Fostering young children's creativity is a desired outcome of STEM learning experiences. Such experiences often incorporate hands-on activities that encourage agency, curiosity, and experimentation. While educators generally have a good understanding of how to nurture creativity within a physical learning environment, less is known about…

This article bewilders dominant discourses about child-animal relations by acknowledging and challenging the work of Gail Melson who positions animals as providing emotional, social and pedagogical support for children. Melson's psychological approach rests upon implicit assumptions that shape and support anthropocentrism whilst also critiquing a…

An important milestone in early childhood education and care is reached in 2021 as "Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia" is reviewed. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) was groundbreaking. It has been influential in providing national guidelines around pedagogical principles, practice…

While child development is well-recognized as a complex process which could hardly be decomposed into separate lines or domains in contemporary psychological theories, the decomposition approach is widely used in empirical studies. Based on the cultural-historical theory, this study argues for adopting the unit of analysis as a way to bridge this…

Government guidelines are demanding greater educational outcomes and intentional teaching in Australian preschools. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study of how children incorporate concepts into child-initiated play. A cohort of 18 children (aged 3.0-5.8, mean age of 4.8) were digitally observed over seven weeks…

Anglophone societies in which the sovereign individual is primary vis and vis social relations, and policy focuses on economic competition and consumption in education, find it hard to grasp non-pecuniary outcomes in higher education. These include the self-formation of students as persons and collective goods like knowledge, technological…

Current research and literature emphasize the crucial role of group experiences in children's learning during early childhood. However, despite the frequent use of the term 'group', little attention has been paid to its position in children's learning and the diverse perspectives that inform it. This study addressed this gap by applying a…

This study aimed to determine the effects of the Active Early Learning (AEL) childcare center-based physical activity intervention on early childhood executive function and expressive vocabulary via a randomized controlled trial. Three-hundred-and-fourteen preschool children (134 girls) aged 3-5 years from 15 childcare centers were randomly…

This study explored whether a daytime nap aids children's acquisition of letter-sound knowledge, which is a fundamental component for learning to read. Thirty-two preschool children in Sydney, Australia (M[subscript age] = 4 years;3 months) were taught letter-sound mappings in two sessions: one followed by a nap and the other by a wakeful period.…

Three Australian Government commissioned reports from 2011-2017 convey a longstanding child development theory-practice gap in early childhood education. This study explores what informs mentors' discussions of theories of child development with early career preschool teachers. Grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, themes relate to…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services and families, impacting family access to services and their communication and engagement with educators. This study aimed to examine parents' perspectives of family engagement with ECEC services during the pandemic. Primary caregivers in…

Improving scientific literacy is crucial for early childhood development, yet limited studies necessitate a thorough analysis to identify effective solutions. This study aims to analyze the implementation of project-based learning in early childhood education to improve scientific literacy. The study followed the identification, screening,…

The author provides an overview of several theories of numeracy acquisition that, despite criticisms, have withstood the passage of time and continue to influence policy and practices in schools. These are followed by a brief review of some recent research in the domain of numeracy learning and teaching. The article ends with some of the current…

This study explored educators' perspectives on the role the physical and sensory Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) environment plays in supporting children's social and emotional development. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted, in August 2022, at two ECEC sites in Victoria, Australia. Data were thematically analysed and key…

This study examined verbal and non-verbal features of mother-infant shared book reading in Australia during the first year of life and explored the relationship between these features and infant cognition. Mother-infant dyads were observed in this cross-sectional study reading an unfamiliar book in a laboratory setting when infants were aged 6…