Outdoor play comprises a highly significant play category through which children learn, develop, express themselves, socially and physically interact with their surroundings. Research, however demonstrates outdoor play is not substantially utilized within Greek preschool environments. This study was conducted during the 2019 academic year, aiming…

High quality field or practicum experiences are important for preparing preservice teachers for the profession. Studies suggest preservice teachers rate their practicum experiences more favourably when their cooperating teachers mentor them using apprenticeship-type practices. There is scant research on how such an approach is used in early…

The purpose of this pilot study is to identify how Waldorf-inspired imaginative teaching methods, and low-technology prototyping promote New Media Literacies (NMLs) development at upper elementary school students. Particularly, the aim is twofold: firstly, to test the feasibility of the research design and validate the research instruments;…

Children are born to play and are born as intuitive scientists and use numeracy and literacy in their play. Playing is an essential apprenticeship for developing scientific (STEM) literacy. Observing children spontaneously playing reveals that they are experiencing STEM in action. They are observing phenomena, asking questions, solving problems,…

The importance of parental autonomy support to children's development and learning has been widely studied among Western school-age children, while scant research has been conducted among young children in other cultural contexts. To address this research gap, the primary aim of the present study was to examine the role of parental autonomy…

The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten children's motivation choice after successfully completing a mathematical task. Three succeeding measurements took place in two-week intervals. In each measurement a different choice dyad was presented to participating children. After the successful completion of a mathematical activity,…

This study examined the associations of preschool children's executive function (EF) and learning behaviour (CLB) with their concurrent academic skills and the role of CLB as a mediator for the EF-academic skills link. One hundred seventy-nine children were assessed on EF and math and literacy skills. Parents and teachers completed a questionnaire…

The Welsh foundation phase is a play-based curriculum for 3-7-year-olds advocating outdoor and experiential approaches to learning. Play-based outdoor learning increases interaction with a range of affordances giving opportunities for movement in learning. Children assign activities as either play or not play-based on a series of cues. Teaching…

Beyond his contributions to the field of psychology, Vygotsky may be considered as 'one of the first thinkers in complexity' (Jörg, 2011 p. 14). Vygotsky challenged linear causality and defended the idea of the transcendence of individual learning to focus on the generative potential of learning and development through social interactions,…

There is a consensus that the crises children encounter during the transition period might impact negatively on children's learning and development. However, from cultural-historical perspective, qualitative leap in development can hardly be achieved without crises. This paper, drawing upon cultural-historical theory as the framework and by using…

This paper draws on observational studies of three young children in order to demonstrate firstly, their intrinsic motivation to explore systematically through repeated patterns of action or 'schemas'; secondly, how those repeated actions appear and are explored in their emerging language demonstrating their increasing construction of and…

Parents as partners in their children's learning is predicated by a notion of a mutual understanding of the learning as shared by educators. Documenting learning in early childhood education and care (ECE & C) settings has evolved from more traditional developmental approaches to include photographs, artefacts and social stories to make…

Play is essential for growth and learning during early childhood. However, the current focus on academics in preschool education has resulted in less emphasis placed on play as a learning tool. In the current study, parents' value of play was investigated. Parent gender, child gender, and child age were examined as potential influences on parents'…

A large body of research has examined the quality of educational processes in preschools, but it has usually been studied at the group level. Thus, there is a lack of research on the quality of educational processes as experienced by individual children. Therefore, this study investigated the quality of educational processes in preschools at the…

This paper explores some of the learning of a young child from the age of 8-23 months and considers how identifying schemas or repeated patterns of actions can inform our pedagogic responses. Gabriella was observed using naturalistic observation methods, at home, at her grandparents' home, at parks and using early childhood services. Narrative…