Over the past decade there has been growing interest in the identification of core practices and their incorporation into teacher-training programmes. Researchers have made use of methodological approaches based on consultation with experts and, to a lesser degree, field or empirical studies. With the aim of characterising research on core practices, we conducted a review of the recent scientific literature, identifying conceptualisations and methodological approaches. We examined 39 scientific articles published between 2019 and 2023 and identified five underlying conceptual dimensions: teachability, teacher performance, ambitious teaching, improvement of student performance, and research-based support. The most common methodological approaches used consisted of descriptive qualitative case studies conducted in the context of teacher-training programmes. We discuss how these findings could influence the use of empirical methods to identify core practices in more recently emerging fields of application, such as early childhood teacher education.

The main purpose of intellectual assessment in early childhood education is the early detection of intellectual disabilities. In Chile, the recent school integration policy has incorporated assessment purposes oriented toward educational improvement, but it is not known how these purposes interact with each other. This study aimed to analyze the purposes of intellectual assessment present in the current Chilean educational policy in early childhood education. A systematic review of ministerial documents and a subsequent qualitative content analysis of official documents published between 1998 and 2022 were carried out. The results revealed that the purposes of intellectual assessment for educational policy are multiple, highlighting the provision eligibility, diagnosis, student monitoring and support, in addition to formative and curricular adjustment purposes. It is discussed how this multiplicity of purposes is congruent with the current regulations governing intellectual assessment procedures in early childhood education. It is concluded that there is a need to update the legislation that regulates intellectual assessment to be consistent with the new assessment proposals in the country.