In 1865, the Brussels educational reformer Pierre Temples advocated to take drawing as the cornerstone of education. He criticized that education was modelled on conventions and grammatical rules in order to learn to read and write, this way ignoring the potential of drawing to create new concepts. This paper is also concerned with the…

The mobility of peoples and their settlement in our country has created a new dynamic in dealing with population groups with particular linguistic, cultural and social characteristics. At the same time, it brought to the fore the case of the Roma, who have been active in Greece for decades without being fully integrated into the social and…

According to Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), the highest levels of abstract thinking and self-regulation in preschool development are established in "pretend play using object substitutions." An extensive research literature supports Vygotsky's empirical model of the internalization of self-guiding speech (social speech > private speech…

Vygotsky's seminal text on play was originally given as a lecture at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad in 1933, and is consequently a relatively late work. It is thanks to a stenographic record of the lecture that this text, a key influence on psychological research on play, has survived. This was Vygotsky's major work on play and…

The twenty-first century is often described as an age of uncertainty and ambiguity with unprecedented challenges. Those with a creative mind-set however might call this millennium an age of wonder. New technologies and digital media are facilitating imagination and inventiveness. How are we innovating education? Are schools and classroom fostering…

"The High-Performing Preschool" takes readers into the lives of three- and four-year-old Head Start students during their first year of school and focuses on the centerpiece of their school day: story acting. In this activity, students act out stories from high-quality children's literature as well as stories dictated by their peers.…

Students today may have less time for free play, but new research suggests their imaginations have actually sharpened compared with those of children two decades ago. In an analysis published in May 2011 in the "Creativity Research Journal" and posted online in May, researchers from Case Western University in Cleveland found elementary school…

Presents a short biography of one of the winners of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology (2012). Thomas L. Griffiths won the award for bringing mathematical precision to the deepest questions in human learning, reasoning, and concept formation. In his pioneering work,…

The "Vygotsky on Education Primer" serves as an introduction to the life and work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Even though he died almost eighty years ago, his life's work remains both relevant and significant to the field of education today. This book examines Vygotsky's emphasis on the role of cultural and historical context in…

The international trend to increase the cognitive achievement of early childhood children has generated a need for better understanding how concept formation occurs within play-based programs. Yet the theories of play for supporting early childhood professionals were originally not conceptualized with this need in mind. In this article, concepts…

The role of the imagination in adult thinking is to go beyond reality and to express generalised laws. The researcher's job is to specify the cultural tools that preschool children use in the development of their imagination. Previous research has identified two main stages in the development of imagination up until the age of six, a third stage…

At a brisk pace, research findings focused on children's play are finally reaching the light of day in popular media. No longer left sitting in archives of academic journals, the benefits of play to lifelong success have been touted in radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. It gives early childhood professionals a powerful, credible…

Because of the close interrelationship among language, thinking, and the contexts in which learning takes place, many children experience difficulties when they enter school. This article discusses ways in which dramatic contexts can provide continuity between home and school by enabling children to take control of their thinking and language. (MT)

The essential nature of drama is a liberating act of imagination, of self-transcendence. A session is described in which the class maintained the delicate balance of dual consciousness and focused its attention and empathy on an illusory but possible world, creating and being responsible for the meaning of its construction. (MT)

Reading and drama are closely related in the learning process, interacting to develop the same personal resources in the child, building links between print and experience, dream and reality, self and other. The pressure and authenticity of the drama can help children create new knowledge and make different and necessary connections. (MT)