Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Stress In Educational Context, Sarah Matthews

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

This paper examines stress within educational contexts as a complex, relational, and systemic experience rather than solely a negative condition. Drawing on research related to stress perception, coping, leadership, trauma, and resource access, the paper highlights how stress affects educators, students, and families across early childhood and special education settings. Key themes include the role of perception in shaping stress responses, the impact of resource availability and socioeconomic factors, the transfer of stress within classroom environments, and the influence of leadership and organizational stability on teacher and student well-being. Using an ecological framework, the paper emphasizes that stress operates across …

Play As Research: What Teachers Can Learn By Watching Children Investigate, Kailey Price

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

This article invites educators to view children's play through the lens of play as research. Through the story of a classroom rock investigation and other everyday examples, it highlights how children naturally ask questions, test ideas, solve problems, and build understanding through play. Rather than seeing play as a break from learning, educators can learn to recognize the inquiry already taking place in moments such as digging in dirt, collecting natural materials, building structures, or investigating puddles after rain. The article introduces three simple reflection questions teachers can use to better understand children's thinking. It also describes practical ways to …

Notice, Respond, Observe, Adjust: Everyday Co-Regulation With Infants And Toddlers, Tony Kung

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

Co-regulation is central to infants’ and toddlers’ developing emotional regulation, yet educators often need to make responsive decisions in real time during everyday classroom routines. This research-to-practice article translates developmental and early childhood research into a practical four-part reflection guide: Notice, Respond, Observe, and Adjust. The article examines how educators can attend to children’s gestures, movements, vocalizations, and participation when supporting arrival and separation, caregiving routines, play, and peer encounters. It emphasizes responsive support that adapts to children’s individual communication, developmental needs, family knowledge, and classroom context. Drawing on recent empirical research and published educator observations, the article offers practical …

Beyond The Room Arrangement: Using The Environment As A Responsive Teaching Tool, Lydia J. Bingam, Carrie L. Ota

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

This article explores the classroom environment as a "third teacher," arguing that intentional design should extend beyond simple furniture organization to actively support children's relationships, curiosity, and learning. It emphasizes a responsive approach in which teachers move away from a one-and-done, adult-centered layout toward environments that evolve based on observations of children's emerging interests and needs. This piece offers actionable insights for low-barrier environmental adaptation, emphasizing that the most effective learning spaces are never truly "finished" but are subject to ongoing, intentional revision to better meet the needs of the children they serve.

Artizein Arts And Teaching Journal Volume 11 (1), Darlene St. Georges

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Full Issue

Narrative Threads: Mining Testimonios And Story-Building As Transformative Practice, Nicole M. Romanski, Leslie C. Sotomayor Ii, Julia L. Hovanec

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual essay interweaves narrative and feminist testimonio practices through the lived experiences and critical reflections of three art educators. It explores storytelling as a transformative method within art education and visual culture. Through vignettes of personal narratives and testimonios, the authors examine how individual experiences shape their teaching philosophies and pedagogical practices. This article situates their positionalities through diverse creative processes, including story mining, bookmaking, filmmaking, advanced clinical experience reflections, and visual pláticas. By merging practice and reflection, the collaborators highlight narrative pedagogy as a tool for personal and professional growth. Drawing on the work of scholars such as …

Drawing Out Remarkable Communities, Bailey Ennig

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual essay examines how an unused classroom whiteboard evolved into a student-driven site of relational art and community building. Initially left blank, the whiteboard became a shared drawing space as students began to doodle informally, returning regularly to contribute and interact. Over time, these collective drawing practices fostered friendships, cross-grade connections, and a sense of belonging grounded in shared pop culture interests and creative play. Drawing on theories of relational aesthetics (Bourriaud, 2002), creative ecosystems (Harris, 2021), and connected learning (Ito et al., 2019), the whiteboard functioned as a dynamic social space shaped by student agency rather than teacher …

Metaphoring Visual Metaphors For Visual Art Research, Jeff Horwat

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

In Art Practice as Research, Graeme Sullivan (2005) advances a seminal argument for art making as a rigorous mode of inquiry capable of generating knowledge comparable to that produced within positivist traditions. He conceptualizes visual art research through a complex framework. To render this model usable, Sullivan introduces a braided metaphor that operationalizes the framework while implicitly demonstrating the generative capacity of visual metaphors to reshape theoretical constructs themselves. Building on this premise, this visual essay approaches Sullivan’s framework not as a fixed schema but as an open invitation for methodological experimentation.

Through a process of metaphoring—the conceptual melding …

The Humidity Of Living: Walking, Permeability, And Care As Embodied Research Practice, Lyndsay Mckay

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual-textual essay traces walking as an embodied research methodology situated at the intersection of autoethnography, material feminist theory, and practices of care. Drawing on nursing-informed sensorial attunement and site-responsive observation, the work follows a pedestrian route through urban and coastal landscapes to examine how bodies, infrastructures, atmospheres, and more-than-human matter co-produce perception. Through photographic documentation and poetic narrative, the project foregrounds permeability as a methodological stance—one that resists detached observation in favor of affective, relational, and trans-corporeal engagement. Concepts from Ingold’s correspondence, Alaimo’s trans-corporeality, Mol’s logic of care, and Benner’s embodied expertise are woven into lived encounters with decay, …

Within The Making: Methodological Possibilities In Arts-Centred Research, Darlene St. Georges

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This editorial introduces the Fall 2026 tenth-anniversary issue of Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal, exploring methodological possibilities within arts-centred research. It considers the dynamic relationship between methods and methodology, attending to how creative practices generate knowledge through material encounters, relational engagement, intuition, and uncertainty. Questions of methodological rigour, ethical responsibility, and pedagogical responsiveness are examined through a relational and decolonial orientation. The eight contributions extend these considerations across diverse artistic and educational practices, illuminating how methodologies emerge, evolve, and transform through the living processes of creative inquiry.Darlene St. Georges is an Associate Professor of Art Education at the University …

The Effectiveness Of Using Stories And Tales In Developing Conceptual Understanding And Enjoyment Of Learning Mathematics Among Third-Grade Elementary Students: A Mixed-Method Study, Mona F. Alshammari, Ibrahim A. Khalil

International Journal for Research in Education

The study aimed to explore the effectiveness of using stories and tales in developing conceptual understanding and promoting enjoyment of learning mathematics among third-grade elementary students. To achieve the research objectives, a mixed-methods experimental design was applied to a sample of 26 students, representing the experimental group, and 24 students, constituting the control group. All students were selected from the Twenty-Second Elementary School within the Sharqiyyah Educational Administration. The teacher's book was used as instructional material for the unit of "Geometric Shapes." To collect quantitative data, an achievement test was used to measure conceptual understanding, while individual interviews, focus groups, …

Psychological Stress And Its Relationship With Reading And Writing Difficulties Among Students In The Foundational Stage Of Basic Education, Dr. Ali S. Al Shuaili

International Journal for Research in Education

This study aimed to examine the relationship between psychological stress and early reading and writing skills among foundation stage students in Oman and to determine the predictive power of stress on overall literacy performance. A quantitative descriptive correlational design was employed. The sample consisted of 78 students (aged 6–10 years) selected through stratified random sampling from 11 schools during the second semester of the 2024/2025 academic year. The study utilized the Children’s Psychological Stress Scale (CPSS) and the Early Literacy Skills Instrument (ELSI), both demonstrating satisfactory psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability. Results revealed statistically significant moderate negative …

Connecting The Pieces: Designing A Community-Engaged Family Literacy Program, Margaret O. Hanna, Janet Oyebode

Michigan Reading Journal

In this article, the authors describe how they designed a place-based family literacy program using several research-backed practices from the K-3 Literacy Essential Practices. The authors, one teacher educator and one community practitioner, describe how their interactions with the community guided them to a theme and authentic purpose for the program and how they chose a robust set of thematically connected texts for shared reading. They will also share how they identified an ideal community partner whose expertise enhanced their curriculum and helped to shape the authentic purpose and audience for the final project of the program. Finally, they …

Carrying Memory, Building Capital: Black Family Child Care Educators’ Community Mothering And Educational Equity, Ashley R. Watts, Crystasany R. Turner

Occasional Paper Series

This narrative unfolds not only as research but as living archives of Black family child care educators’ daily acts of care, resistance, and cultural preservation. Each image and story becomes a window into the layered identities of FCCEs—community mothers, pedagogues, and cultural stewards—whose homes and classrooms are sites of both survival and joy. The photographs capture the textures of their caregiving environments: the toys worn smooth by generations of children, the kitchen tables transformed into learning hubs, the walls adorned with cultural symbols and affirmations. These visual and narrative fragments remind us that FCCEs are not simply providers; they are …

"We Are Still Here”: Curating A High Quality Native American Children’S Book Collection For The Elementary Classroom, Lucia Benzor

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Elementary social studies educators face many challenges in the classroom when teaching on the subject of Native Americans. In addition to outdated materials or a lack of resources that inaccurately depict Native Americans as well as stereotypes found in a variety of media, students are left with various misconceptions that they bring with them to the classroom. To begin to combat these hurdles, the author advocates for the use of high quality picture books written by Indigenous authors and shares a carefully curated list of texts and suggestions for classroom use. The list features both fiction and nonfiction that address …

School-Based Executive Function Guideline (Sb-Efg): A Practice Guideline For Executive Function Assessment And Intervention In School-Based Practice, Ida Koraitem, Amanda Sarafian, Lenin Grajo

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Executive functioning (EF) is comprised of various cognitive skills, such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, which monitor and guide goal-directed behavior and set a foundation on which healthy development may occur. Although the impact of EF skills on school participation has increasingly been recognized over the years, there are limited occupational therapy models that help occupational therapists integrate EF intervention into school-based practice. Children with limitations in EF have unique needs and challenges that impact school participation; therefore, it is imperative that occupational therapists address EF in school-based practice. This author- developed practice guideline discusses essential elements …

But Mommy, I Can See!, Paul B. Freeman Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Book Review: Slotnick S, But MOMMY, I can SEE! Illustrations Daniel W. Miller, Newman Springs; 2024. 76 pages, Paperback, $20.95, ISBN: 979-8-88763-556-9, Hardcover, $32.95, ISBN: 979-8-89617-040-2, eBook, $9.99, ISBN: 979-8-88763-557-6

Outcomes Of A Vision Care Program That Provides Comprehensive Eye Exams To Children Who Have Failed School Screenings In The San Antonio Northside Independent School District, Raelyn Ottenbreit Od, Timothy Wingert Od, Chantelle Ribisi Od, Elizabeth Marunde Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Purpose: To determine the impact of a program that provides a comprehensive eye exam to children who failed a vision screening.

Method: Seven hundred seventeen students from the San Antonio Northside Independent School District (NISD) received a comprehensive eye examination. The records of these students were retrospectively analyzed to determine the impact of the exam on this population.

Results: The mean improvement in visual acuity after receiving a comprehensive eye exam at the Rosenberg School of Optometry was approximately five- and one-half lines of acuity. In addition to refractive error, other conditions related to eye coordination and ocular …

From Classroom Conversations To Public Dialogue: Preservice Teachers Engaging With Diverse Children’S Literature, Janell Pycior

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Preservice teachers often engage with issues of diversity, equity, identity, and representation within the safety of their university classrooms; however, opportunities to extend these conversations into public and professional settings may be less common. This practice-based reflective article examines the experience of moving seven undergraduate preservice teachers enrolled in an upper-level Diversity in Children’s Literature course beyond their familiar classroom environment and into a professional academic conference. The students, majoring in early childhood, elementary, or special education and minoring in reading, participated in a roundtable discussion at the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences focused on diversity and representation in children’s …

Owning The Mission: Reconciling The Past, While Implementing The Science Of Reading In An Education Preparation Program, Paula J. Adams

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This reflective inquiry examines the first year of a two-year initiative to more explicitly align an established educator preparation program with the Science of Reading (SoR). Situated within a small private university in New York State, the article considers implementation as both curricular revision and institutional change. The process included faculty professional learning, curriculum mapping, alignment of student learning outcomes, revision of common course assessments, development of SoR-aligned models of candidate work, and consideration of clinical experiences. Particular attention is given to tensions that emerged around policy fatigue, academic freedom and responsibility, differing professional cultures, candidates’ prior experiences with literacy …

When “No Referral” Does Not Mean “No Need”: Rethinking Mtss, Benchmark Data, And Early Literacy Support, Tevia Q. Strand

Essays in Education

This article examines what one school’s literacy data suggest about MTSS referral practices, benchmark interpretation, and early literacy support. Drawing on a local analysis of current third-grade students, the article reflects on a significant difference in Grade 3 reading outcomes between students who were referred to MTSS and those who were not referred for Tier 2 or Tier 3 support. At the same time, both groups demonstrated average reading performance below the Grade 3 40th-percentile benchmark, suggesting that literacy concerns extended beyond the students formally identified for intervention. Rather than presenting the study as a traditional research report, this essay …

More Than Just Blocks: Supporting Development Through Block Play In Early Childhood, Stephanie Szanter, Carrie L. Ota

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

Block play is much more than a classroom center; it is a place where children explore ideas, solve problems, communicate, and work together in meaningful ways. This article examines how block play supports children’s social-emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development through hands-on experiences that feel natural and engaging. Using classroom examples and current research, the article highlights how block play changes over time, how teachers can thoughtfully support and extend children’s thinking, and how simple adjustments to materials and setup can deepen learning. Rather than requiring elaborate activities, strong block play environments grow from careful observation, responsiveness, and an understanding …

When Children Cook: Food Experiences As Inquiry, Identity, And Learning, Marian S. Castillo, Carrie L. Ota

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

This article explores the transformative potential of integrating cooking experiences into early childhood classrooms, arguing that food preparation offers much more than a simple activity. By drawing on classroom narratives such as shared meal preparation and spontaneous scientific inquiry this piece illustrates how cooking serves as a catalyst for wonder, problem-solving, and collaboration. It highlights how food-based activities naturally bridge home and school environments, fostering a sense of belonging and cultural identity among young learners. Grounded in developmentally appropriate practice, this article examines the teacher’s role in facilitating these experiences, emphasizing the importance of responsive planning, observation, and valuing the …

More Than Storytime: Intentional Read-Alouds For Literacy Instruction And Formative Observation, Shelia Tate

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

Read-alouds have long been valued in early childhood classrooms for promoting engagement, enjoyment, and a love of reading. When intentionally planned, they can also reinforce foundational literacy skills and provide formative information about student understanding. This article examines how early childhood educators can move read-alouds beyond a familiar classroom routine by connecting them to specific literacy objectives and using student responses to guide subsequent instruction. The IPAQ process (Intentional Choice, Preplanning the Focus, Anticipating Misconceptions, and Questioning and Responses for Formative Observation) provides a practical framework for planning purposeful read-alouds. Classroom examples illustrate how teachers can use planned interactions and …

Diving Deeper Into Serve-And-Return Interactions: Joint Attention & Cognitive And Social Development In Infancy, Derrick Toups

Spark! Innovations in Early Childhood Education: A Research-to-Practice Journal for Educators

This article provides practical ways to support responsive and initiating joint attention in infancy which are fundamental to cognitive and social development.

Parental Involvement In An Indonesian Islamic Kindergarten: An Instrumental Case Study Of Mothers’ Voices, Somariah Fitriani, Yessy Yanita Sari, Irdalisa Irdalisa, Hamidah Mohamad

The Qualitative Report

Parental involvement plays a critical role in children’s cognitive, effective, and psychomotor development; however, limited research has explored mothers’ perceptions of parenting and practices of parental involvement and parenting styles. This instrumental case study employed semi-structured interviews with 23 mothers in an Indonesian Islamic kindergarten to explore their understandings, experiences, and beliefs regarding parental involvement. It also aims to identify different kinds of parenting styles. The study revealed three themes, indicating that parenting and parental involvement are understood as an educating process, an interaction process between parents and children, and a mechanism for supporting children’s development. The findings indicate that …

The Role Of Male Early Childhood Teachers In Responding To Fatherless Parenting Issues Through Inclusive Education, Dyah Ageng Pramesty Koenarso

Journal of Innovation and Teacher Professionalism

Growing attention to father absence and limited paternal involvement in Indonesia highlights the importance of professional and supportive practices in early childhood education (ECE). This study examines how male ECE teachers respond professionally to children whom they understand to experience father absence or limited paternal involvement. Using a qualitative case study design, the study involved 13 male ECE teachers from 13 institutions in South Kalimantan. Data were collected from May to August 2025 through 26 semi-structured interviews and 39 classroom observations and were analyzed using an interactive qualitative analysis approach. The findings show that participants provided pedagogical guidance, relational and …

Monitoring Spoken Language In Infants And Toddlers Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing Using The Lena Developmental Snapshot, Monika-Maria Oster, Kimberly A. Peters

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Purpose: This retrospective analysis evaluates the Developmental Snapshot as a language monitoring tool for infants and toddlers with bilateral hearing loss who use listening and spoken language.

Method: Data were obtained from the educational and clinical records of 147 children with bilateral hearing loss. For each child, the LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) Developmental Snapshot, a standardized online language assessment that relies on parent report, had been completed at least once. When available, scores from other standardized language assessments (PLS-5, CDI, and DAYC-2) were also obtained.

Results: LENA Developmental Snapshot standard scores were characterized by high variability and mean scores in …

Keeping The Problem Alive: Curriculum, Problematisation And The Eyfs, Claire Walsh

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper explores how problems are understood in debates about England’s Early Years Foundation Stage (Department for Education [DfE], 2025). Discussions of the EYFS often focus on identifying what is wrong with it and proposing ways to improve or replace it, including both critical perspectives and alternative approaches to early childhood education. While these positions appear different, the paper argues that they share a common tendency: they treat problems as things to be solved. The paper introduces the concept of solution-binding to describe this habit.

Rather than offering another critique or alternative, the paper asks what happens if problems are …

Addressing The Absence Of Formal Curriculum In Dual Language Immersion Program, Janet Roque

FDLA Journal

This strategic research project (SRP) was designed to provide a comprehensive, actionable solution to the critical challenge of inconsistent instruction resulting from the absence of a formal, aligned curriculum within the district’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program. This gap had previously led to instructional variability, disparate student outcomes, and increased teacher frustration due to a lack of shared resources and pedagogical direction. The project’s central objective was to develop, implement, and evaluate a vertically and horizontally aligned DLI curriculum framework designed to ensure instructional fidelity, promote sustained academic achievement, and guarantee equitable opportunities for biliteracy development across all participating grade …