This study focused on using a single case research design (SCRD) to compare the effectiveness of a child-centered group play therapy intervention to a psychoeducational group intervention (skillstreaming), and a group that received no intervention for 6 weeks. A group of 10 young children (kindergarten and Grade 1) were randomly assigned to 1 of…

The term "the practice of physical activity" was recently introduced as one of the four elements of the American Kinesiology Association undergraduate core curriculum. The purpose of this article is to articulate the nature of the term by offering a philosophical justification (other than health) for including physical activity…

Places assigned and places chosen have major implications for the lives of children. While the former are a result of children's subordinate position in an adult world, the latter are the essence of their agency. Beginning at a young age children seek out places to claim as their own. Places, real and imaginary, shape children and children shape…

Teaching creativity in second language (L2) education has recently received increasing attention. Despite its central role in language creativity, language play in L2 classrooms has not been fully explored. This article revisits the theoretical grounding of creativity in language education, particularly focusing on language play, and provides…

This review will explore the importance of play and its impact on the health and well-being of children of all ages. Evidence that supports the importance of play will be highlighted. Additional resources will be provided to assist parents, caregivers, and professionals on how to utilize play strategies in the everyday experiences of children.

This paper focuses on the "Junkyard" ("chatzar grutaot")--a unique educational environment and practice developed in kindergartens on the Israeli kibbutz in the 1940s and 1950s, and still in wide use today in kibbutz kindergartens. The Junkyard, consisting of artefacts of the adult world that are no longer in use, is an…

Little research has been conducted on the play of children of very low English proficiency within English-speaking preschool classrooms. In the present investigation, we recorded and described the naturalistic free play of four dual language learners (DLLs) and compared their interactions to those of four English-speaking children. Units of…

Purpose: Much of the extant research literature on the initiatives to attract, inspire and recruit Black males to the teaching profession has focused on middle and high school students. Black boys' socialization into dominant narratives regarding who can and cannot become teachers occurs as early as in early childhood classrooms; however, little…

The most challenging parts of teaching mathematics are engaging students and helping them understand the connections between mathematics concepts. In this volume, you'll find a collection of low floor, high ceiling tasks that will help you do just that, by looking at the big ideas at the third-grade level through visualization, play, and…

This position paper proposes that a relationship between young children's embodied mathematical concepts and their awareness of mathematical pattern and structure (AMPS) (Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 2009) develops through play. Theoretical perspectives on the development of schematic patterns, the embodiment of mathematical understandings, and the…

Serious games are used in the field of cultural heritage as a means to transmit cultural knowledge and enable an experiential contact with cultural content. The authors' aim is to investigate whether a game design exploiting the less used combination of complex storytelling, endogenous cooperation, and competition has the potential to sufficiently…

Many researchers have investigated the cooperative problem solving (CPS) of children during play; however, there is a lack of studies focused on teachers' beliefs about how to support the development of children's CPS in classrooms. This study aims to investigate the pedagogical beliefs of Chinese (n = 3) and US (n = 3) teachers about the CPS of…

The importance of a Piagetian approach is recognized in South African early childhood educational practices and teacher training, but the reality of the implementation of teaching and learning in the domain of early years opposes his philosophy in many ways. Our Early Childhood Education policies strongly advocate a Piagetian approach such as the…

As societies become more aware of the importance of early socio-emotional skills for children's later success, teachers report that they are ill-equipped to support and enhance these skills within their 'traditional' teacher role. This paper turns to the contributions that Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and his adherents have made to our…

The amount of intentional, instructional, purposeful play has decreased in primary grades, and didactic, test-driven instruction has increased. Emerging neuroscientific evidence is beginning to highlight the significant effects the toxic stress from poverty has on developing brains. Almost half of American children can be considered to come from…