In this paper, drawing on Bakhtin's carnival theory, I argue that teachers can play a transgressive role--similar to that of the carnival fool--by taking on a story role and by interacting with the children in the drama convention of Teacher-in-Role. The carnival notion of 'decrowning-crowning' allows me to understand how the teachers disguise and…

This article describes the ways in which a class of 7- and 8-year-old children used writing to communicate. Using Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics as a theoretical frame, I examine what functions these messages served, how functions varied from child to child and how the practice of message-sending evolved over time. Analysis of data…

During this inquiry, I describe my journey as a beginning arts-based researcher, using this methodological approach to explore the "peak experiences" of five, second-grade gifted students in a general classroom. Concerned with collecting valid data from young children through traditional interviewing techniques, I turned to Arts-Based…

In this paper, we address the guidance of student teachers in initial training in schools as an invaluable opportunity to raise creative learning awareness. The objective of this present research is to develop guidance strategies for guiding the identification of creative practices and for analyzing that moment as a "way of knowing". We…

The author's years of work with preservice early childhood teachers, new professionals, and organizations that recruit beginning professionals have helped her identify key activities and documents to be incorporated into a professional portfolio. A well-organized portfolio can help newer practitioners effectively express their beliefs and…

This article describes the introduction of creative movement activity in three Hong Kong kindergartens to promote children's creativity. The purposes of the study were to examine the effectiveness of creative movement activity in promoting children's creativity and teachers' perceptions of the activities. The movement activities were designed…

Mitchel Resnick is a researcher, inventor, and professor at MIT's Media Laboratory in Cambridge, MA, and the founder of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT. He is the lead innovator behind many cutting-edge learning technologies and projects for children, including the Computer Clubhouse, PicoCrickets, and the wildly successful consumer…