Guidelines for Selecting Professional Development for Early Childhood Teachers

Engaging teachers of young children in effective in-service professional development is a critical component of establishing high quality early childhood education. However, not all professional development offerings are effective in imparting new knowledge, enhancing teacher practice, or improving child outcomes, making it difficult for teachers and directors to select professional development that will benefit their centers. This paper critically reviews the research literature on professional development for early childhood education to identify what features of professional development make a difference for teacher interactions and children’s learning and development. Guidance is provided for selecting professional development opportunities which meet the needs of children and teachers. Recommendations for how to create an ongoing professional development program within an early childhood center by creating a professional learning community are also made. Such an approach supports the center to become a place that values learning and continued education for all professionals

Beyond the Pencil: Expanding the Occupational Therapists’ Role in Helping Young Children to Develop Writing Skills

Occupational therapists (OTs) play an important role in early childhood classrooms as vital members of the educational team, particularly for young children’s writing development. Children’s emergent writing is a foundational literacy skill, which begins to develop well before they enter elementary school. However, early childhood classrooms are lacking in supports for early writing development. OTs are experts in guiding the development of early writing skills in young children and, therefore, should be considered as critical members of the early literacy curriculum team. This paper identifies the critical role emergent writing plays in early childhood literacy development and how to effectively assess young children’s writing ability. Practical guidance is provided to identify specific ways that OTs can merge their occupation-centered approach with their expertise in writing to serve as a key resource for classroom teachers and enhance the writing development of all children. Specific strategies are included for encouraging OTs to expand their approaches to writing beyond handwriting

Using the Scientific Method to Guide Learning: An Integrated Approach to Early Childhood Curriculum

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how early childhood programs prepare young children for science. Due to a number of factors, including educators’ low self-efficacy for teaching science and lack of educational resources, many early childhood classrooms do not offer high-quality science experiences for young children. However, high-quality science education has the potential to lay an important foundation for children’s knowledge and interest in science as well as reinforcing and integrating critical language, literacy, and math readiness skills. This paper examines the current research on science in preschool classrooms and provides suggestions on how to teach science that supports children’s development across domains. Using the scientific method to explore science with young children provides a systematic model for engaging children in observation, questioning, predicting, experimenting, summarizing, and sharing results. These processes encourage children’s use of language, literacy, and mathematics skills in authentic ways. Suggestions are provided for teachers to use the scientific method as their guide for generating scientific discovery in their classroom

Relation of teachers\u27 educational background to their teaching practices across contexts and child literacy outcomes

Study 1, an observational study of 32 Head Start teachers and children (146 boys, 152 girls) enrolled in their classrooms, found the quality of teachers’ book-reading practices to predict growth in children’s receptive vocabulary and letter knowledge. Multilevel growth analyses indicated that children in classrooms where teachers used more high quality utterances made greater gains in receptive vocabulary (PPVT-III) across the fall semester of the preschool year. Also, teachers’ identification of letters was related to children’s growth in letter knowledge from fall to winter. Further, teachers’ book reading practices from fall to winter predicted children’s growth in language and literacy development from winter to spring. Teachers with more years of formal education and professional training in early childhood used more high quality utterances and identified more letters during book reading. Study 2, an observational study of 30 preschool teachers identified a moderate relation between teachers’ verbal behaviors during book reading and free play, although overall quality of teachers’ utterances were higher in the context of book reading. Teachers’ educational background predicted the quality of teachers’ talk during book reading but not during free play

Current Practices for Teaching Letter and Letter Sound Knowledge in Preschool Including Strategies for Improving Instruction in these Areas

Head Start teachers (N= 48) were interviewed about their beliefs and practices for supporting letter knowledge in their classrooms. Results highlighted that teachers believed letter knowledge to be important skill for preschoolers to develop and articulated a variety of approaches to supporting this skill within their classrooms. Promoting letter knowledge through play and children’s name letters were popular approaches; however, teachers missed many opportunities to promote letter and letter-sound knowledge with their children. Thus, in addition to presenting findings from semi-structured interviews, this article provides a range of research-based practices available to promote letter and letter-sound knowledge during preschool

Using the Scientific Method to Guide Learning: An Integrated Approach to Early Childhood Curriculum

Researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in how early childhood programs prepare young children for science. Due to a number of factors, including educators’ low self-efficacy for teaching science and lack of educational resources, many early childhood classrooms do not offer high-quality science experiences for young children. However, high-quality science education has the potential to lay an important foundation for children’s knowledge and interest in science as well as reinforcing and integrating critical language, literacy, and math readiness skills. This paper examines the current research on science in preschool classrooms and provides suggestions on how to teach science that supports children’s development across domains. Using the scientific method to explore science with young children provides a systematic model for engaging children in observation, questioning, predicting, experimenting, summarizing, and sharing results. These processes encourage children’s use of language, literacy, and mathematics skills in authentic ways. Suggestions are provided for teachers to use the scientific method as their guide for generating scientific discovery in their classroom

Guidelines for Selecting Professional Development for Early Childhood Teachers

Engaging teachers of young children in effective in-service professional development is a critical component of establishing high quality early childhood education. However, not all professional development offerings are effective in imparting new knowledge, enhancing teacher practice, or improving child outcomes, making it difficult for teachers and directors to select professional development that will benefit their centers. This paper critically reviews the research literature on professional development for early childhood education to identify what features of professional development make a difference for teacher interactions and children’s learning and development. Guidance is provided for selecting professional development opportunities which meet the needs of children and teachers. Recommendations for how to create an ongoing professional development program within an early childhood center by creating a professional learning community are also made. Such an approach supports the center to become a place that values learning and continued education for all professionals

Head Start Teachers' Beliefs and Reported Practices for Letter Knowledge

Children's knowledge of letters at kindergarten entry is a critical marker of literacy development and predicts later reading achievement. Young children vary widely in their letter knowledge and that variation may be due to the ways in which early childhood educators approach letter instruction. The present study interviewed 48 Head Start teachers about their beliefs and practices in supporting letter knowledge for children in their classrooms. Results indicated that early educators believe teaching preschool children about letters is important and they articulated a variety of strategies for promoting this knowledge, primarily through playful learning experiences. Teachers capitalize on children's names, particularly the first letter, when beginning their letter instruction, providing some evidence for why children's name letters tend to be first known. In addition, other features of letters (e.g., position in the alphabet) and research-based practices (e.g., teaching letters and sounds in conjunction) were not prevalent approaches to instruction