Pretend play is an important, universal activity of early childhood, but research to date contains multiple inconsistencies in definitions and measurement of pretend play. To begin to resolve this issue, we conducted a first study of the multiple different behaviors of pretend play in the preschool years (3-5 years), and investigated their…

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components…

For applied psychologists, the goal is to promote positive outcomes among the individuals and groups they serve. Psychological practice takes place within a real-world context, including societal conditions that both harm and support children. Within school and counseling psychology, growing recognition of the impact of society on children has led…

This narrative inquiry explores three Chinese university leaders' intercultural competence as a key dimension of their leadership that overseas leadership development programmes enabled them to develop. The leaders visited three different countries -- namely, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada -- storied their experiences in the…

Medical education in Jordan has evolved rapidly in the last 50 years as successive governments and higher education leaders have responded swiftly to developing healthcare sector demands. Despite significant progress being made, there remain a substantial number of challenges for the Jordanian medical education system that require careful…

While international alliances among research universities are relatively well established, the challenges for the small liberal arts college to execute a meaningful global collaboration can be much more difficult, due both to the much smaller size of the institution, its more limited resources, and its smaller and more intimate culture centered on…

Purpose: Given the less mature homeschooling ecosystem in China, together with the similarity of purpose, the current study examined the lived experiences of curricular choice making in the USA and China and categories of respective families (homeschools), as a way of understanding curricular flexibility. In addressing these features, based on an…

In recent years, arts partnerships have gained increased popularity as a means of delivering arts education and art-in-education in schools. Creating opportunities for both teachers and artists alike, arts partnerships can enhance a shared sense of purpose and mutual respect, while also developing creative skills, knowledge and expertise. Although…

This paper explores teacher educators' perceptions and overarching approaches to discipline-specific computational thinking (CT) integration in pre-service teacher education courses. To that end, we collaborated with 31 teacher educators from various teaching backgrounds in a university system in the Northeastern United States. As part of the…

England's early education and childcare system is at a turning point. Both major political parties have shown a significant interest in the early years, with the government recently announcing an expansion of funded provision for some one- and two-year-olds in the 2023 Spring Budget. But what can be done to ensure any changes to England's early…

Purpose: This study aims to introduce the perceived systems intelligence (SI) inventory, developed based on the earlier published self-report SI inventory (Törmänen et al., 2016). It can be used together with earlier managerial level tools for building a learning organization and included in general 360-style evaluations in personnel development.…

When a class is considered a study abroad rather than on-campus course, new criteria of learning, evaluation, and vocabulary often apply. Calling it "study abroad effects", this article examines such effects on short-term study abroad programs in the US by introducing the notion of the "mode of study abroad learning", a kind of…

Research has demonstrated that federal Head Start centers, which provide preschool care to children from low-income families, have little or no long-term academic value for children. This "Backgrounder" adds to the evidence that Head Start has failed to achieve its objectives and should be sunset, not expanded, by demonstrating a…

Curriculum mapping is a comparability method that facilitates comparisons of content within multiple settings (usually multiple jurisdictions or specifications) and enables claims to be made about those curriculums/jurisdictions. Although curriculum maps have been published, there is little academic literature about the process of constructing and…

This study aims to assess and examine secondary school teachers' perceptions of school climate and job satisfaction in five diverse countries: Japan, Korea, Finland, the United States of America (USA), and Australia. It explores the impact of school climate on teachers' job satisfaction, a pivotal factor influencing teacher retention, mobility,…