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DEC seeks your input and involvement with the disseminiation and product development plan to ensure that the 2014 recommended practices are understood and implemented across the broad field of early childhood. Share your perspective, brainstorm with colleagues, and strengthen dissemination efforts.

The new DEC family recommended practices provide home visitors with specific guidance about enhancing families' abilities to engage their children in learning activities. Participants will learn how to use the new DEC family practices through video demonstrations and how to use a self-reflection tool developed for the DEC family practices.

The transition into Kindergarten is a critical time for children's development--children's patterns of academic development and engagement with school often start in Kindergarten and persist throughout their academic careers. This is a developmental period that is marked by many changes in children's lives, and therefore it is not a surprise that many children struggle during this transition. These struggles are more common for children who are living in poverty, and although there have been national initiatives to address opportunity gaps in access to early education, investigations into the effectiveness of these programs in promoting children's Kindergarten development have shown mixed results. It is therefore essential to identify the types of early education experiences that are effective in supporting children in having a smooth Kindergarten transition. This dissertation presents and evaluates six theoretical frameworks that can be used to understand the Kindergarten transition. The school readiness approach to the Kindergarten transition focuses on the ways in which children's Kindergarten-entry skills can lead to their own development during Kindergarten. The Pre-K launch model examines the role of high-quality Pre-K in boosting children's school readiness, and subsequently their development during Kindergarten. The classroom quality perspective describes the supportive qualities of Kindergarten classrooms that may aid in children's development across this transition. The continuity perspective shows that support for continuous high-quality instruction between Pre-K and Kindergarten systems may promote children's growth. The buffer/compensation model proposes that children with higher-quality Pre-K experiences are more resilient to the effects of lower-quality Kindergarten. Finally, the consistency model suggests that alignment of quality between Pre-K and Kindergarten may be beneficial for children regardless of whether that alignment represents high quality instructional practices. Each of these perspectives provides valuable insight into the Kindergarten transition; however, these theoretical perspectives have not been studied simultaneously to determine the extent to which all may play a role in children's development during the Kindergarten transition, particularly the development of children who are living in poverty. The current study used data from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-kindergarten Study (NCEDL) to chart children's experiences in their Pre-K and Kindergarten classes to determine whether there are qualities of children's experiences before and throughout the Kindergarten transition that support their development during Kindergarten, and evaluated the extent to which these patterns support these major theoretical perspectives. The study found that children's Kindergarten-entry skills were the best predictors of their end-of-Kindergarten outcomes, showing support for the school readiness perspective. In the domain of instructional support, children's concurrent classroom experiences predicted their academic outcomes during a given year, showing support for the classroom quality framework. In the domain of emotional support, statistical effects of Kindergarten emotional support on children's outcomes were seen only under conditions in which Pre-K emotional support had also been high, showing conditional support for the continuity model. Consistency of children's emotional support, when controlling for quality, was negatively related to their social and emotional development, indicating that consistent emotional support alone is not beneficial without taking into account the quality of that emotional support. Associations between Pre-K quality and children's Kindergarten development were not translated through boosts in school readiness, indicating that while Pre-K experiences do matter for children's development during the Kindergarten transition, that relationship is not best described through a launch model. And finally, any benefits of higher quality emotional and instructional interactions during both Pre-K and Kindergarten were largely concentrated in the group of children who were not living in poverty, while higher Pre-K quality was at times related to lower Kindergarten outcomes for children who were living in poverty. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Inquiry is a fundamental human undertaking. The present study investigated interests-based curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood education, through the creation of a community of inquiry between children, teachers and a researcher. In two case study settings, it explored ways teachers and children co-construct interests based curriculum and ways teachers might strengthen coherence between research, theory, practice and professional learning to support such curriculum construction. During year-long fieldwork, the researcher drew on participant observation techniques, interviews, documentation and co-constructed inquiry discussions as sources of data. Data analysis occurred on two levels: descriptive and theoretical. Sociocultural theory provides a foundation for the approaches to learning and teaching, inquiry, the research design and lenses of interpretation. The study uses two frameworks to explain its findings, challenging and extending current understandings of funds of knowledge and communities of inquiry. In addition, it illuminates the concept of working theories. Discussion of the notion of evidence-informed inquiry explains some types of evidence teachers bring to the complexities of curriculum decision making as their funds of knowledge and working theories, thereby arguing against narrow interpretations of evidence-based practice. This thesis argues that interpretation of children's interests, from a sociocultural perspective, requires a more analytical understanding of children's family and community experiences and their impact on children's inquiry, and of teacher interests and responsibilities in relation to culturally-valued knowledge. Further, the thesis contends that children's and teachers' co-constructed inquiry is dependent on reciprocal and responsive pedagogical relationships that provide meaningful responses during engagement in learning-and-teaching. Links between everyday knowledge and conceptual knowledge in children's learning may be brought together. In this way, participatory learning enables children and teachers to co-create a foundation for conceptual learning. Two inquiry continua and one model are offered to incorporate the key theoretical ideas and arguments of the thesis. It is argued that the model represents components of an interests-based sociocultural curriculum and pedagogy. A funds of knowledge approach has the potential to transform early childhood learning-and-teaching environments, and implement partnerships with families, communities (including the research community) and cultures authentically. Implications for teaching practice, teachers' professional learning, research and policy are discussed to recognise and strengthen both an inquiry focus in pedagogical relationships, and an awareness of funds of knowledge in early childhood education contexts.

The focus of this research is the spiritual experience of young children in early childhood educational settings. Spirituality is included in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, but is a relatively unarticulated aspect of educational practice. In order to find out how spirituality is supported in early childhood educational contexts this qualitative case study research took place in three early childhood settings: a Montessori casa, a private preschool and a Steiner (Waldorf) kindergarten. The methods used in the research included participant observation, interviews and focus groups. The teachers were asked to make a video about spirituality to reflect their own context and photographs were taken in each setting. The metaphor of spiritual landscape is used in this research. In this landscape everyday experience merged with the spiritual to form the concept of everyday spirituality. The cultural theories of everyday life supported a realisation that ordinary daily activity can become wonderful and mysterious when the spiritual dimension is realised. The themes that emerged from analysis of the case studies are conceptualised as transformative aspects of learning and relationships. They are aspects of everyday spirituality identified as spiritual withness; spiritual inbetweenness; and the spiritually elsewhere. Representing spiritual experience is challenging. The thesis is written in narrative form and contains core narratives as prose and poems. Using writing as a means of discovery made communicating spirituality through the medium of words a possibility. Spirituality is proposed to be an inclusive concept that affirms a sense of connection and this thesis found that all pedagogical practices in early childhood settings have the potential to include a spiritual aspect. In Aotearoa New Zealand many children lead their everyday lives in the context of an early childhood environment that includes teachers and parents as part of that community. This thesis argues that when everyday spirituality permeates early childhood contexts that all aspects of the curriculum are realised and the spiritual experience of everyone connected to that setting is supported.

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of early childhood teachers in relation to the influence of the physical environment of the classroom on classroom management. More specifically, the present study examined teachers&rsquo / perceptions about the factors which influence their classroom management practices, how the physical environment of the classroom influences their instructional processes and teacher-student interactions. To collect the data for the study, a semi-structured interview schedule was developed by the researcher. The interview schedule contained 16 questions / six pertained to demographic items, while the remaining ten open-ended questions aimed to investigate the perceptions of teachers about the physical environment of the classroom and its influence on classroom management. The participants of this study consisted of 36 female early childhood education teachers who taught children from age 3 to 6. Twelve of them were employed in private schools and 24 worked in public schools. Qualitative analysis was performed at the end of the study and according to findings, 7 themes were categorized. These are were (1) factors influencing classroom management, (2) physical environment, (3) interest areas in the classroom, (4) strengths and weaknesses of the physical environment, (5) remedies for weaknesses of the environment, (6) the influence of the physical environment on instructional process and teacher-student interaction, and (7) suggestions for the improvement of the physical environment.

The purpose of this study is to examine teachers&rsquo / beliefs and perspectives about an applied transdisciplinary approach of integrated early childhood curriculum. While developing an integrated curriculum for early childhood education, one of the challenges for educators is delivering the themes into different disciplines. For this reason, researchers have developed different models to integrate disciplines in different ways. Transdisciplinary approach is one of the models developed for integrated curriculum. Transdisciplinary approach, in which activities are complementary, provides different disciplines to be connected through a real life context. That is, the themes or units do not arouse from disciplines, there is a globally significant theme for the thematic teaching units. Furthermore, collaborative planning is another crucial part of transdisciplinary approach for an effective curriculum teachers working together. International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program is the first and foremost a transdisciplinary curriculum developed for international primary education. To examine teachers&rsquo / beliefs and perspectives about transdisciplinary approach, collaborative planning, integration of disciplines in a transdisciplinary curriculum and benefits of this curriculum to children and parents in a private kindergarten which is implementing Primary Years Program is chosen. This study is conducted in a private kindergarten in Ankara with eighteen teachers who teach six-year-old children. In accordance with this thesis, the structure of a transdisciplinary approach of integrated early childhood education curriculum and teachers&rsquo / beliefs and perceptions about transdisciplinary curriculum are qualitatively determined by the case study approach. The results reveal that teachers have positive point of view towards transdisciplinary curriculum in early childhood education. They believe that there are positive effects of transdisciplinary curriculum on students and parents. Moreover they point out the importance of collaborative planning.

The aim of this study is twofold, first is to create an in-service training example that can be conducted with childhood education teachers in framework of transformative learning towards learning for sustainability and education for sustainable development. Second aim of study is to investigate effects and contributors of created transformative learning example on participants&rsquo / perspective transformation. 24 teachers were involved as convenient sample in this research. Research methodology combined two basic data gathering and analysis methods. Sample group participated in seven half day in-service training, at the end of training initial inquiry was conducted by using Learning Activities Survey with all participants and it was continued with 6 follow-up interviews. Assessment tool and interview format were developed by Kathleen P. King (1997) and were translated in Turkish and adapted for the use of this research. The results of this research revealed that 100% of participants experienced perspective transformation at varying degrees in relation to in-service training conducted.The most telling findings indicate that: (a) perspective transformation learning experiences include major shifts in learner&rsquo / s understanding of his/her life and world, (b) journey of transformative learning differs among learners, (c) sampled population experienced some changes in their perspective of their beliefs, assumptions and points of view as well as they transitioned to a more differentiated frame of reference which is related with sustainability, (d) both classroom assignments and support were noted as important contributors of perspective transformation, (e) discussions, group projects, critical thinking activities, self-evaluation of participants and unconventional structure of training, support of trainer, support from others and challenge from trainer were evaluated as main contributors to perspective transformation.

The aim of this study is twofold, first is to create an in-service training example that can be conducted with childhood education teachers in framework of transformative learning towards learning for sustainability and education for sustainable development. Second aim of study is to investigate effects and contributors of created transformative learning example on participants&rsquo / perspective transformation. 24 teachers were involved as convenient sample in this research. Research methodology combined two basic data gathering and analysis methods. Sample group participated in seven half day in-service training, at the end of training initial inquiry was conducted by using Learning Activities Survey with all participants and it was continued with 6 follow-up interviews. Assessment tool and interview format were developed by Kathleen P. King (1997) and were translated in Turkish and adapted for the use of this research. The results of this research revealed that 100% of participants experienced perspective transformation at varying degrees in relation to in-service training conducted.The most telling findings indicate that: (a) perspective transformation learning experiences include major shifts in learner&rsquo / s understanding of his/her life and world, (b) journey of transformative learning differs among learners, (c) sampled population experienced some changes in their perspective of their beliefs, assumptions and points of view as well as they transitioned to a more differentiated frame of reference which is related with sustainability, (d) both classroom assignments and support were noted as important contributors of perspective transformation, (e) discussions, group projects, critical thinking activities, self-evaluation of participants and unconventional structure of training, support of trainer, support from others and challenge from trainer were evaluated as main contributors to perspective transformation.