The purpose of this research is to describe the development of a STEM-based learning environment for early childhood teacher candidates that is valid, practical, and has potential effects. The research sample consisted of 25 pre-service early childhood teachers and 19 students Kindergarten. The research method used was design research with the…

Fuji Kindergarten in Tachikawa, Japan, is an innovative school design. The building itself, designed by Tezuka Architects, is a key part of the children's education. In this article, the architects describe how the project developed and their inspirations and goals for this unique education facility that places children at the center. The spaces…

This article considers how teachers' encounters with a newly built learning space are complicit in the practices performed in that space. It builds on previous research into the relationship between learning spaces and pedagogical change by highlighting the acoustic aspects and how they were perceived by teachers in a primary school. Over two…

This study employed an inductive qualitative approach to understanding the effects of local culture on early childhood curriculum development in two Hong Kong kindergartens. A triangulation of interviews, observations and documents was established, and cultural-historical activity theory was employed as the theoretical framework. The results…

This paper considers the pedagogical collaborations between early childhood teachers in kindergarten (4 years) and the first year of school (5 years) in one Australian State. We report on a year-long project that brought these early childhood teachers together as we asked them to design STEM learning ecologies that would not only support new…

We interrogate the opportunities and challenges of using mixed methods (MM) within a developmental evaluation (DE) context by drawing on two illustrative cases that investigated educational change in Canada. Methods: Multi-case design and cross-case analysis, with a focus on examining common patterns across the two cases, enabling new ways of…

This article reports from a Teacher-led Innovation Fund project that investigated connecting practices and resources for mathematical learning between a kindergarten and the first year of school. Teachers at both sites were teacher-researchers in the 2-year project. Our results highlighted expected and unexpected aspects of connections and…

School leadership plays a critical role in providing appropriate and sustainable curriculum practices. However, there remain significant knowledge gaps in understanding early childhood curriculum leadership in Chinese contexts. In order to examine early childhood curriculum leadership in such contexts, this study analyses and interprets data from…

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were several women in Italy, who gave pedagogy a new impulse. Among those women, two educationalists, Maria Montessori and Giuseppina Pizzigoni introduced new visions of the school by designing strategies that overcame the barriers to education. The first, with the structuring of a method, arose in Rome…

Brazil spends more money, and a higher percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on education than other Latin American countries. However, many of the outcomes of the country's education system are worse than its peer countries. We call this mismatch Brazil's Education Paradox. One of the primary reasons for Brazil's Education Paradox is…

School-based curriculum innovations have been widely implemented in Chinese kindergartens since the turn of the new millennium. However, in the absence of professional guidance, Chinese kindergartens have been forced to "ride a blind horse" when developing curriculum. The aim of this study was to understand the nature of and mechanisms…

Rather than being confined to academic knowledge provided by university-based programmes, there are calls for teacher education to embrace the knowledge situated within local communities. Drawing on the theories of community knowledge in teaching and teacher education, this paper reports the results of a study that explores community members'…

This book engages readers via the international contributions from "home" field sites around the world and international authors. Importantly, the various chapters address a wide spectrum of educational contexts -- ranging from higher education, to K-12 public and private schools, to prison schools. The realistic accounts portrayed in…

This report summarizes key indicators that assess the status of the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise within the United States and that illustrate the U.S. global position in multiple aspects of the S&E enterprise. This includes information about the geographic distribution of S&E activities; science, technology, engineering,…

Much research on educational innovations treats them as purposeful endeavours, initiated with a clear goal for improvement of practice and eventually evaluating the fidelity of their implementation as well as effectiveness. However, innovative practices in schools can have many sources and their implementation often takes a surprising and…