Research Findings: The goal of this study was to examine empirical research on the design, delivery, and measurement of the effects of professional development (PD) for early childhood educators in order to provide insight into what the field has accomplished as well as suggest directions for future PD programs and research. Through the use of rigorous inclusion criteria outlined by S. M. Wilson, R. E. Floden, and J. Ferrini-Mundy (2001), 73 studies were included and analyzed. On average, 25% (M ¼ 12.68, SD ¼ 9.99) of references in each study were specifically about PD. The majority of studies (n ¼ 39) targeted some form of language and literacy instruction, whereas only 5 studies targeted math and 1 study targeted science. A total of 35 different delivery mechanisms were used to provide PD, with 40 studies including some form of coaching and 45 including training workshops. The studies used a wide range of methods to measure PD-related outcomes: 51% (n ¼ 37) of studies examined changes in teacher practice, 18% (n ¼ 13) measured changes in teachers' knowledge, 40% (n ¼ 29) measured changes in children's learning, and 11% (n ¼ 8) measured changes in children's behavior. Practice or Policy: Based on the results of this study, there are 4 major ways in which PD for early childhood educators can be developed. Researchers and providers of PD should (a) continue to draw from multiple resources to inform PD implementation designs, (b) include more diversity in the content of instruction targeted by PD, (c) experiment with innovative formats for delivering PD, and (d) create better means of evaluating PD.There is growing consensus that professional development (PD) is an especially important lever for improving teaching practice in early childhood education (ECE). Teachers' experiences with PD have been linked to higher classroom quality (Burchinal, Cryer, Clifford, & Howes, 2002), and some researchers suggest that PD might be the most impactful way of improving children's learning above and beyond teacher degree attainment or specific curriculum selection (e.g., Early et al., 2007; Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Consortium, 2008). Given the importance of PD for improving instruction in ECE, the field needs a better conception of what researchers are currently doing with PD in order to understand the growing knowledge base and find gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed. To that end, the present study systematically examined empirical research on the design, delivery, and reported measurement of the effects of PD for teachers of young children in order to provide insight into what the field has done as well as suggest directions for future PD programs and research.

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 digitalcommons.unl.edu

In this study, we investigated how multiple types of knowledge and beliefs, along with holding an early childhood-related degree and teaching experience, were linked to amounts of early childhood educators' language and literacy instruction. Quantile regression was used to estimate associations between these variables along a continuum of language and literacy instruction for 222 early childhood educators. In general, low levels of language-and literacy-related instruction were observed; however, the use of quantile regression afforded unique insight into the associations of knowledge, beliefs, education, and teaching experience with instruction when levels of instruction were sufficient. These findings would not have been visible with traditional, linear regression models. Specifically, two types of knowledge were examined: disciplinary-related content knowledge about the structure of language and knowledge for use in teaching language and literacy to young children. digitalcommons.unl.edu

No abstract

The knowledge that teachers hold about children's learning is important to teachers' practice. Few studies have examined how early childhood teachers use such knowledge during moment-to-moment instruction for language and literacy learning. This study employed a phenomenological approach to understand the knowledge that eight early childhood teachers used to inform their pedagogical reasoning during language and literacy activities. Stimulated recall interviews about practice were conducted with the prekindergarten teachers. Results indicated that the teachers used multiple sources of knowledge to inform their pedagogical reasoning that included: conceptions about how children learn; knowledge about specific children and the learning goals for these children; factors related to the school context; and ideas about themselves as teachers. The analyses revealed that the teachers' various sources of knowledge functioned together to influence their enacted practice. Implications for professional learning and policy are discussed.