Magic has been a very popular form of entertainment for thousands of years and the learning and developmental processes that take place during the process of practicing and performing the trick--are a precious phenomenon from an educational point of view. The MiniMagic kindergarten program was launched in September 2021 in a kindergarten in…

Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic…

In this article, I explore the impact of receiving mentorship into research and theory of the field that was guided by a social constructivist learning lens. I reflect on the ways that my conception of research and research agenda were framed subconsciously by early experiences investigating my secondary mathematics teaching practice under the…

This article seeks to reframe how early childhood educators think about their role in play by answering these questions: What really matters in play? How should we spend our time and energy planning, implementing, and building our expertise around play in early childhood teaching and learning? The answers reside in 5 big ideas from play research…

Play is essential to learning and development in the early childhood years. Young children experiment with new skills through play, which supports the development of new competencies and furthers cognitive development. Nontraditional learning spaces such as teaching and learning gardens provide excellent opportunities for children to engage in…

This article examines the digital literacy practices that emerge when young children play together with digital apps on touchscreen devices. Children's collaborative composing with a digital puppetry app on a touchscreen--with many hands all busy dragging, resizing, and animating puppet characters, and many voices making sound effects, narrating,…

With games captivating the minds of many children in the United States, educators may be interested in trying to introduce games into their classrooms. This article offers educators insights into how to understand and incorporate games that are inherently social, promoting effective discourse in their classrooms. Although educational games and…

Emerging digital technologies enable teachers and students to access and manipulate sights and sounds in their school environments. The challenge is to systematically include these new media in academic environments, and to include adults who are ill prepared in technical issues as primary guides in this effort. This article suggests that child's…