The first two editions of "Finnish Lessons" described how a small Nordic nation built a school system that provided access to a world-class education for all of its young people. Now available in 30 languages, this Grawemeyer Award-winning book continues to influence education policies and school practices around the globe. In this…

Mathematics concepts in early childhood education are often predictors later outcomes for student success, because mathematics is a foundational area of academics. The purpose of the research is to engage educators in conversations regarding experiential learning opportunities in early mathematics through curriculum planning and instructional…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of drama activities on the life skills of five-year-old children. Experimental design with pretest posttest control group was used in the study. The sample group of the study consisted of 32 children aged five years who were educated in a kindergarten in Istanbul province in the academic year…

Background: Parent education programs take many forms and attempt to raise parents' awareness of factors that positively affect child development. Program effectiveness varies greatly depending on whether parents feel engaged and interested by program content. Purpose: This article discusses a novel, "arts-informed" approach to parent…

This study aimed to test the effectiveness of a counseling program based on play in reducing sleep disorders in children of sexual abuse. The participants were 3 male and 3 female children who were sexually abused and registered at Al Hussein Social Foundation of the Ministry of Social Development in Amman, Jordan. They participated in a…

This special issue on early self- and co-regulation addresses a topic that is founded on a rich mix of theoretical perspectives, including self-determination theory, socio-cultural theory, attachment theory and artificial intelligence. Reflecting this diversity, the papers adopt a diverse range of approaches to cutting-edge questions regarding…

This response to Fleer, Adams & Gunstone builds upon "Transformative pedagogy: Dinka playgroups as spaces for cultural knowledge productions of Western science" by expanding conceptual understanding of the cultural practices of Dinka refugee children. Drawing upon both disciplinary literacy research and research into the role of play…

Recent policy changes connect play in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings explicitly to learning, and to later school-learning outcomes, calling on early childhood (EC) educators to incorporate intentional teaching into their practice. Given these recent policy changes, the purpose of this propositional article is to raise awareness…

The aim of this study was to examine whether the availability of affordances in preschool outdoor environments influences children's social play. Participants were 173 children aged between 3 and 6 years (M = 3.95, SD = 0.82) who were attending a total of 18 early childhood education centers in the Basque Country (Spain). The results indicate that…

This project seeks to understand the 'possible worlds, possible selves' (Carr, M., A. B. Smith, J. Duncan, C. Jones, W. Lee, and K. Marshall. 2010. "Learning in the Making." Rotterdam: Sense) afforded to children by collaborative imaginative play involving negotiation. We investigate how 3 and 4-year-olds achieve their ends through…

Digital technologies are increasingly prevalent and can complement more traditional resources to support children's investigations and explorations in early learning contexts. A new consideration is the value of technology in positioning early childhood educators as co-learners and co-investigators alongside children. This article presents…

Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed--skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function. Expert organizations…

The purpose of the study is to reveal the reasons for young children to like and dislike playing with their friends. There were two groups in the study. The first group included 147 preschool children who were in the age group of 5-6 years and were living in Turkey. The second group included 60 preschool children who were in the age group of 5-6…

This paper discusses characteristics of converged play for early childhood education. The characteristics were derived from a four-year study of teachers' interpretation and use of 'web-mapping' as an explicit conceptual tool, designed to mediate teaching practices and learning outcomes according to a definition of pedagogy as the relationship…

Drawing on sociocultural theorizing, this case study investigates and unpacks the qualities of "scientific play" during children's inquiry-based science activities framed by imagination and play (i.e. Poetry Science). The data were gathered in Finnish preschool groups with children aged five to six years old (N: 31) over a five-week…