Early Childhood Education and Development

Early childhood education research examines how the experiences children have between birth and roughly age eight shape their cognitive, social, and emotional trajectories in ways that persist well into adulthood. Scholars in this area investigate what makes classrooms effective — including the quality of student-teacher relationships, how children learn to regulate their emotions and behavior, and which structured interventions reliably improve school readiness and academic achievement. A central open question is how to ensure that gains made in high-quality early programs are sustained as children move through elementary school, rather than fading within a few years. Researchers are also working to understand which specific features of classroom environments matter most, and how to make effective practices scalable across the wide range of settings where young children actually spend their time.

Works

144,979

Total citations

2,000,189

Keywords

School EngagementStudent-Teacher RelationshipsSocial and Emotional LearningEarly Childhood EducationAcademic AchievementChild Development