Teachers' perceptions of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) profoundly influence how children experience ICT-supported activities in kindergartens. In China, given that the adoption of ICT in educational settings has been part of national development goals, kindergarten teachers' perceptions of it deserve more in-depth…

Children's white matter development is driven by experience, yet it remains poorly understood how it is shaped by attending formal education. A small number of studies compared children before and after the start of formal schooling to understand this, yet they do not allow to separate maturational effects from schooling-related effects. A clever…

Skills such as identifying evidence, evaluating the credibility of information sources, analyzing complex historical and geopolitical issues from multiple perspectives, asking good questions, and forming and articulating a point of view are useful for succeeding in school and in life. Speech and debate training can help students learn and practice…

The literature on play and learning attests many developmental benefits for children. The Australian curriculum endorses play-based learning (PBL) as an age-appropriate teaching pedagogy. However, what enables or prevents PBL in the classroom is not well documented. The present study examined the responses of 334 teachers currently employed in…

This study has two objectives: (1) to report the results of a large-scale, longitudinal evaluation of the WITS Programs that included a large sample of elementary school children (n = 1967) from 27 rural schools (including 16 program schools) and (2) to examine and discuss the effects of average developmental trajectories and of heterogeneity in…

The purpose of this mixed-method action research study was to support the asynchronous development of third-grade gifted students at GWE by identifying their key social and emotional needs and determining the outcomes of a differentiated SEL curriculum. The four most significant affective areas of social and emotional need as self-reported by the…

Studies show that executive functions and motor development are associated with each other and with learning ability. A more technological lifestyle combined with digital culture should be considered a viable alternative to stimulate children's development. Therefore, this study aimed to present a systematic mapping of the literature involving…

Social-emotional development is foundational to children's health, and academic outcomes. This study examined the effect of a child-centered play therapy intervention on the social-emotional competency of a group of 5 "at risk" third graders. Participants were recruited from a Tier 1 elementary school and social-emotional competency was…

Nurture Groups (NGs) are a school-based intervention for children who missed out on healthy early attachment experiences and who, as a result, present with marked impairments in social, emotional and behavioural functioning upon school entry. Researchers have consistently found that students are significantly more likely to exhibit improvements in…

Spatial language and ability play important roles in children's cognitive development. Spatial ability in kindergarten predicts achievement in reading, math, science, and technology in primary school and therefore constitutes an important skill set in preparation for school entrance. Good spatial thinking skills are required for learning in…

Increasing demands of accountability and academic readiness across U.S. preschools are often accompanied by decreased play and time outdoors during the school day. The nature preschool movement, grounded in a desire to foster connection to the natural world while also supporting important developmental processes and school readiness, counteracts…

Lifelong learning (LLL) became a basis for education policies in the 21st century. The GLLI (Global Lifelong Learning Index) ranks countries based on their performance in LLL (Kim, 2016). The present paper aims to compare a successful country (Germany) with a mid-performing country (Hungary) in two ways: (1) by comparing the two countries'…

Aggressive, violent, and disruptive behaviour among Belize youth is disproportionately high. The present study evaluated a school-based positive youth development program (Positive Action) using a clustered RCT. The aim of the study sought to examine post-treatment positive youth development competencies (i.e. social-emotional character…

A number of converging issues provided the impetus for 12 schools in the Western Bay of Plenty to form a support network to explore and develop play-based learning for the first years of school. This article discusses what has influenced our play-based learning approach and gains we have observed as a result. We acknowledge the challenges that…

Low-income parents often have limited involvement in the education of their children, and children who live in poverty frequently do not have the prerequisite skills needed to enter kindergarten. The purpose of the current study was to determine if parent participation in a brief kindergarten readiness workshop developed and led by occupational…