Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Arts Integration in Elementary Curriculum 2e
Molly Zhou and David Brown · Dalton State College
Many teachers, schools, and arts programs benefit from knowing the different ways the arts can be present in schools. Without making a distinction, opportunities can be missed, programs can lack clarity, or the arts can seem like something too unwieldy to incorporate. Making a distinction among the approaches can help narrow or focus objectives as well as help educators select the most appropriate approach based on their objectives.
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ECE Field Experience 3 (NWTC)
Mary Beth Boettcher · Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
In the contents: 4.07: Measuring High-Quality in Early Care and Education Classrooms
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Mentored Program Observation
Susan Eliason & Gwen Alexander · Bridgewater State University
This book is designed so students experience and reflect upon the full range of childcare delivery models, birth through kindergarten.
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The Whole Child: Development in the Early Years (Budzyna and Buckley)
Deirdre Budzyna and Doris Buckley · Northern Essex Community College
In the contents: 01: Perspectives on Early Childhood · 1.01: Childhood Defined · 08: Early Childhood Development
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Music and the Child
Natalie Sarrazin · College at Brockport, SUNY
This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement.
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Child Growth and Development
Paris, Ricardo, Rymond and Johnson · College of the Canyons
This text is a presentation of how and why children grow, develop, and learn. We will look at how we change physically over time from conception through adolescence. We examine cognitive change, or how our ability to think and remember changes over the first 20 years or so of life. And we will look at how our emotions, psychological state, and social relationships change throughout childhood and adolescence.
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Inclusion, Education and Translanguaging
Julie A. Panagiotopoulou, Lisa Rosen, and Jenna Strzykala Eds. · LibreTexts
The idea for this text came about when we visited Ofelia García in New York in the fall of 2017 to observe and experience translanguaging live—in a mathematics lesson at a bilingual primary school in Queens—during a research visit. This was a special event for us because we had by then been dealing with the concept for years and were constantly confronted with the standard question of how translanguaging can be put into practice in the context of teacher education, congresses and conferences.
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ECE: Field Experience 1
Autumn Gill · Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
In the contents: 04: Applying the Teaching Cycle in Early Childhood Programs · 08: Ethics and Professional Responsibilities in Early Childhood Education
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Introduction to Children with Exceptionalities
Dana Rethwisch · Palo Verde Community College
In the contents: 1.1.07: Understanding Inclusion in Early Childhood Education · 1.2.02: Early Intervention is Important · 1.4.02: Child Find and Early Intervention
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Understanding Human Development: Prenatal Through Adolescence
Terese Jones; Christina Belli; Esmeralda Julyan · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
Understanding Human Development is an introductory textbook for individuals entering early childhood education and related fields. The textbook provides an overview of the developmental lifespan from conception to adolescence using social justice and ecological perspectives. The textbook aims to represent equitable approaches to understanding human development and discusses the diverse factors and interactions that support or hinder development.
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Critical Perspectives on Technology and the Family
Susan Walker · University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing · 2022
From the perspective of a long time family practitioner, researcher, and educator, and technology innovator, this textbook offers the first comprehensive view of technology in the family for college students, professionals and the public. Each chapter offers content and a complete reference list, learning activities, ideas for critical blog posting and additional readings. The beginning chapters cover foundational information about our societal use of information and communications technology, family theories and ways of understanding families, and how families differ in their use and access to ICT. The main body of the book (chapters 4-10) covers elements of the family from couple relationships and dating apps, to children’s use and impacts on development from early childhood through young adulthood, use by parents and in the parent-child relationship, shared use by family members, and then topics important to family life: work-family balance and health and financial management and technology. The end of the book pivots to look closely at use by family professionals, the competencies needed to integrate technology into practice, and policy as a proactive and systemic avenue for change. End of book material include an additional reading list and recommended web content, social media and thought leaders. The authors lends her ideas on teaching for critical thinking with an overview at the beginning of the book, and classroom assessment ideas (actually short ways to engage learners in critical thinking activities).
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Reflective Practice in Early Years Education
Sheryl Third · Fanshawe College Pressboks · 2022
This resource will provide a context that will allow the reader to consider their obligation to reflect from their own perspective and will explore how to create a practice that best suits their professional setting. This book will bring together in one place the history, the values, the skills and disposition required to be a reflective practitioner. It is a textbook with elements of a workbook, embedded are opportunities to watch, to think, to write, and to listen allowing the reader to become a purposeful and intentional reflective practitioner.
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Opening Eyes onto Inclusion and Diversity
Susan Carter; Lindy Abawi; Jill Lawrence · University of Southern Queensland · 2019
Susan Carter; Professor Lindy-Anne Abawi; Professor Jill Lawrence; Associate Professor Charlotte Brownlow; Renee Desmarchelier; Melissa Fanshawe; Kathryn Gilbey; Michelle Turner; and Jillian Guy
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Play-based teaching approaches: Assessing learning through play
Naomi David; Kat Cain; Andrea Nolan; Natalie Robertson · Deakin University · 2025
This interactive textbook offers a grounding in play-based learning and shares authentic assessment potentials in play. The text encourages the implementation of play-based approaches in early childhood settings and primary school. This media-rich learning resource is designed to guide educators in their play-based teaching journey by linking theory to practice.
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Family & Community Relationships
Amanda Dohms · WisTech Open · 2025
Build skills for engaging families and communities in early childhood education settings.
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Why play works: Conceptual PlayWorlds inspiring learning, imagination and creativity in education
Marilyn Fleer; Kelly-Ann Allen; Anne Clerc-Georgy; Leigh Disney · Monash University · 2024
The focus of this textbook is on play and learning through a Conceptual PlayWorld. This evidence informed model helps teachers to plan innovative practices relevant for a range of discipline concepts. The teachers and children after reading/hearing a children’s book or nursery rhyme or fairytale jump into the story as characters from the book/story, go on adventures, meet challenges that they solve and return to the real world enriched, and excited to go back in for another adventure (potentially bringing with them things they have learned to enrich their play). The 5 characteristics of planning for a Conceptual PlayWorld are: 1) Selecting a story, 2) Designing an imaginary play space; 3) Planning an exciting entry and entry into that space; 4) Planning a problem that the characters of the story (children in role) will meet and need to solve using concepts; 5) Planning the role of the adults in the imaginary play. This evidence-informed model forms the foundation of each chapter in the book. Students will learn: ● what is a Conceptual PlayWorld ● the research that underpins a Conceptual PlayWorld ● how to plan and implement a Conceptual PlayWorld ● how to contextualise a Conceptual PlayWorld for specific ages, contexts and discipline content ● how to assess and make learning visible in a Conceptual PlayWorld ● to be leaders and innovators by designing creative and imaginative programs using a Conceptual PlayWorld model of pedagogical practice ● the utility of Conceptual PlayWorlds for creativity, imagination, and wellbeing.
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Understanding the Whole Child: Prenatal Development through Adolescence
Jennifer Paris; Antoinette Ricardo; Dawn Rymond · College of the Canyons · 2021
An Open Educational Resources Publication by College of the Canyons
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The Roles and Responsibilities of the Special Educator
Paula Lombardi · University of New Hampshire · 2023
This book is evolving into a book by and for teacher candidates pursuing licensing in Elementary, General Special Education, and Early Childhood Special Education in New Hampshire and surrounding New England states. These teacher candidates share their knowledge about teaching PreK-12 learners with disabilities and the many roles and responsibilities of the case manager/special educator.
![Children, Families, Schools, and Communities [Revised Edition]](/api/files/covers/otl-1630.webp)
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Children, Families, Schools, and Communities [Revised Edition]
Joan Giovannini · ROTEL · 2023
Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an introductory text in the field of Child and Family Studies. It provides a lens for understanding the evolving definition of “family” through socially constructed and ecological theory frameworks. It promotes strategies for culturally sustaining and deeply collaborative relationships between families, schools, and communities through the use of home-grown advocacy strategies based on community-driven data. Children, Families, Schools, and Communities is an adapted OER text from Rebecca Laff’s and Wendy Ruiz’s Child, Family, and Community.
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The Whole Child: Development in the Early Years
Deirdre Budzyna; Doris Buckley · ROTEL · 2023
The Whole Child is a textbook that gives an overview of development, beginning in the mother’s womb through the age of eight. It starts with a look at perspectives of early childhood, including how children have been viewed historically as well as cross-culturally. There is a complete overview of the important theorists that have helped to deepen and bring clarity to how children develop. These theories include psychodynamic, behavioral, social cognitive theory, cognitive theory, humanistic, multiple intelligence, growth mindset, and Bloom’s taxonomy. Understanding the implications of each theory is important foundational knowledge for the study of development. Developmental domains at each stage is examined alongside important milestones. The biology of the brain is given important consideration. Some of the many factors that influence a young child’s development are also included in this text.