Socio-dramatic play is an everyday occurrence in early childhood education as children create narratives together in shared imagined worlds. The teacher's role in this type of play is less clear and this paper draws on a study using Lindqvist's "playworlds" approach to gain insight into how teachers participate in children's play. In…

Despite the many benefits of play, within primary school, play is often reduced to lunch breaks, particularly as children move to higher grades. Loose parts play affords children opportunities to develop imagination and 21st-century skills (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking). As part of a larger project, two Year 4…

The engagement of children in creative processes in music enhances their skills, experience and understanding of the artform, and provides avenues for the development of critical and creative thinking. In classrooms of the twenty-first century, creativity is a recognised and valued skill, which has echoes for teachers in curriculum, teaching…

Based on an experiment with 5452 kindergarten school children from 15 cities, this article examines the effect of a customised spiritual education programme (SEP) on their quality of life. Results showed that treatment group kindergarteners who participated in the SEP had higher scores on the Pictured Child Quality of Life Self-Questionnaire in…

The creativity program, "imagination 'first': unleash the power of possibility," implemented in public primary and secondary schools in Northern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, deals with the power of imagination in unleashing creativity among gifted students and teachers. Following an in-depth literature review on creativity for…

This case-study explores the impact of a 12 week in-class intervention designed to encourage creativity, inquiry and exploration as a normal and expected part of mathematics lessons, with a particular focus on supporting the learning of highly capable and gifted students. Fred is a mathematically highly capable grade five student whose personal…

This article examines the role that drawing can play in enabling children and young people to theorize concepts of time. In two, independent Australian research projects, children aged between 5 and 8 years were asked to respond to the question, "What might the future be like?", while 12-14 year olds were asked, "What does history…

The importance of imagination in understanding sustainability has often been overlooked. This paper examines acts of imagining in teaching and learning that elicit and enable the emotive experience of empathy. I frame ways of thinking about imagination and empathy through theoretical perspectives of otherness. I report on research findings into…

The Federal Government's recent Building the Education Revolution program resulted in, among other features, the creation of over 600 new school libraries in Queensland alone. This paper reports on a component of a research project carried out with students in six primary schools and one secondary school that benefitted from the program,…

This article describes a music programme in an Australian early learning centre. Through a repertoire of songs, games and instruments, the children were introduced to music forms, including opera. Mozart's Magic Flute was presented to these children by watching the Metropolitan Opera's latest film performance. Because this opera seized the…

This article centres on a research project in which freehand drawings provided a richly creative and colourful data source of children's imagined, ideal learning environments. Issues concerning the analysis of the visual data are discussed, in particular, how imaginative content was analysed and how the analytical process was dependent on an…

A visual research project addressed school children's concepts of ideal learning environments. Drawings and accompanying narratives were collected from Year 5 and Year 6 children in nine Queensland primary schools. The 133 submissions were analysed and coded to develop themes, identify key features and consider the uses of imagination. The…

In this article we present the results from an exploratory study conducted in the Wet Tropics in Australia. The study was initiated as part of a larger research program to support the development of a water quality improvement plan. Seven schools were invited to participate in this study. Students were asked to develop visions for the future of…

In this study, the author tested whether children with imaginary companions (ICs) have a different fantasy life than do children without ICs. To measure the fantasy life of the 74 children aged 3.2 to 8.7 years, the author modified the Children's Fantasy Interview (E. Rosenfeld, L. R. Huesmann, L. D. Eron, & J. V. Torney-Purta, 1982) to make…