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Education Sciences
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Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education
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Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "Early Childhood Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 7190

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jennifer Grisham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Early Childhood, Special Education and Counselor Education, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0001, USA
Interests: authentic assessment; tiered instruction; inclusion of children with disabilities
Dr. Mary Louise Hemmeter

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
Interests: social/emotional development; professional development for educators; inclusion of children with disabilities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, there is a trend toward providing services to young children with and without disabilities in inclusive early childhood settings. Additionally, various countries around the world are experiencing greater diversity in their citizenry. As early childhood programs become increasingly diverse, there is a need for blending theory and practices to address the needs of all children. Blended practices refer “to the integration of practices that can be used to address the needs of all children in inclusive settings” (Grisham-Brown and Hemmter, 2017, p.7). The purpose of this Special Issue is to expand research and further discussion on service delivery models that promote blended practices in programs for young children birth to 8 years of age. Manuscripts that describe early childhood models that have blended theory and practices are encouraged. Research manuscripts that provide evidence that blended practices benefit all young children are welcome. Finally, we urge theoretical pieces that draw connections between various child development learning theories to create blended practices that are useful to early childhood educators. We hope that this Special Issue will contain worldwide perspectives on the topic of blending practices to serve young children.

References:

Young Exceptional Children Monograph 16: Blended Practices for All Children (Various authors).

Grisham-Brown, J. L., & Hemmeter, M. L. (2017) Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings 2nd Ed. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co.

Grisham-Brown, J. L., Hemmeter, M. L., & Pretti-Frontczak, K. (2005). Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co.

Prof. Dr. Jennifer Grisham
Dr. Mary Louise Hemmeter
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • blended practices
  • inclusion
  • early childhood education
  • early intervention
  • early childhood special education

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 250 KiB  
Article
Moving toward Inclusive Practices for Children and Families: A Preschool’s Journey
by Victoria Damjanovic and Elyse Ledford
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14010014 - 22 Dec 2023
Viewed by 777
Abstract
As a college of education was charged with transforming a campus preschool program into a teacher-educator lab school, a community of practice was formed to look at current practices and make changes to create a more inclusive program using culturally relevant pedagogy and [...] Read more.
As a college of education was charged with transforming a campus preschool program into a teacher-educator lab school, a community of practice was formed to look at current practices and make changes to create a more inclusive program using culturally relevant pedagogy and blended practices. Using a qualitative case study, data were collected for one year to determine what was taking place in the program. In years two through five, changes were implemented and reflected upon. Transformative learning guided data collection and analysis to support the process of reflecting critically on experiences, engaging in reflective dialogue, and taking action toward increasingly deep levels of authentic inclusive practices. Findings indicate that changes in the environment, curriculum frameworks, considerations for teachers, and bringing families in were the keys to developing a more inclusive program for elevating children and families. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education)
12 pages, 198 KiB  
Article
Building Learning Trajectories for Intentional, Inclusive, and Individualized Instructional Experiences in STEM
by Shannon Stark Guss, Chih-Ing Lim, Douglas H. Clements, Elica B. Sharifnia, Adam L. Holland, Megan Vinh and Julie Sarama
Educ. Sci. 2024, 14(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14010008 - 21 Dec 2023
Viewed by 892
Abstract
Early science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning experiences often exclude children with disabilities and intersecting identities. To promote learning in STEM for all children, the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF) was applied to build learning trajectories of STEM for children from birth to [...] Read more.
Early science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning experiences often exclude children with disabilities and intersecting identities. To promote learning in STEM for all children, the Curriculum Research Framework (CRF) was applied to build learning trajectories of STEM for children from birth to age 5. The CRF was extended and enhanced to generate explicitly inclusive learning trajectories for children with and without disabilities. The process of generating a priori foundations, building learning trajectories, and testing the results in inclusive settings led to new resources for early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood special education (ECSE) practitioners and generated implications for creating and evaluating learning trajectories in ways that affirm that all children belong in STEM. Challenges faced and lessons learned in this process are presented to guide future research and development using the revised and enhanced CRF. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education)
15 pages, 495 KiB  
Article
Keeping Teachers Engaged during Non-Instructional Times: An Analysis of the Effects of a Naturalistic Intervention
by Katherine Bateman, Sarah Emily Wilson, Katherine Matthews, Ariane Gauvreau, Maggie Gucwa, William J. Therrien, Rose Nevill and Micah Mazurek
Educ. Sci. 2023, 13(6), 534; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13060534 - 23 May 2023
Viewed by 1272
Abstract
As the prevalence of autism continues to rise, early childhood programs continue to evolve to meet the needs of children across a spectrum of abilities. To do this, strategies and supports are needed for teachers to engage with children who experience difficulties across [...] Read more.
As the prevalence of autism continues to rise, early childhood programs continue to evolve to meet the needs of children across a spectrum of abilities. To do this, strategies and supports are needed for teachers to engage with children who experience difficulties across developmental domains. Snack Talk, a naturalistic visual communication intervention, focuses on increases in conversation engagement for children with autism and related disabilities during mealtimes. This study examined the effects of the implementation of Snack Talk on increasing teacher engagement in conversation with five preschool children with autism during mealtimes in an EIBI classroom setting. A reversal design was used to analyze the relationship between Snack Talk and teacher conversational engagement with children. Results of this study demonstrated that implementation of Snack Talk increased instances of teacher engagement in conversation with children compared to baseline phases, demonstrating the promise of this intervention supporting students’ different levels of support needs in inclusive, blended settings. A functional relationship has been established between baseline and intervention phases and generalization. Limitations and directions for further research are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education)
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17 pages, 877 KiB  
Article
It Is Never Too Early: Social Participation of Early Childhood Education Students from the Perspective of Families, Teachers and Students
by Ángela Barrios, Margarita Cañadas, Mari Luz Fernández and Cecilia Simón
Educ. Sci. 2022, 12(9), 588; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12090588 - 28 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2011
Abstract
The aim of this study was to delve into social participation in early childhood education classrooms of centres that include students with ASD, considering social participation as a fundamental element to understand inclusion. To this end, we propose a Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to delve into social participation in early childhood education classrooms of centres that include students with ASD, considering social participation as a fundamental element to understand inclusion. To this end, we propose a Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods approach. A quantitative study was carried out with the participation of 85 Early Childhood Education students from centres that include students with ASD. Information was gathered through attitude and social support questionnaires. Six families and eight professionals of these centres participated in the qualitative study. In this case, interviews were conducted. The results show the need to attend to the social participation of all students already in the stage of Early Childhood Education as a fundamental part of what is understood as an inclusive classroom. Similarly, this study identifies both the factors that hinder and facilitate the response of teachers to this aspect in relation to the students, teachers, and families. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education)
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14 pages, 660 KiB  
Article
A Brief Parent-Coaching Package for Tiered Language Interventions
by Lin Zhu, Collin Shepley, Jennifer Grisham and Justin D. Lane
Educ. Sci. 2022, 12(9), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12090585 - 27 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1260
Abstract
This study utilized a brief coaching package to train parents to support their children’s language development in home environments. Two parents of dual language learners were trained to use naturalistic language strategies that ranged in complexity. Parents participated in individual training sessions targeting [...] Read more.
This study utilized a brief coaching package to train parents to support their children’s language development in home environments. Two parents of dual language learners were trained to use naturalistic language strategies that ranged in complexity. Parents participated in individual training sessions targeting three strategies: narration, imitation, and environmental arrangement and responding. A multiple baseline design across behaviors replicated across parent–child dyads was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the brief coaching package. Therapeutically accelerating data in a baseline condition affected interpretation of results for one dyad, while the package demonstrated effectiveness for the other dyad. Concomitant increases in children’s use of English language during sessions was also observed. Multi-level models were used to estimate the moderating effect of parent engagement in naturalistic language strategies on children’s vocal initiations. Implications for home-based service providers are presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blended Practices in Early Childhood Education)
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