ERIC Features Resources about Preschool

For most children in the United States, formal education begins before kindergarten. In 2011, 64% of 3- to 5-year-olds attended a preschool program, and there is a growing body of research on the impact of these programs on the development of young children.

ERIC indexes much of the critical research on preschool education. The ERIC digital library has more than 30,000 records about preschool and preschool children. There are more than 40 What Works Clearinghouse reports on preschool education in ERIC, including intervention reports that summarize the highest quality research, Quick Reviews that provide timely assessments of recent research, and a Practice Guide that provides recommendations for teaching math to young children.

In addition to a link to the ERIC website, GALILEO users will find ERIC at EBSCOhost in their database listings. How do you decide which to use? The answer is both. ERIC at EBSCOhost offers the advantage of linked journal content, so many of the journal articles not available at eric.ed.gov will be available because of publisher agreements at EBSCO. The eric.ed.gov website has been adding more journal content as they have been able to strike some publisher agreements. Another difference is that eric.gov is updated daily, whereas, ERIC at EBSCOhost is updated quarterly.

Both eric.ed.gov and ERIC at EBSCOhost feature the option to browse the Thesaurus for the terms used to tag ERIC records, known as Descriptors. Key Descriptors related to preschool include: Preschool Education, Preschool Children, Preschool Curriculum, Preschool Teachers, Kindergarten, or the broader term Early Childhood Education.

GALILEO News Feed
Subscribe to GALILEO News
Subscribe to GALILEO System Status Announcements
Subscribe to GALILEO listserv
Contact GALILEO with questions or suggestions.