Contemplating Goals and Strategies of Prekindergarten Programs across Nations and Programs

Nesbitt and Farran (2021) undertook an ambitious task to develop and assess preschool learning and engagement in their monograph, Effects of Prekindergarten Curricula: Tools of the Mind as a Case Study. The academic field of early childhood education walks a delicate line between supporting children’s development in a play-based way while at the same time providing educators with guidelines for implementing curricula that support skills and understandings deemed important for school readiness. The authors of this monograph have walked this line by comprehensively detailing the Tools of the Mind program and by assessing the impact of the program on both learning and engagement.