This article reports on original research investigating the pivotal role that teachers play in student engagement, using a tri-dimensional framework. This framework identifies how teachers' pedagogical choices impact student engagement in ways that influence students' external behaviours, internal emotions and internal cognitions. A questionnaire…

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 study examined the moral discourse of 79 dyads of Taiwanese parents and children during shared storybook readings and the associations with children's cognitive and affective moral attributions. This study involved four- to six-year-old children who participated in a receptive language test and a moral reasoning task. Their responses were…

In this paper, I argue that Spinoza's political theory gives us a model for how he might have approached a treatise on moral education. Indeed, his account of the method and aims of politics resembles Renaissance humanist rhetorical approaches to pedagogy -- particularly, the work of sixteenth century Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives -- so…

"Trauma-Responsive Strategies for Early Childhood" offers an overview of trauma and its impact on young children, as well as specific strategies and techniques educators and administrators can use to create classroom and school communities that improve the quality of care for this vulnerable population. Katie Statman-Weil has synthesized…

Using the guiding principles from Peter Johnston's best-selling professional resources, "Choice Words" and "Opening Minds," Peter and six colleagues began a journey to create just such classrooms-environments in which children meaningfully engage with each other through reading, writing, making, and discussing books. In…

Technological advances have facilitated robots to perform a variety of human-like functions which have steered the interest of educators, researchers, and practitioners to discover the potential advantage of using robots as an intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Through meta-analysis, this study provides research-based…

Effectively addressing both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning is one of the greatest obstacles to teaching race and racial justice in higher education. In this article, we first explore the need to integrate attention to cognitive and affective development, along with evidence-based strategies for doing so. We then provide a case…

Recent findings from the Kids Activity and Learning Study complement North Carolina's multidimensional approach to promoting school readiness by emphasizing the integrated nature of motor and cognitive development in early childhood. Children whose motor skills improved the most over the course of an academic year also tended to demonstrate the…

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals learn and apply social, emotional, behavioral, and character skills required to succeed in schooling, the workplace, relationships, and citizenship. In public discussion of SEL, not everyone can quite agree on what it is. To some, it involves a set of tools for…

Effective educators value young adolescents, are prepared to teach them, and are knowledgeable about this age group. Middle level educators' understanding of adolescent brain development and developmentally responsive teaching strategies can help to support all adolescents' cognitive and social-emotional development in school. This article…

This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

Recess in the United States is decidedly limited in elementary schools, despite numerous research findings that support unstructured play as a vehicle for development across multiple domains. It is widely understood that recess breaks promote prosocial behaviors, physical activity, and attentiveness in class. However, few researchers in the United…

Research demonstrates a wide range of positive outcomes for children who are physically active, including higher academic achievement, higher likelihood to attend college, increased success in the workplace, lower heath care costs, and decreased risk for obesity and other health problems (Aspen Institute Sport for All Play for Life; Menestrel…

Immordino-Yang and Gotlieb provide an elegant and helpful framework that integrates neuroscientific and education research on social affective development in their article, "Embodied Brains, Social Minds, Cultural Meaning: Integrating Neuroscientific and Educational Research on Social-Affective Development." Based on previous research,…