An intentional teaching approach provided a Wellington kindergarten with valuable avenues for supporting the teaching and learning of young children from refugee and immigrant backgrounds. Despite reservations about implementing this approach, teachers found that it was possible to use it in a child-centred way. The teachers' research inquiry into…

Children's understandings of the shape and relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon have been extensively researched and in a variety of ways. Much is known about the confusions which arise as young people try to grasp ideas about the world and our neighbouring celestial bodies. Despite this, there remain uncertainties about the conceptual models…

The New Zealand early childhood curriculum, "Te Whariki", views learning as occurring through reciprocal and responsive relationships with people, places and things. Relationships and communication are central to young children's learning. Communication, or dialogue, is in fact likely to be young children's principal learning mechanism…

Excursions, or field trips, are a common component of early childhood programs, seen as a means of enriching the curriculum by providing experiences with people, places, and things in the community. Although excursions have been used as a framework for research on children's memory development, research on the efficacy of excursions in terms of…