Toys are designed to be fun and playful and are highly motivating for both children and adults. Commercial toys and child-designed toys can be used both in the classroom and at home to encourage creativity and to teach science concepts. Much of what children can do with toys involves tinkering, defined by Merriam Webster as "to repair,…

In an article adapted from his latest work, "Play: A Basic Pathway to the Self,"published by The Strong in 2020, the author offers a wide-ranging review of play studies--and the thinkers, philosophers, and scholars who led to the creation of the discipline. He also reviews and seeks to explain for both specialists and more general…

Children experience joy in well-designed mathematics classrooms. This article describes five research-based practices for bringing joy into PreK-Grade 2 math lessons.

Learn how to cultivate a commitment to justice with young children in developmentally appropriate ways (pre-K-grade 6). Transformative social and emotional learning (TSEL) is an asset-based, culturally responsive way of teaching that sees social and emotional learning and social justice as inextricably linked. This practical guide will support…

This book focuses on research-informed approaches and techniques for teaching writing to elementary English Language Learners (ELLs). The book highlights strategies for enriching writing literacy education for elementary ELLs. With contributions from prominent scholars in the field of elementary ELL writing from around the world, the chapters in…

Children's conceptions or interpretations of the relationship between play and learning have not been studied much in the early childhood education studies. To better understand play and learning in the Chinese context, this paper will discuss the outcome of a study which sought to investigate children's understanding and interpretation of the…

Background: Slade ["Do the Structures Used by International Hockey Coaches for Practising Field-Goal Shooting Reflect Game Centred Learning Within a Representative Learning Design? The International Journal of Sport Science and Coaching" 10 (4): 655-668] argued that because no two students learn or conceive knowledge in exactly the same…

Capoeira could be defined as a Brazilian martial art and game to be played. This research explored how capoeira play might be considered to facilitate connectedness amongst newly-recruited persons, plus any other ramifications of capoeira involvement. A beginners' course of capoeira was provided to participants, free of charge, in an English city…

Numerous studies have investigated the predictors of language in pre-verbal toddlers and verbally fluent children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study investigated the concurrent relations among expressive language and a set of empirically-selected social communication variables--joint attention, imitation, and play--in a unique…

This article focuses on the initiatives taken by children and the responses given by professional adults with regard to the pedagogy of enhancing peer interaction among diverse learners. The study took place in four integrated special groups of public early childhood education. In groups of this kind, typically developing children and those with…

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the drama activities conducted in fifth grade science subjects with a developed analytical rubric. The study was conducted using case study. The sample of the study consists of 26 students attending 5th grade in a public school located in the Akçaabat district of Trabzon province. In the study, four groups…

There are a growing number of studies that have examined science learning for preschool children. Some research has looked into children's home experiences and some has focused on transition, practices, routines, and traditions in preschool contexts. However, little attention has been directed to the relationship between children's learning…

This paper engages with the medically established view that individuals with autism are not capable of play or being imaginative. This paper resists this idea by reflecting on psychobiographical research conducted on the life of Temple Grandin. By re-witnessing creative experiences in her life, dialogue surrounding the imaginative capacities of…

This empirical study aims to find if and how preschool teachers communicate values they consider important for children to learn in preschool. The study is a part of a Nordic research project on values education in Nordic preschools. Values are understood as desirable principles that guide human actions. Theoretically, the study draws on a…

In this paper, we argue for a view of analysis as an embodied practice and review others' testimonies of carrying out multimodal ethnography. This review suggests that metaphors are key for communicating what happens to "us" in the course of the research and our subsequent sense-making practices. We identify four metaphors for…