New sociomaterial and performative directions in literacy research on digital technologies and play in early childhoods may complicate the established concept of digital play. This study contributes to this line of research by empirically expanding on the concept of the postdigital. In the study, postdigital refers to how both "digital"…

This study, aiming to reveal preschool children's mental models of their environment, was carried out with the participation of 225 children aged 36-72 months attending 8 different preschool education institutions. It is based on qualitative research designed around a case study. The Word Association Test and Drawing were used as the data…

For many years, the Reggio Emilia approach has been in the spotlight of the international debate on early childhood education, attracting countless devoted followers in preschool centres all over the world and inspiring an ever-increasing amount of pedagogical research. At the heart of this educational philosophy, space is considered a 'third…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Augmented Reality (AR) technology on vocabulary development and attitudes toward AR in pre-school English instruction. The study, which was grounded on a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design, included 36 pre-school children aged from 4 to 5. While the participants in…

This scoping review explored, what kind of educational environments and practices have been used when children's nature connectedness in early childhood education has been studied. While the beneficial influence of forest preschools -- and others alike based on substantial nature contact -- is well-established, little is known about how ordinary…

This article reports on findings from a case study of an intergenerational project between a nursery school and a residential care home for people with dementia in the South-East of England. It examines how multi-modalities support meaning-making between 3-year-old children and older adults. The study is qualitative, interpretative and…

Physical classroom environments for young children and the quality of those environments have typically been studied by utilizing various rating scales. Research is limited on early childhood educators' perspectives and decision-making processes in striving to create optimal physical classroom environments during the school year. This qualitative…

This paper examines underlying beliefs and values about nature within the early years education in Turkey, as reflected in the curricula and standards documents guiding instruction. Given that not every child has the opportunity for nature-based education, it becomes essential to incorporate nature-based learning into indoor classrooms. Employing…

The modeling of a modern preschool curriculum is contextually conditioned and represents a complex process. Each kindergarten has its "own identity," its "DNA," just as children, preschool teachers and other participants in the educational process have their "own individual equations." Contextual learning is at the…

Educators' perceptions play a crucial role in shaping children's experiences. This exploratory study aimed to gather feedback from preschool educators who had conducted lessons at a natural play space in Singapore. The study site, known as a Nature Playgarden, is a green space within a public park. Created mostly with natural materials, the Nature…

The curriculum states that Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) should offer students a meaningful leisure time and stimulate their development and learning through SAEC teaching, which is defined as a combination of care, development, and learning. In recent decades SAEC has relocated from a social to an educational arena with a different…

This research aims to investigate how learning invitations are used in a Reggio-Emilia inspired preschool in the US. The case study model as a qualitative research method is applied in this research. In addition to observations in the research setting, interviews with teachers were made so that the data could be varied and enriched. As a result,…

The teaching and learning of design technology that occurs in nature-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) contexts such as nature kindergartens remains under-theorised. There is a growing body of scholarship that describes how teaching and learning occurs in these contexts as well as highlighting the benefits for young children learning…

By the time children in low- and middle-income countries start primary school, large socioeconomic disparities are evident in children's learning and development. Both pre-primary and home environments can play important roles in influencing school readiness and can contribute to disparities in early childhood development, but there is limited…

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…