Play is widely acknowledged as being critical for children's development, yet opportunities for play are becoming more scarce for many children.

Many scholars are influenced by the theoretical contributions of Lev Vygotsky. Significant post-Vygotskian scholarly writing highlights sociocultural perspectives of understanding everyday, informal learning as an important phenomenon. Ideas of participatory learning, and knowledge building through participation and inquiry, are included in the…

How can we use Friedrich Froebel's play theory in order to analyze ECEC, Early Childhood Education and Care? Wolfgang Klafki builds his theory of categorical "Bildung" on Froebel's play theory, which presupposes the interaction between child, adult and content, as in the didactic triangle. Froebel's play theory was lost in the hands of…

When people address early mathematics education, commonly they write or reference policies, standards, "scope and sequences" and curriculum, or documents on instructional strategies. These are important; however, we believe that the core consideration should be the nature of mathematics and the development of mathematics "in…

The research completed by the authors into the teaching and learning of evolution and inheritance (2014 to 2018) seeks to understand the demands made by the revised National Curriculum in England (DfE, 2015) and to offer support. The commitment of the authors to applied research assumes more useful outcomes are likely when studies are conducted…

Contemporary Froebelian-inspired early childhood education in the United States is challenged by government regulation and accreditation requirements that have arisen alongside neoliberalism in education. Using Critical Policy Analysis and case study examples from a preschool in Atlanta, Georgia, this paper examines the influence of neoliberalism…

In this paper, a learning progression for geometric transformations is developed based on research that demonstrates the importance of viewing transformations as functions of the plane. The 5 levels of the progression reflect a student's evolving understanding of transformations as functions and their evolving understanding of the domain of these…

Part II of this two-part article continues the discussion of what Maria Montessori viewed to be the important components of her educational system. Because she developed the system over her lifetime, we prioritized later accounts when contradictory accounts were found. Whereas Part I focused on the environment, Part II examines the second and…

Bhatt and Quinn (2011) present a compelling case that human learning is "early" in two very different, but interacting, senses. Learning is "developmentally" early in that even infants show strikingly robust adaptation to the structures present in their world. Learning is also early in an information processing sense because infants adapt their…

There are several myths about neuroscientific findings that are widespread in education. Some of these myths are left brain/right brain, critical periods for learning, and gender differences in the brain. Belief in these "neuromyths" can negatively affect how we teach children. But ignoring important findings from neuroscience can be just as…

This article explores the unique and personal experience of learning within a broader framework of development called skill theory. The framework offers a perspective for recognizing within a diversity of experiences a stable order of increasing complexity in skills that individuals display as they execute or demonstrate changes in their…

Much of the research on orphan and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on their risks and vulnerabilities. This article describes the "funds of knowledge" (Moll and Greenberg, 1990) and means of acquiring new knowledge of children living in child-headed households in Uganda's Rakai District. Using ethnographic methods,…

This article integrates the literature on group interaction process analysis and group learning, providing a framework for understanding how patterns of interaction develop. The model proposes how adaptive, generative, and transformative learning processes evolve and vary in their functionality. Environmental triggers for learning, the group's…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) poses constructivist ideas in its "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics" (2000). NCTM supports mathematics instruction that takes a developmental perspective; starts and builds on what children know; and leads children to construct relational understanding, problem-solving…

Examines the implications of the term "goal directed," or "intentional behavior," in the context of instructional design strategies. Models developed by Piaget and Vygotsky regarding development and learning are reviewed; intentionality and situated activities are discussed and examples given; and principles regarding…