PART I -- Chapter 1. Introduction; Athanasios Gregoriadis, Vasilis Grammatikopoulos & Evridiki Zachiopoulou -- Chapter 2. Early Childhood Education and Care Today: Impact, Policies and Quality; Athanasios Gregoriadis, Vasilis Grammatikopoulos & Evridiki Zachiopoulou -- Chapter 3. Quality of Early Childhood Environments: Discussion on the Concept of Quality and Future Perspectives; Teresa Leal, Ana Madalena Gamelas, Silvia Barros & Manuela Pessanha; PART II -- Chapter 4. Early Change: Description of a Project for Continuing Professional Development; Evridiki Zachopoulou, Vasilis Grammatikopoulos & Athanasios Gregoriadis -- Chapter 5. Professional Development and Impact of Early Change Project: Reflections from the Cypriot Example; Eleni Loizou -- Chapter 6. Professional Development and Impact of Early Change Project: Reflections from the Danish Example; Lise Sanders Olesen & Claus Henriksen -- Chapter 7. Professional Development and Impact of Early Change Project: Reflections from the Finnish Example; Jarmo Liukkonen & Anne Martin Tuula Liukkonen -- Chapter 8. Professional Development and Impact of Early Change Project: Reflections from the Greek Example; Athanasios Gregoriadis, Evridiki Zachiopoulou & Vasilis Grammatikopoulos -- Chapter 9. Professional Development and Impact of Early Change Project: Reflections from the Portuguese Example; Ana Madalena Gamelas, Teresa Leal, Manuela Pessanha & Silvia Barros -- PART III -- Chapter 10. Self-evaluation as a Means to Improve Practice: An Alternative Approach for the Professional Development of Early Childhood Educators; Vasilis Grammatikopoulos, Athanasios Gregoriadis & Evridiki Zachiopoulou.

This book provides a global overview of developments and discussion around the evaluation of quality of early childhood education environments, and the professional development of early childhood teachers, during the last decade. It reports on the Early Change project, a European-funded research project with the participation of six European countries: Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Portugal, and Romania; and offers an in-depth view on the perspectives of early childhood teachers regarding their professional development and the quality of early childhood education environment. Additionally, it discusses the policies and educational framework supporting the professional development of early childhood teachers across Europe. Finally, it proposes an alternative way to integrate the use of observational rating scales of early childhood education environments’ quality in teachers’ professional development. Presenting up-to-date scholarly research on global trends, this is an easily accessible, practical, yet scholarly source of information for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.