Who We Are

Paw Prints: Partners At Work, Preschool Researchers Investigating the Network between Teachers & Students

The Early Childhood Research Group (ECRG) is a collaboration of faculty and students in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences at The University of Memphis.  Our interests include early childhood development and education.  In particular, we are interested in the influences of the classroom interactions between teachers and children, among children as peers, the cultural practices within schools and within the larger community from which children are raised, childhood socialization process, young children’s learning of science, and educators’ epistemological beliefs and the impact of these beliefs on the early care and education of young children.  The ECRG is under the direction of Dr. Yeh Hsueh and co-directed by Dr. Sally Blake and Dr. Denise Winsor.

Our Research Goals

Goal 1: To research topics that influence preschool children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development.  Some specific areas: teacher’s beliefs about knowledge and how it varies according to subject matter, the role of peer interactions, cultural influences of families, and classroom environments.

Goal 2:  To work collaboratively as active participants in high quality research.  To cultivate an environment that exposes all facets of conducting research which supports and facilitates learning from multiple perspectives in theory and research. 

 Goal 3:  To create a collaborative environment in which all members of the group can discuss their individual research and activities.  This allows members to gain in-depth experience giving and receiving constructive feedback regarding the challenges that researchers face throughout the process. 

Our Current Project

Conceptual and practical perspectives between American and Chinese preschool teachers and the influences of instruction and student learning in the domain of science education.

Shannon Audly-Piotrowski:  Neuro-science and Early Education.

Barbara Sandlin:  Dual Perspectives at Work: Early Childhood Teachers’ Professional and Personal Beliefs About Their Practices.

Denise Winsor:  Investigating Preschooler’s Epistemic Development:  An Ecological Perspective.

JunJun Fang:  Early Learning Standards.

Sally Blake:  NSF Discovery Science:  Inquiry Instruction. 

Grace Kibe:  Exploring Cultural Change In America.

Interested students are welcome and may contact:

Dr. Yeh Hsueh:  yehhsueh@memphis.edu

Dr. Sally Blake:  ssblake@memphis.edu

Dr. Denise Winsor:  dwinsor@memphis.edu