This contribution looks at the garden that Friedrich Froebel (1782--1852) founded in Bad Blankenburg in 1838 in order to understand the proposal presented at the Kindergarten Model School of Madrid for training teachers in 1879 (the Schools introduced new teaching methods or systems and, at the same time, trained the teachers in their…

With an alchemical verve, educators have been shaping the very direction of students' lives since time immemorial. With millions of teachers currently serving in the Tk-12 sector and millions more serving in higher education spaces, the need for quality educator development is essential. For Tk-12 educators, while there are teacher preparation…

Recent research findings indicate that using multiple metaphors in multimodal learning experiences are effective teaching approaches in early years mathematics. Using a social semiotic lens this paper reports on eight early years teachers' perceptions of this approach whilst engaging in a small collaborative professional learning group. This group…

This article is set in the context of multicultural 21st-century Australia, whose diversity is marked by religious plurality as well as varied ethnic groupings. The article reports on a study of professional learning in three Australian faith-based schools (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) that investigated the role such schools might play in the…

The purpose of the study was to update previous meta-analytic findings on the effectiveness of using similarities and differences as an instructional strategy. The strategy includes facilitating student comparison, classification, use of analogies, and use of metaphors. Previously, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock reported a mean effect size of…

In this study a particular kind of figurative language, so-called anthropomorphic speech, is analysed in the context of science activities in a preschool setting. Anthropomorphism means speaking about something non-human in human terms. Can any systematic pattern be seen with regard to when such speech is used? Do children and/or teachers…

One important challenge for researchers is to understand what happens inside classrooms that make the environment available for children's learning. This study develops the margin|centre dialectic as a general framework for describing participation of very young children in science-related activities. It employs a cultural-historical approach that…