https://ecelab.ca/home daily 1.0 2025-08-08 https://ecelab.ca/contactus daily 0.75 2020-04-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1587250039505-21Z3W2CD26A55BONJG5G/17142.jpg Contact - Contact us. kristy.timmons@queensu.ca Faculty of Education | Queen’s University Duncan McArthur Hall | 511 Union Street Twitter https://ecelab.ca/publications daily 0.75 2024-04-24 https://ecelab.ca/aboutus daily 0.75 2025-08-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1585448102770-4EKZHO6T92EJ5DKH3FGL/13176.jpg About Us - About the ECE LAB: Led by Dr. Kristy Timmons, the Early Childhood Education Lab at Queen’s University is a research lab interested in improving understanding of the processes that influence young children’s learning, engagement, and self-regulation. Our research examines early childhood education from the perspective of social determinants of health and learning. This perspective perspective of early childhood education and care stresses the importance of “early experiences in lifelong health and well-being for individuals and for populations” (SECD, 2023). The first 2000 days of life is the most critical period for social, emotional, and physical development and essential to establishing successful life-time trajectories (SECD, 2021). Our research examines the processes that influence young children’s learning and self-regulation as a means of optimizing health and learning outcomes of children 0-5 with a particular focus on children who are historically and continuously marginalized. The overarching goal of our research is to advance equity in early childhood education through enhancing policies and programs that promote improved learning outcomes in the early years and beyond. We carry out research with children, families, early childhood educators, and pre- and in- service teachers. Our research activities employ a team approach involving community partners, educators and not-for-profit organizations. We use multiple and mixed methods of inquiry to examine questions related to three streams of research: 1. Examining the influence and impact of educator expectations on children’s learning in kindergarten 2. Improving understanding of self-regulation and self-regulation assessment practices 3. Building educator and parent capacity to support learning in the early years https://ecelab.ca/ourteam daily 0.75 2026-03-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1587238416792-BQS4TNZ2FQQNB7N56YRZ/Kristy-Timmons-removebg-preview+%281%29.png Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1587238759233-QY8K0FJXWN25R8ESLR1R/download.jpeg Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/354323ed-dfcf-43bc-9359-284c3b13c99c/headshot-removebg-preview.png Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1607971606824-13VWWG5F6LAV0T753Q1F/Untitled-removebg-preview+%281%29.png Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/fdda253f-0e36-494a-bb9c-9f1eb23379c9/IMG_5221-removebg-preview.png Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/3a033148-1445-4cd4-9911-0d1c95cee469/Heather_Braund_reduced-removebg-preview.png Our Team https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/0ffe6bf2-b1b0-41c5-8fd2-475db4e9a6d8/Headshot_2023__2_-removebg-preview.png Our Team https://ecelab.ca/research daily 0.75 2025-08-08 https://ecelab.ca/research/project-three monthly 0.5 2020-09-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1587246162211-DQJXW3IG9VZ7W8J7XLOG/987.jpg Research - Building Capacity to Support Early Learning - Project 1: Program evaluation for the Provincial Outreach Program for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (POPFASD) Funding: Kids Brain Health Network Co-Investigator: Dr. James Reynolds The overarching goal of this objectives-based program evaluation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Provincial Outreach Program for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (POPFASD) in preparing educators in British Columbia (BC) to support students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The program evaluation will be completed over the next three years, starting September 2019. Approximately 100 educators and affiliated staff will be recruited with support from our teacher consultant partner, from each of the 67 school districts in BC to participate in this program evaluation. The participants will include teachers, education assistants, youth care workers, early childhood educators, administrators, district support staff including speech pathologists, counselors, behaviour specialists, and occupational therapists. Data will be collected from annual outcome reports and pre- and post- questionnaires. The mandate for POPFASD is to increase educators' capacity to meet the educational needs of students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) through FASD-informed practice that benefits all students. This objectives-based program evaluation will support us in understanding the extent to which POPFASD is meeting their specific objectives and the ways in which they can better prepare teachers to support students with FASD. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/6d982f79-87a4-48a8-b409-55f26f671b9e/Little+Ripples+Chad_2.jpg Research - Building Capacity to Support Early Learning - Project 2: Partnering to support and scale up assessment efforts of refugee-led early childhood education programs in emergencies Funding: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant PI: Dr. Aurelia Di Santo | Co-Investigators: Dr. Kristy Timmons, Dr. Jason Nolan, Dr. Andrea Bellucci, and Sara-Christine Dallain Education is a fundamental human right for all children worldwide. Many children who have fled war zones and are living in refugee camps are denied this right to education. In the early years, quality play-based programs are known to support learning and development (Bakken et al., 2017; OECD, 2016). Unfortunately, for children living in refugee camps, early learning programs are beyond the scope of legislation related to compulsory education (UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM, 2019). Thus, it is not surprising, that early learning programs that do exist in refugee camps are often limited in scope and ability to document and assess learning. Furthermore, assessing early learning outcomes within emergency learning contexts requires a unique approach that shifts away from traditional Euro-Western standardized testing models. iACT is an international organization that provides humanitarian action to support and empower those affected by mass atrocities and is currently experiencing the challenges cited above. iACT works in some of the most challenging places around the world. Currently they are working in refugee camps located in five countries that have accepted refugees fleeing war conflict zones. Despite being one of the few NGOs offering refugee-led early learning programs in refugee camps, they are currently facing challenges with documenting and assessing learning within their unique programs. This research will directly respond to the challenges iACT is currently facing through 3 research objectives: 1) to conduct a case study to critically examine iACT's current model for assessing their early childhood education and development (ECED) programs in refugee camps in Chad; 2) to complete a rapid review of assessment practices/tools being used in other ECED programs in emergency contexts; and 3) to draw from the case study and rapid review to provide recommendations for an assessment framework. The development of an assessment framework will also assist iACT with the scaling-up of programs to reach more children and to fill the gap between the emergency phase of programs, funding, and the development aid that is essential in protracted situations. The findings will serve as a guide for future research, including piloting the assessment in a refugee camp in eastern Chad. More broadly, this research will benefit other NGOs, researchers, and faculty in Canada and internationally. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1598993036479-1Z4YKIBYIL312QJJ69XJ/Picture1.png Research - Building Capacity to Support Early Learning - Project 3: Examining the implementation and impact of the COVID-19 remote teaching initiative in early primary education contexts Funding: Rapid Response Queen’s SARS CoV-2/ COVID-19 Research Opportunity Grant. Co-Investigator: Dr. Amanda Cooper Due to the COVID-19 pandemic public schools across Ontario were closed in March 2020 and remained closed to in-person learning for the remainder of the school year. In response, the Ontario Government put forth a strategy entitled the “Learn at Home” initiative that shifted teaching and learning online from March-June 2020. The Ontario Government outlined the minimum expectations for student worktime in a given week based on learning materials and work assigned by educators. For early primary students, these expectations included five hours of work per student per week, with a focus on math and literacy (Ministry of Education, 2020). In the letter introducing the “Learn at Home” initiative to parents, Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote, “While these are unprecedented times, I encourage you to support and enable your children to fully commit to the strong learning program we have created for this period of school closure. Your support, inspiration, and motivation will continue to prepare your children to succeed in their learning journey” (Ministry of Education, 2020). In acknowledging that early primary students will likely not be able to access the resources without support of their families, parents in K-2 were required to take a leadership role in supporting the learning of their young children. Furthermore, given that learning in kindergarten and early primary grades is largely play- and inquiry- based and focuses primarily on social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of learning there was a need to investigate the impacts of this move for educators, parents, and children. As such, the purpose of this research was twofold: 1) to investigate how early primary educators (kindergarten- grade 2) planned, taught, and assessed learning during the Learn at Home initiative; and, 2) to examine the impact of the move to remote teaching and learning on early primary children and their parents. Given the current context and the uncertainty regarding the safety of in-person learning and the increasing possibility that social distancing will need to be prolonged or possibly resumed in the future, it is important to understand how educators moved their instruction online and how best to support educators and parents with these efforts if remote learning continues in the future. https://ecelab.ca/research/stream-2 monthly 0.5 2025-08-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1585448505079-AD68VRVHJEEKCCOQFTUV/289248-P6O0CN-434.jpg Research - Self-Regulation - Project 1: Examining kindergarten policies and practices to foster self-regulation Funding: SSHRC Institutional Grant (SIG) Ontario’s full-day kindergarten program was launched in a time and context in which a growing body of evidence points to the importance of play and self-regulation in promoting healthy child development. Therefore, it was not surprising that play and self-regulation were important components of both the Draft Full-Day Kindergarten Program (2010) and the revised Kindergarten Program (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016). Despite expanding efforts to foster self-regulation in play-based environments, there is limited understanding of what self-regulation is and how best to support it in the day-to-day life of a classroom. One of the major challenges is that there is no universal definition for self-regulation, and with differing definitions comes varying ways of measuring self-regulation. Guiding this study is 3 objectives: 1) to examine the ways self-regulation skills are defined and promoted in policy and practice documents in Canada; 2) to compare this practice-oriented conceptualization of self-regulation with theoretical models of self-regulation, and 3) to develop and disseminate recommendations based on improving clarity in understanding what self-regulation is and how best to foster it in early years contexts. Accordingly, this study represents an important step in supporting kindergarten learning by supporting early years educators and researchers in understanding and fostering self-regulation in kindergarten https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1585449830159-0UN7GQELVDBNYIPNH8CV/OR2EZX0.jpg Research - Self-Regulation - Project 2: Assessing self-regulation in play-based contexts Funding: SEED Grant, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University This research builds on Study 1 described above and takes a practice-oriented view of self- regulation, generated from an examination of policy documents (Timmons, Pelletier, & Corter, 2016; Timmons, 2019). This view differs from the cognitive-only view of self-regulation in that it acknowledges the importance of learning contexts and interactions between and among children and other educators. As part of Dr. Timmons’ previous research (led by Drs. Janette Pelletier and Carl Corter) the Child Observation Framework (COF) was developed as a tool for researchers to analyze and examine children’s self-regulation and play behaviour. Using the COF, 10 minute observations (running records) are carried out during four classroom contexts: educator-led whole-group time, small group time, transitions between activities and child-chosen free-play time. Prior to validating the COF, additional refinements to the tool are needed. Preliminary findings have revealed a significant amount of overlap between the child-child and child-educator play and learning items; therefore, these items have been updated to improve clarity. Another issue that was identified was how to observe a student when they were transitioning from one context to another during the 10-minute observational period. Given this issue, we are working to revise the COF to capture more open blocks of time. This is allowing the research team to have a more accurate picture of the daily interactions of a play-based kindergarten classroom. The tool is currently used for research purposes only. We are currently working to revise and validate the COF to allow for classroom use by teachers and early childhood educators. https://ecelab.ca/research/stream-1 monthly 0.5 2020-09-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1585452401432-57MAQVWFW9C1Z1YZK7NX/836.jpg Research - Educator Expectations - Project 1: Teaching teams in kindergarten: Comparing educator expectations in kindergarten Funding: SEED Grant, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University Educators incorporate information from various sources as they form their academic expectations for students. The student record of prior achievement is the most salient factor that educators use to form their expectations for children’s achievement. Research on the factors that influence educator expectations has primarily focused on the ways teachers assimilate various pieces of information about students. More recently, there is an interest in moving away from this perspective and focusing more on teacher factors that may influence these differing expectations. The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that contribute to the formation of educator expectations in full-day play-based Kindergarten in Ontario. This study examines reports from Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) and teachers on their teaching beliefs, roles, teaching practices, and interactions that support students in meeting curriculum expectations. This study examines the differences in the two groups in terms of how their expectations are formed and in turn how they affect processes leading to child outcomes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7bd9fe0ebfc91090d87abc/1585452617427-FE2C6HWJQZOA80O62W4P/290090-P6O5T5-20.jpg Research - Educator Expectations - Project 2: Inequity at the starting line: The influence of teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices on learning outcomes in kindergarten Funding: SSHRC Insight Development Grant Co-Investigator: Dr. Angela Pyle Teachers are the most important in­ school factor affecting student achievement. As a result, researchers are interested in the ways that teacher factors (i.e., teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices) influence the learning opportunities teachers provide in their classrooms. Teacher expectations regarding student potential differ based on student characteristics such as gender, ethno-­racial background, and socioeconomic status. Teacher expectations can significantly affect the learning opportunities that are provided to students. This is highly problematic because teacher expectations are often inaccurate, have long ­lasting influence, and differentially affect the future achievement of girls, racialized students, and children living in poverty. Our understanding of how teacher expectations affect equitable learning opportunities and learning outcomes is limited in kindergarten because current research focuses on older children. Furthermore, the field of teacher expectations has failed to examine how the key teacher factors of expectations, beliefs, and practices combine to influence children’s learning outcomes. This has resulted in disjointed knowledge and barriers to applying findings in practice. Researchers have called for a focus on how expectations are informed by beliefs, but the extant research currently explores specific teacher factors in isolation; research examining relations among teacher factors is missing. Our research responds to this challenge by moving away from the traditional approach of exploring these constructs separately, toward a more complete examination of the relations among teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices. Clarifying the ways that teacher beliefs contribute to expectations and result in differential teaching practices that affect learning outcomes is an important step in addressing equity concerns in kindergarten. This research addresses three objectives: 1) examines the relations among kindergarten teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices; 2) analyzes the influence of teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices on learning outcomes; and 3) describes how teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices can lead to inequitable learning opportunities and affect learning outcomes in kindergarten.