Literature Review – Best
Practices
(Maximum Number of Points: 50 points)
Goals/Objectives:
Using your text and 2 outside, peer-reviewed articles, interpret best
teaching practices as defined by the field of early care and education.
Make a case for “best practices” based on what you have learned this
semester.
Purpose: Your literature review will give you the opportunity to analyze
the best practices in the field of early care and education.
Instructions: Use what you have learned about historical practices,
educational theories and approaches, developmentally appropriate practice
and codes of conduct to determine “best practices” in early care and
education. You will use your text and 2 outside sources to present your
findings in APA format. The report must be double-spaced, and 4-5 pages in
length (excluding the title page). See the Rubric for APA Papers (50 pts.)
found below.
Sample format:
1 – Introduce “Best Practices” (what’s involved – the concepts below)
2 – Explain Developmentally Appropriate Practice and NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct
3 – Describe or explain the educational theories that helped to establish “Best Practices”
4 – Choose (1-3) historical practices and approaches you feel are good examples of “Best
Practices” and explain why.
5 – Close with a summary of your findings (brief) and your thoughts on “Best Practices”
and why they are important for children
APA Format Guidelines
Adopted from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) site at http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Reports written in APA style must include the following:
 It should be typed and double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5×11 inches).
 The margins of the paper should be set to 1 inch on all sides.
 The title page should include a running head on the upper left hand corner of the page.
 The title page should also include a page header that offers a short version of the title and page
number. The pages of the report should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title
page, as part of the page header in the upper right corner of each page.
 It should include an abstract, reference page and in-text citations.
The book used for this class is ‘Effective Practices in the Early Childhood Education’ by Sue Bredekamp.