Recognizing the valuable role nature plays in human development as well as humans' responsibility toward the earth is critically important when considering how to transform education for the betterment of the individual and society. In this article, the author views nature as a force or phenomenon of the metaphysical world. As such, she suggests…

In March 2020, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) began tracking U.S. districts' plans for navigating school closures and distance learning. The database, which is available on CRPE's website (www.crpe.org), draws on publicly available plans from the 30 largest districts in the country, members of the Council of the Great City…

Jean Kirshner holds a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Development from Colorado State University and specializes in literacy and teacher education. Jean started her career as the Early Childhood Director at Saint Ignatius Grammar School, Chicago in 1988. After two years she joined the Child Opportunity Program in Denver as a Head Start…

This is the nineteenth in a series of articles entitled "The Legacy Project." The Legacy Project focuses on the lives and actions of leaders who have forged the technology and engineering teaching profession into what it is today. Members of the profession owe a debt of gratitude to these leaders. One simple way to demonstrate that…

Members of an Innovation School committee from Florida Gulf Coast University and the School District of Lee County share their individual and collective perspectives on designing anew traditional public school as an inquiry-based innovation school through an articulated partnership. Perspectives are shared through the lens of narrative inquiry and…

Clarke et al. (2014) provide a persuasive case for the role of a theory-of-change model to guide the nature of curriculum development work embodying both a theoretical and empirical knowledge foundation. They illuminate the components of their model, which were used to design and test the efficacy of a Tier 2 intervention for students who met…

As curriculum scholars in South Africa express concerns about the failures of the outcomes-based curriculum policy that has been introduced post-apartheid it is of increased importance to try and understand the professional development that is required by teachers for its successful implementation. As a contribution to the development of such…

Vivian Gussin Paley is a teacher, writer, lecturer, and advocate for the importance of play for young children. Author of a dozen books about children learning through play, she has received numerous honors and awards including an Erickson Institute Award for Service to Children, a MacArthur Foundation Fellows award, and a John Dewey Society's…

The author is pleased to see that the future directions of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) are being addressed. The celebration of the 50th birthday of the inception of CCBD has set the occasion to carefully examine the status quo of the organization and to set future directions, as appropriate. The authors of "New…

Reducing class size, especially in primary grades, can have tremendous academic and social benefits for children--benefits that endure well beyond those first years of school. But smaller class sizes are not a cure-all. Beyond the hoopla of enthusiasm for this seemingly simple change in educational practice lie serious consequences for students…

The subject based curriculum attracts lively debate in many countries being accused of fragmenting teaching and learning, erecting artificial barriers and failing to teach the skills required in the twenty first century (Hazlewood 2005). Cross-curricular rich tasks are increasingly seen as the means to develop relevant knowledge, understanding and…

Over forty years ago, Howard Zinn identified the problem as not one of civil disobedience, but of civil "obedience". He confronted the problem of remaining obedient to laws and rules even "in the face of the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty." Framed in an early childhood context, this article explores the value of…

With the move towards achieving universal primary education, focus is increasingly shifting towards early childhood development. Within this, debates are apparent between those who view education at this stage holistically, with concern that it should not be directly linked with primary schooling, and those who view it more explicitly as…

The extensive literature, situated mainly in "first world" contexts, on design and evaluation of distance learning materials, emphasises the importance of student feedback. This paper begins with an account of how two groups of students responded to questions on a text they had used in an inservice professional development programme for teachers…

This book begins with the introductory chapter, "Don't Think; Just Get on with Your Work," in which the author argues that children are thinkers, but that there are schooling barriers to engaging this thinking. Chapter 1, A Place to Think, considers these barriers in more detail and provides some ideas about how children learn in schools and what…