High-quality interactions between young children and teachers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are the cornerstone of educational quality. International findings suggest that the quality of interactions that support emotions and classroom organization is at a medium to high level, but the …

Interventions to improve children’s physical activity in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings are needed. This randomized controlled trial examines the effects of a preschool-based playground program for ECEC teachers in a deprived urban area. On intervention preschools, the PLAYgrounds …

Inclusive early childhood education and care (ECEC) requires interprofessional collaboration between professionals with diverse professional backgrounds. Following developments in human services, there is a growing interest in the role of interprofessional teams in community-based settings for young …

‘SEED: Social and Emotional Education and Development’ (2017- 2019) was a European Erasmus+ project that was designed to draw attention to the importance of social and emotional well-being for children’s learning and development, by supporting the continuing professional development of practitioners …

This chapter examines some of the challenges of unlearning anthropocentrism - i.e. the deep-seated cultural, psychological and enacted prejudices of human specialness - in nature-based early childhood education programs. We begin with a critical exploration of recent trends in environmental philosophy …

Background and aims The aim of this study was to gain insight in the effect of a preschool-based intervention for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers on promoting healthy eating and physical activity in toddlers. Methods In a cluster randomized controlled trial, 37 preschools of child …

Significant attention has been paid in the international literature to the effect of in-service training on the interaction skills of teachers in early childhood education and care. The growth of pre-service teachers during teacher education has received relatively little attention to date, however. …

Musical play is an activity in which young children more or less freely explore and create with sound with limited guidance from a teacher. This study explored the occurrence of musical play in Dutch early years education (4–5 year olds). Twenty early years classroom teachers were interviewed about the …