This paper examines how teachers in the Indonesian context create motivating conditions for children's learning and development. Sixteen hours of digital visual observations on 38 children (mean age 4.4 years) were selected from a larger dataset of video observations, focus group discussions, and teacher interviews. Using the cultural-historical…

Playful learning has garnered supporters and research evidence, and also can be seen as nebulous and, therefore, reliant on practitioners' intuitions in early education settings. In this paper, we offer an explicit theoretical account, grounded in developmental psychology of how play might support the acquisition of broad skills and dispositions…

This paper explores the experiences of twelve children and their parents from diverse minority ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds during their first school year. Drawing on sociological and educational conceptualisations of resilience, findings highlight protective factors for children's resilience at four levels, including family and school…

This study examines two longstanding but thinly evidenced claims regarding credentialing requirements for teachers in the early grades (pre-K, K, 1, 2, and 3): 1) that elementary education (ELED) educator standards, under which many U.S. early grade teachers are prepared, address early instructional practices less adequately than early childhood…

The amount of intentional, instructional, purposeful play has decreased in primary grades, and didactic, test-driven instruction has increased. Emerging neuroscientific evidence is beginning to highlight the significant effects the toxic stress from poverty has on developing brains. Almost half of American children can be considered to come from…

The Easy-Play Model offers a defined framework to organize games that promote an inclusive and enjoyable sport experience. The model can be implemented by participants playing sports in educational, recreational or social contexts with the goal of achieving an active lifestyle in an inclusive, cooperative and enjoyable environment. The Easy-Play…

In the 2014 report, "Closing the Achievement Gap Through Modification of Neurocognitive and Neuroendocrine Function: Results from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of an Innovative Approach to the Education of Children in Kindergarten," researchers examined the impacts of "Tools of the Mind" on cognitive and academic…