Three-dimensional mind maps are a highly effective tool for providing engaging, kinaesthetic and sensory experiences for young children, with real objects used to promote the sharing of knowledge and the creation of connections. The use of real objects allows children the opportunity to connect with those objects at a personal level, thus placing…

The author believes that imagination is alive in the high school classroom, but it is pale and sickly, suffering from a long decline in which teachers have confined it to its most decorous forms of expression--inference and interpretation--and become ambiguous about whether or not it is truly welcome. To rouse imagination in the high school…

Over the past 20 years, the value placed on creativity has dramatically increased, and it has become centrally relevant to education on a global scale. This article explores the many elements involved in the creative process in the hope of providing educators with a working knowledge of how creativity might be enhanced. Recommendations are drawn…

Children's toys provide a rich arena for investigating conceptual flexibility, because they often can be understood as possessing an individual identity at multiple levels of abstraction. For example, many dolls (e.g., Winnie-the-Pooh) and action figures (e.g., Batman) can be construed either as characters from a fictional world or as physical…

Our work is inspired by the book "Imagining Numbers (particularly the square root of minus fifteen)," by Harvard University mathematics professor Barry Mazur ("Imagining numbers (particularly the square root of minus fifteen)," Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2003). The work of Mazur led us to question whether the features and steps of…

Understanding imagination as both a cognitive and affective endeavor is crucial in order for educators to promote creative and imaginative thinking in informal and formal learning environments. It is the primary aim of this paper to develop the theoretical discussion of Vygotsky's writings on young children's imaginative abilities launched by…

Children enter school brimming with imagination. They're masters of make believe and visualization, honed through five years of play. For the next decade, this essential cognitive faculty is benignly neglected by the institution called school. By comparison, the faculty of reason is explicitly and assiduously cultivated, reflecting the West's…

The relationship between cognitive functioning and play behaviors of children residing in an orphanage was examined. Twenty-six young children (15 boys) between 10 and 38 months of age participated. More developmentally competent play behaviors were highly related to better performance on cognitive functioning as measured by the Bayley Scales of…

This small-scale research examined den-making in three different settings in the UK. The research consisted of non-participant, narrative observations of children aged between 3- and 5-years and early years practitioners involved in supporting them in their play. Content analysis revealed common themes: the impact of the environment on the way…

This paper is a sequel to an earlier article that presented an argument for Tarot symbolic system functioning as a "techne" that can serve as a valuable educational aid. The present paper shifts the focus from "techne" to "praxis" as a practical art of interpreting images and creating imaginative narratives in the context of counselling and…

A teaching team of three teachers aims to prepare students for 21st Century Learning Outcomes, which includes critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. Yet classroom experience has taught them that one of the most difficult aspects of teaching young children is that they have few experiences or prior knowledge to make sense of…

Play often rewards us with a thrill or a sense of wonder. But, just over the edge of play, uncanny objects like dolls, automata, robots, and realistic animations may become monstrous rather than marvelous. Drawing from diverse sources, literary evidence, psychological and psychoanalytic theory, new insights in neuroscience, marketing literature,…

This now classic text remains a cornerstone of continuing efforts to develop inclusive peer play programs for children on the autism spectrum. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect major new developments in the field of autism. Notable additions include an updated description of the Integrated Play Groups (IPG) model and…

In this technological age, where mind and body are increasingly disconnected in the classroom, object-based learning--along with strong museum-school partnerships--provide many benefits for student learning. In this article, the author first outlines some of the special mind-body connections that object-based learning in museums affords learners…

Following Scott (this issue), this paper examines how environmental education researchers might intervene to greater effect in the policies and practices of our governments and local and international organizations through individual and collective programmes of research. Suggesting that public scholarship or academic activism can engage a wide…