This article reports findings from an ethnographic study investigating the culture of children's musical games played in school playgrounds. The research took place in nine primary schools in Greece and lasted for 6 months. Data collection methods included open observation of children aged 6 to 11 years, focused small-group observation,…

Visual evidence offered by a set of previously unexamined photographic images taken at Stanmore Public School in Sydney, Australia in 1919 informs this paper which considers the images' purpose, construction, content, use, and reception. It endorses arguments that visual evidence combines with other sources to tell a richer history, and that…

This article maps affective operations in artful teaching practices in Social Education at a University College in Denmark to make visible the ways affect shapes experience, behavior, and forms of social connection. The article contributes to the fields of playful learning and aesthetic learning in higher education through its application of a…

The paper contains two different studies on preschool children's physical activity at indoor playground markings. Both of these studies are designed as two-factor experiments. Participants were children (N=87, 41 females, 46 males; Mage= 66.4 months) from an urban public preschool. Two main hallways of the school were painted with playground…

In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued "Guidelines for Preschool Education (GPE) (trial version)" to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centred and play-based approach to teaching and learning. In order to implement the requirements, many kindergartens in China have carried out the play-based kindergarten…

Take a selection of balls and marbles along to a nearby playground slide and let students investigate factors that may influence how balls accelerate down an inclined plane. Students can make hypotheses in small groups, plan investigations to test multiple possible explanations and draw conclusions about the importance of different variables. The…

Research shows that teachers and educators struggle to act when conflict appears in the classroom. This article argues that (political) conflict should not be avoided or eradicated. Teachers should enable conflict and attend to their pupils in the process, in order to enable further understanding of each other and their differences, as part of…

This research addresses the role of the constructivist approach in teaching Arabic at the al-Falah Islamic boarding school, Banjarbaru. This research used a qualitative approach with in-depth interviews and participatory observation as data collection methods. The results showed that the constructivist approach to learning Arabic at Pesantren…

This paper focuses on the "Junkyard" ("chatzar grutaot")--a unique educational environment and practice developed in kindergartens on the Israeli kibbutz in the 1940s and 1950s, and still in wide use today in kibbutz kindergartens. The Junkyard, consisting of artefacts of the adult world that are no longer in use, is an…

Although outdoor play has been widely recognised for the many benefits it affords children, some have rationalised the need for it based on goals related to physical health. More specifically, these instrumental goals have been closely related to obesity, overweight, and/or physical (in)activity. Adhering to obesity discourses and the notion of a…

Trends in contemporary science education emphasise the benefits of out-of-school learning experiences to help schools link science with everyday life (Tho, Chan, & Yeung, 2015). With the help of state-of-the-art technology, mobile devices--particularly smartphones--have the ability to work as data-logging tools for students to perform…

Children experience physical phenomena and formulate an epistemological worldview before contact with school science. School science extends thought about the same phenomena to deeper levels but does not always link with out-of-school experiences. This study explored preservice teachers' indigenous knowledge or tacit knowledge about the playground…

This study critically examines how the geopolitical configuration of identities, through the medium of the institutionalized label of "English language learners," can shape and constrain localized experiences for learners. An ethnographic video study was conducted in the context of a mathematics unit ("the transforming recess…

In 2010 the Provincial Government of Ontario, Canada introduced a new play-based learning curriculum. Educational stakeholders (i.e. teachers, early childhood educators and student teachers) have been charged with the task of implementing the play-based curriculum, which upholds children's fundamental right to play, as a means to health and…

This article critically reflects on the participation of young children aged 3-4 years in an ongoing outdoor learning project started in 2004. The aims of the research are to investigate children's dispositions within the outdoor environment, to elicit children's perspectives of their outdoor experiences and to investigate the relationship between…