represents an innovative approach that involves students in the storyline to solve the challenges.