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When teachers take on the sole responsibility for teaching children to write, it is a hefty load to bear. Fortunately, families can serve alongside teachers as powerful writing role models and help welcome children into the world of written language. Involving families as team members in a teacher's writing instruction is not always easy. It takes more effort to develop and maintain reciprocal relationships with families than it does to utilize one-way communication through newsletters and emails (Daniel, 2009; Ferlazzo, 2011; Halgunseth, 2009; Tran, 2014). However, once teachers put the extra time and energy into building relationships with families, they will reap the benefits that come from creating an extended writing community within your classroom (Lopez & Caspe, 2014; Tran, 2014). When teachers and families share openly about writing goals, instructional strategies, and children's progress, children feel supported, motivated, and inspired. Instead of viewing teachers as the all-knowing experts, families realize that they too are their children's first writing teachers. This article examines how teachers can engage families in the classroom writing community.

Technology has been playing an increasingly important role in teaching and learning because of its capacity to increase students' motivation and provide them with opportunities to explore and acquire new knowledge and skills. However, little is known regarding the effectiveness of using the digital interactive case-based instruction (CBI) approach to support teaching and learning. Hence, this study investigated the effectiveness of digital interactive CBI in supporting learning of behaviourism among 234 preservice teachers. The results indicated that digital interactive CBI was a useful tool for enhancing learning. Preservice teachers not only found the activity engaging, but also believed that it was helpful in deepening their understanding towards operant conditioning and improving their abilities to analyse and solve real-world problems. The detailed findings will provide helpful insights to teacher educators who are considering implementing CBI in teacher education programmes.

The importance of teaching kindergarteners to be effective writers has been emphasized in recent years. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of current experimental and/or quasi-experimental studies investigating writing instruction in the kindergarten setting. Framing the literature within three philosophical approaches, we identified instructional strategies related to increases in emergent literacy outcomes and gaps in the literature. The results from 15 intervention conditions from 2010 to 2020 indicated the overall effect size for kindergarten writing instruction was g = 0.37, 95% CIs [0.09, 0.64], suggesting that kindergarten writing instruction enhanced children's early literacy outcomes. The findings from this article provide important instructional implications for kindergarten writing instruction.

Practicum experiences are an integral part of teacher education programs. This study drew on perceptions of stakeholders (preservice teachers, cooperating teachers, and university professors) to examine the strengths and weaknesses of two practicum models of an early childhood teacher education program. Findings showed that preservice teachers, regardless of varied experiences due to practicum structures, experienced stress and confidence boosts during the practicum. Our findings may provide insights for those designing practicum experiences for preservice teachers.

The demographic landscape in the United States is changing rapidly, and early childhood programs are experiencing an increase in the enrollment of Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The current study employed a mixed-methods case study design to explore the impact of creative drama on Head Start DLLs' social and emotional development. Six DLLs enrolled in a Head Start center participated in the 9-week creative drama intervention. Quantitative data showed that participants' social and emotional skills improved significantly after the intervention. Qualitative data further revealed that participants demonstrated improvements in social interactions, including increased confidence, enhanced cooperation skills, and better emotion management. Overall, the findings from the current study suggest that creative drama is a promising strategy for Head Start DLLs to increase their social and emotional competence.

Field-based experience has been an integral part of teacher preparation, and there is a consensus among key stakeholders that school-based practica are one of the most critical components of effective teacher education programs (Aspden, 2017; La Paro et al., 2018; Vick, 2006; Zeichner, 2002). Based on John Dewey's theory that knowledge is acquired by doing, field-based experiences provide preservice teachers with an opportunity to practice and reflect on teaching in an authentic environment and to translate theoretical ideas into practice (Dewey, 1938; Gurvitch & Metzler, 2009; Schon, 1983; Zeichner, 2010). Through mentored classroom experiences and engagement in teaching practices, preservice teachers learn to develop their own pedagogy and understand more deeply the students they will teach (Darling-Hammond, 2006; 2020; La Paro et al., 2018). Furthermore, they are able to develop skills for curriculum building, assessment, and the construction of positive, equitable learning environments (Coffey, 2010; Darling-Hammond, 2020; Smith & Lev-Ari, 2005). However despite the importance placed on field experiences, preservice teachers conducting their student teaching in the spring of 2020 faced unexpected challenges when COVID-19 began to spread throughout the United States. When schools in the U.S. closed in response to the pandemic, it brought an abrupt end to the field experiences of many preservice teachers who were placed in those schools. These preservice teachers had to quickly adapt and follow the ongoing guidelines and recommendations that were issued by the school districts. This article presents results from an explorative study of preservice teacher perceptions of the pandemic and the resulting impact on their preparation experience.

Preservice teachers' (PSTs) writing attitudes have been well formed through countless positive and negative interactions by the time they enter higher education. The present study examined 17 PSTs' beliefs about teaching writing, confidence levels, and plans for future instruction, before and after a semester-long language arts methods course. Participants participated in pre and post belief exercises and pre and post online surveys. We examined differences between PSTs' beliefs over the course of three time points. Overall, findings revealed that after self-reflection, strategy instruction, and engagement in writing, PSTs were more likely to believe in children's writing capabilities, reported higher confidence levels in teaching writing, and described plans for integrating more specific writing strategies into their future practice.

Creativity has been well studied over the past several decades. However, our understanding regarding the nature of creativity remains limited, partially due to all kinds of methodological challenges that researchers have been facing. For example, the widely used factor-analytic techniques require researchers to make decisions about rotation methods, the number of factors to retain, and the interpretation of factor loadings. As a result, achieving a consensus on the factor structure of a latent construct is often difficult, especially when there is a lack of strong theoretical guidance in developing items. Recent trends in creativity research have shown the need and efforts to reduce subjectivity and increase the accuracy of creativity measurements. Hence, this study provides an example of how to estimate the number of dimensions underlying multivariate creativity data using psychometric network analysis (PNA). This new approach to dimensionality assessment can estimate the factor structure of a latent construct without extensive decision making from researchers. Step-by-step instructions on how to conduct the analysis in R using the Self-perceptions of Creativity data are presented. The interpretation of outputs and recommendations for beginners are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preschool is a critical period for children. They need to develop a variety of skills (e.g., social and emotional skills, cognitive skills, motor skills) that are important for their development between the ages of 3 and 5. Dramatic play provides children with safe environments that allow them to learn and practice those important skills as it fully engages children intellectually, emotionally, physically, verbally, and socially. Strategies for teachers and an example for organizing dramatic play in preschool classrooms are offered.

Numerous ingenious top‐down methods have opened a new door to the extensive research of 2D crystals. In this paper, a novel "differential‐temperature exfoliation technology" is proposed to synthesize 2D few‐layer MoS2. Several characterizations are conducted for discussion. The spectroscopic, optical, and purification capacity of the as‐exfoliated layered structures is further studied systematically. This research provides insights into the novel top‐down production and the related potential for environmental protection of few‐layer MoS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]