"Childhood, Philosophy, and Dialogical Education" explores the history and prospects of democratic, dialogical education, and its promise as an engine of social and cultural evolution, especially in the context of the cultural and social site dedicated to the adult-child encounter: the school. Drawing on three historical narratives--of…

This article describes a teacher in Vietnam being trained in and using process-oriented child monitoring (POM) in their classroom. POM is a child observation approach that can be used to determine students' levels of wellbeing and involvement in the classroom, which helps a teacher understand if deep-level learning is taking place. POM is an easy,…

Cultural change and global pluralism are causing an increasing plea for Christian-holistic education. However, this term lacks clear definition based on a proper description of the cultural background that provoked it. A secular definition of holistic education is taken from a worldwide movement for Whole Child Development and compared with the…

Do young children understand the complex mathematics in the petals of a daisy, the Fibonacci sequence in the spiral of a pinecone, the fractal geometry in the leaves of a fern, or the "golden ratio" in the seed pattern of a sunflower? Probably not, but they certainly can observe and recognize the patterns and compare them to similar…

Learning progressions have become increasingly prevalent in mathematics education as they offer a fine-grain map of possible learning pathways a child may take within a particular domain. However, there is an opportunity to build upon this research in ways that consider learning from multiple perspectives. Many current forms of learning…

A key factor in a child's healthy development is resilience, which allows a child to have an adaptive response to hardships even when exposed to a toxic environment or adversity. Resilience is the interplay between a child's positive environment and adaptive and coping skills outweighing risk factors and adverse experiences to create a positive…

A veteran educator tells stories of four children she taught who each struggled with trauma and were at risk of disconnecting from school and sliding into tragic life outcomes. She shares lessons she learned from reaching out to each child and general lessons about helping students with trauma--including to never go it alone.

Young children are disproportionately impacted by trauma (Barnett & Hambien, n.d.) and are more vulnerable to the impact of trauma (Bartlett et al., 2017). Trauma in the early years' impacts brain development (Bartlett, et al., 2017; Sciaffara et al., 2018), which has both immediate (Bartlett & Smith, 2017) as well as long-term…

In "Learning Without Lessons," David F. Lancy fills a rather large gap in the field of child development and education. Drawing on focused, empirical studies in cultural psychology, ethnographic accounts of childhood, and insights from archaeological studies, Lancy offers the first attempt to review the principles and practices for…

The critical and persistent impact of violence, abuse, and social injustice on the overall development of young children has necessitated a global discourse on the importance of cultivating compassion during children's formative years. This article links the defining elements of compassion to the discipline of early childhood education and calls…

New brain imaging methods are helping us better understand how children learn, writes neuroscientist John Gabrieli. But "education neuroscience" has become the source of both promise and debate.

When designing solutions for early learning, part of the process is clearly identifying a problem that impacts the wellbeing of young children that is both well-researched and in need of innovative solutions. However, with such a vast and complex field, identifying an issue to focus on can be difficult. The questions adults ask children have a…

This paper, conceptual but with empirical support, fills in some blanks in Vygotsky's reworking of Spinoza's "Ethics." Here Vygotsky sought to develop a developmental theory of emotions that would fit his developmental theory of higher psychological functions; that is, one which used function to explain how structure changes (much as…

After showing discipline's centrality in Kant's pedagogy, I briefly highlight Montessori's alternative and then turn to three fundamental differences between Kant and Montessori that partly explain their divergent accounts. My goal is not to assess whether Kant or Montessori gets the role of discipline 'right', but to highlight broader stakes of…

The Designathon Works Foundation teaches children (8 to 12 years old) the skills that help them develop ideas and solutions for a better world. By going through the Designathon method, many children discover that their possibilities are unlimited and they think beyond their borders, both literally and figuratively. The method focuses on building…