Search Results (227)

Background/Objectives: This study examined the association between parental physical activity and preschool children’s physical activity and social behavior. Methods: Participants were 151 preschool children (70 girls, 81 boys; Mage = 52.51 months, SD = 3.38) attending public and private kindergartens in Thessaloniki (Greece) and Nicosia (Cyprus). Children’s psychosocial development was assessed by kindergarten teachers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, while parents reported their own and their children’s physical activity through the Preschool-age Children’s Physical Activity Questionnaire (home version). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were computed, and the main hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression analyses. Results: Results indicated a consistent positive association between parental physical activity and children’s physical activity across intensity levels. Parental physical activity frequency and duration during both weekdays and weekends was significantly associated with children’s low-, moderate-, and vigorous-intensity physical activity, while parental beliefs about physical activity were negatively associated with children’s sedentary behavior. In contrast, parental physical activity showed no significant association with all indicators of social behavior at school, including emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and prosocial behavior. Conclusions: Overall, the findings support the role of parental physical activity as an important correlate of preschool children’s physical activity behavior, while its direct association with broader psychosocial development appears small. These results highlight the importance of parental role modeling and attitudes toward physical activity, particularly in shaping children’s movement behaviors. Full article

Increasing ethnocultural diversity in kindergartens makes preschool teachers’ multicultural teaching competence (MTC) a core professional requirement. Therefore, it is important that, during initial preschool teacher education (IPTE), candidates come to regard the standards embedded in MTC as professionally relevant—what we conceptualize in this paper as endorsement of MTC standards—as this may shape their later development and enactment of MTC in practice. Yet, previous research has not examined the extent to which preservice preschool teachers endorse MTC standards or the antecedents of such endorsement. To address this gap, we assessed preservice preschool teachers’ (N = 88) endorsement of MTC standards and the related antecedents. Exploratory factor analysis of the adapted Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale identified three dimensions: multicultural teaching knowledge, equity-driven classroom practice, and multicultural content implementation standards. Participants reported high endorsement of equity-driven practice and multicultural teaching knowledge, but lower endorsement of multicultural content implementation standards. Linear regression analyses showed that multicultural attitudes were positively related to endorsement across all three dimensions, while multicultural ideology and frequency of traveling abroad were related only to multicultural content implementation. Implications are discussed for improving initial and continuing preparation programs, including through anti-bias education and intersectionality-informed frameworks. Full article

Educational systems are increasingly required not only to innovate but to sustain innovation over time. While research on Change Laboratory (CL) interventions has extensively examined the development of new models and the emergence of transformative agency, less is known about how such agency is enacted through concrete actions in everyday practice. This study addresses this gap by examining consequential actions as expressions of entrepreneurial agency in the implementation of open work in a kindergarten following a CL intervention. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 staff members, the study adopts a theoretically informed inductive approach to identify types of agentive actions and interpret them in relation to EntreComp competences and activity system components. The findings show that entrepreneurial agency is a distributed and situated process enacted through coordinated material, relational, and organizational actions toward the tools and community, highlighting the importance of environmental reconfiguration and collaboration in sustaining change. The study also shows that agency is unevenly distributed across roles and that newcomers participate differently in the implementation process. Overall, sustaining educational innovation appears to depend less on the design of models than on the collective capacity to continuously enact and transform them in practice. Full article

Artificial intelligence is reshaping teacher education, yet many existing approaches still rely on static assessment and provide limited support for interpretable and actionable diagnosis. This limitation is especially important for pre-service kindergarten teachers, whose TPACK development is dynamic, multidimensional, and context-sensitive. To address this gap, this study proposes a multimodal temporal diagnostic and personalized intervention framework for sustainable teacher preparation. Using longitudinal data from 186 pre-service kindergarten teachers across four developmental stages over three academic years, the framework integrates self-report, behavioral, performance, and reflective evidence to model developmental trajectories, identify latent states, and generate explainable support recommendations. The results show that overall TPACK increased from 3.21 to 3.73, with the largest gains in technology-related integration dimensions. Compared with representative baselines, the proposed framework achieved the best diagnostic performance (MAE = 0.171, RMSE = 0.238, Accuracy = 0.821, Macro-F1 = 0.806). These findings suggest that AI can support teacher education not only through more accurate diagnosis, but also through interpretable and development-sensitive intervention. Full article

The rapid institutional and technological transformations of the 2020–2025 period have had a significant impact on teacher professional identity. Drawing on Rosa’s social acceleration thesis and Harvey’s concept of time–space compression, this scoping review examined the dimensions of professional identity emerging in the literature published between 2020 and 2025 among in-service pre-kindergarten through 12th grade (PK-12) teachers, the educational contexts in which these dimensions were addressed, and how they interrelate. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, 45 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases were analyzed through inductive thematic coding and a dimension–context interaction matrix. Six analytically distinct yet interrelated identity dimensions were identified: Biographical and Personal, Professional and Pedagogical, Emotional and Psychological, Social and Relational, Political and Agentic, and Prospective and Imagined. These dimensions were organized within a dialogical space model distinguishing internal/individual and external/structural domains. The Emotional and Psychological dimension achieved near-universal representation, while the Prospective and Imagined dimension remained the least studied. Six convergence, five divergence, and six gap patterns were identified across seven educational contexts. The findings reveal that, in this period, teacher professional identity is not a fixed attribute carried by the individual but rather a dynamic process continuously negotiated under structural pressures. Full article

Hungarian teachers’ reform priorities remain insufficiently mapped, despite their central role in shaping feasible, evidence-based educational change. In a cross-sectional study with 1254 kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers across Hungary (May 2025), we elicited and analyzed open-ended written responses in which participants identified their top three required reforms. Responses were segmented and coded into 18 mutually exclusive categories via a validated codebook, and prevalence was calculated using respondent-normalized weights. We then examined demographic, well-being, and personality correlates of reform priorities using χ² tests, Mann–Whitney tests, and multivariable logistic models with Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery correction. Teachers most frequently prioritized competency development and pedagogical reform, followed by curriculum flexibility and system governance. Reform priorities were not random: female teachers were substantially more likely to prioritize inclusion and SEN support, while male teachers more often prioritized governance and depoliticization; older age predicted governance priorities. Lower educational system satisfaction robustly predicted prioritizing curriculum reform, autonomy, and governance restructuring, and anxiety and depression were positively related to curriculum concerns. Conscientiousness predicted prioritizing salary and material recognition. The results indicate that teachers’ reform demands function as systematic, psychologically grounded signals that can guide more targeted, teacher-centerd educational policy in Hungary. Full article

While there has been a recent focus on reforming kindergarten curricula to emphasize a play-based learning (PBL) approach, a lingering dichotomy remains between play-based learning and pedagogical instruction aimed at academic preparation. Early music education is a critical component of the current policy emphasis on arts education and PBL, yet there is scarce research on play-based pedagogy in music education, particularly regarding children’s engagement and the applied instructional models. This study investigates how instructional practices affect children’s behavioral and emotional engagement in musical play. Data were collected at two Hong Kong kindergartens (K1–K3) using classroom observations and the Engagement Check II (ECII) tool. Thematic content analysis revealed three instructional approaches: teacher-directed routines with minimal aspects of play, guided play within structured musical contexts, and open-ended, child-initiated musical play. Analysis of the ECII data revealed high levels of behavioral engagement, with guided-play contexts yielding higher levels of behavioral and emotional engagement compared to highly teacher-directed instructional approaches. Differences in engagement levels during musical play were revealed to be correlated with age. This study highlights the need for culturally responsive music teacher training, supportive school culture, and aligned curriculum and policy implementation. Full article

Teachers’ readiness in bilingual early childhood education is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional construct shaped by both professional and language-related factors. However, existing research has typically examined these factors separately, with limited evidence on how they combine across teacher groups, particularly in minority-language contexts. This study examined teachers’ readiness to deliver state-language instruction to dual language learners (DLLs) in Hungarian-medium kindergartens in Slovakia. A total of 313 kindergarten teachers participated in the study. Data were collected through a survey assessing multiple dimensions of readiness. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported a six-factor model comprising professional preparation, teacher competencies, challenge management, instructional aids use, professional needs, and Slovak language use outside kindergarten. Latent profile analysis identified three readiness profiles (low, moderate, and high), reflecting differences in overall preparedness. Background characteristics, particularly age, teaching experience, and language-related factors, were significantly associated with higher readiness. Teachers who used Slovak more frequently in everyday contexts showed higher readiness. Mediation analysis indicated that language proficiency and preferred language use did not mediate the relationship between teaching experience and teachers’ readiness, but functioned as independent predictors. These findings highlight the joint importance of professional and language-related factors in shaping teachers’ readiness and offer implications for teacher education and policy in bilingual early childhood settings. Full article

Background/Objectives: Social development in children is a significant aspect that supports appropriate behavior in the community, and parents, as the main caregivers, play a central role in developing social skills in children. However, caregivers experiencing mental health problems—such as depression, anxiety, and stress—may find it challenging to provide a nurturing rearing environment. This one-year follow-up study examined whether the baseline mental health of caregivers was associated with social skills in children 1 year later in an urban Indonesian context. Methods: A one-year follow-up study was conducted in an urban area of Indonesia in 2023–2024, inviting all nine kindergartens in the area to participate. Caregivers completed the demographic questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), while teachers assessed social skills in children using the Social Skills Scale (SSS). Linear mixed-effects models with random intercepts for kindergarten were estimated to account for clustering. Results: Finally, a total of 270 parent–child dyads were included. After adjusting for baseline social skills and covariates, higher levels of baseline caregiver depression (B = −0.15, p < 0.001), anxiety (B = −0.22, p < 0.001), and stress (B = −0.27, p < 0.001) were associated with lower social skills in children in the follow-up. Conclusions: Even subclinical variations in caregiver mental health problems may be meaningfully associated with social development in children over time. The findings highlight mental health in caregivers as a potentially important factor associated with early social development in an urban setting of Indonesia. Full article

This study examines how Mapuche educational values are incorporated and reinterpreted within Early Childhood Education in Lafkenche contexts. Using a qualitative intercultural approach, research was conducted in three kindergartens in Saavedra, involving children, families, kimches (wise community members), and Indigenous Language and Culture Educators (ELCI). The findings reveal that values such as kümeche (good person), norche (upright person), kimche (wise person), and newenche (strong person) are transmitted through play, storytelling, autonomy, songs, and rituals. Despite these advances, structural gaps remain, such as limited intercultural teacher training, lack of curricular guidance, and weak school–family articulation. The study concludes that moving toward truly intercultural early education demands recognizing kimün (Mapuche wisdom) as a valid source of knowledge and strengthening pedagogical connections between schools, families, and local communities. Full article

Background/Objectives: Western societies introduce school-based or school-linked programs in order to improve the physical health status of students and prevent the negative impact of the late diagnosis of a series of diseases and conditions. Preschool visual acuity (VA) screening represents an established school-based approach aimed at the early detection of amblyopia risk factors and vision-related learning difficulties. In this study, we report the methods and outcomes of the first officially organized kindergarten-based VA screening program in Greece, implemented using the Democritus Digital Visual Acuity Test (DDiVAT) screening suite and involving trained educators as part of the screening workflow. The present analysis focuses on the operational performance and screening outcomes within this defined setting. Methods: This study was a kindergarten-based screening. Each kindergarten was equipped with the DDiVAT screening framework, which consisted of a 32-inch, 4K, Android Smart TV with the DDiVAT application preinstalled, a site-license granting access to the secure DDiVAT database, and two vouchers for teachers to participate in the official lifelong DDiVAT training program. Results: From 2476 enrolled students, 207 (8.36%) were referred due to suboptimal presenting VA in one or both eyes. Average VA ranged from logMAR 0.11 to 0.07, which is consistent with former reports. Conclusions: No major technical difficulties were encountered, suggesting that DDiVAT may represent a feasible digital approach for preschool VA screening in real-world educational settings. Full article

Job crafting has become an essential strategy for kindergarten teachers to cope with increasing job demands and sustain professional engagement. Drawing on the proactive motivation model, this study examines whether and how principals’ servant leadership exerts cross-level effects on teachers’ approach and avoidance job crafting. Data were collected from 1724 teachers nested within 150 kindergartens, and hypotheses were tested using multilevel modeling. The results indicated that principals’ servant leadership had significant cross-level effects on teachers’ approach and avoidance job crafting, positively predicting approach job crafting and negatively predicting avoidance job crafting. In addition, organizational identification functioned as a cross-level mediator in this relationship, through which servant leadership further enhanced approach job crafting and reduced avoidance job crafting. These findings extend the literature by revealing the motivational pathway linking servant leadership to distinct forms of job crafting and highlight the importance of cultivating a servant leadership climate to foster proactive behaviors among kindergarten teachers. Full article

Developing children’s number sense is an important aspect of early mathematical education and has been the focus of multiple studies targeting the kindergarten stage. We investigated the impact of reading mathematical stories on the number sense of kindergarten children. A small-scale intervention study was conducted with 46 kindergarten children aged 5–7 years. The study employed a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design involving comparison and intervention groups. The intervention involved eight mathematical stories presented in interactive reading environments during their class storytime. Therefore, both the books and the interactive reading style were considered core components of the intervention in this study. A pretest, posttest, and delayed test measured the children’s number sense, and the resulting data was analysed with ANCOVA. The results showed the intervention to have a promising effect on their number sense: the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on both the posttest and delayed test. We consider it important that teachers be encouraged to make the maximum use of kindergarten storytelling sessions to further children’s early mathematical understanding. With acknowledgement of the limited sample size and its implications for the statistical generalisability of the findings, this study should be regarded as an exploratory investigation that can inform and encourage future large-scale research. In addition, the findings offer meaningful pedagogical implications that may support teachers and curriculum designers in early childhood education and provide valuable insights into the potential effects of reading mathematical stories interactively with children in kindergarten in authentic classroom contexts. Full article

Background and Objectives: Professional burnout among primary education teachers (including kindergarten and primary school grades 1–6 educators) threatens educator mental health, wellbeing, and educational quality through emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Understanding burnout patterns and risk factors is essential for developing mental health promotion interventions in educational settings. This study investigated burnout prevalence, demographic correlates, and psychometric properties of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES) among Greek primary teachers to document burnout levels and identify well-being vulnerabilities during the post-acute pandemic recovery period (September–November 2022). The cross-sectional design, without pre-pandemic baseline data, precludes causal attribution of burnout patterns to pandemic effects. Materials and Methods: A convenience sample of 126 primary education teachers (102 female, 24 male) from Aitoloakarnania, Greece completed the 22-item MBI-ES assessing emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment during September–November 2022. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the three-dimensional structure. Independent-samples t-tests examined differences in burnout by employment status (permanent vs. substitute), school type (kindergarten vs. primary school), and demographic characteristics. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor MBI-ES structure with acceptable model fit (χ²(162) = 8785.41, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.900; TLI = 0.880; RMSEA = 0.080 [0.065, 0.090]; SRMR = 0.080). Teachers reported moderate emotional exhaustion (M = 20.3, SD = 8.9), low depersonalization (M = 4.8, SD = 4.2), and moderate-to-high personal accomplishment (M = 38.2, SD = 6.7). Substitute teachers demonstrated significantly higher emotional exhaustion (M = 23.7, SD = 9.1) compared to permanent teachers (M = 18.4, SD = 8.2), t(124) = −3.36, p = 0.001, d = 0.62, indicating employment precarity as a mental health risk factor. Conclusions: The study validates the MBI-ES for Greek primary education contexts and identifies employment precarity as a significant risk factor for compromised teacher mental health and wellbeing. Findings suggest mental health promotion strategies targeting job security, professional development support, and administrative assistance may enhance psychological well-being and reduce burnout vulnerability, particularly among substitute teachers facing employment uncertainty. Supporting teacher mental health represents a critical investment in both educator wellbeing and educational quality. Full article

This cross-sectional study explores the connections between resilience, work engagement, proactive strategies and personal resources among Italian kindergarten and primary school teachers. It specifically seeks to determine if and how personal resources can foster teachers’ work engagement, resilience, and proactive strategies at work. The study was conducted using a sample of 183 full-time, in-service kindergarten and primary teachers at public schools in Italy. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires, including the Brief Resilience Scale, the Ultra-Short Measure for Work Engagement, the Proactive Strategy scale, the Self-Compassion Scale, the Life Orientation Test-Revised, the Experienced compassion at work scale. Data were analyzed using a path analysis model. Results indicated that teachers’ self-compassion was positively associated with the use of proactive strategies and perceived received compassion was strongly related to work engagement. Moreover, higher levels of self-compassion were linked to greater work engagement. Teachers’ optimism and self-compassion were both positively associated with resilience, whereas self-criticism showed a significant negative association. Our research supports the need for educational policymakers and school leaders to focus on personal resources and work-related well-being. Full article