Multilingual learners (MLs), or students in the United States who are learning English as an additional language, possess knowledge from their lives outside of the classroom that science teachers can draw upon when giving instruction. This three-paper dissertation examines teacher use of these unique sources of knowledge, known as funds of…

Engineering play is a new perspective on preschool education that views constructive play as an engineering design process that parallels the way engineers think and work when they develop engineered solutions to human problems (Bairaktarova, Evangelou, Bagiati, & Brophy, 2011). Early research from this perspective supports its use in framing…

This dissertation was driven by a need to better understand how the growing movement of nature-based education, particularly nature-based preschools, compares to more conventional approaches. This dissertation analyzed videos of preschool teaching to describe nature-based teaching practices, particularly around the outdoors as a classroom and a…

Engineering education for the pre-college years is a developing academic discipline that emanates from the need to understand and improve the ways that engineers are formally educated. To date, there are no curricula available that incorporate engineering at a preschool level. The focus of this study is on the development of an early engineering…