The purpose of this study is to explore a theoretical idea in relation to a body of empirical material from a reading activity involving a picturebook on shadow. The theoretical idea, sprung from variation theory, entails children's discernment through synchronic simultaneity as a key to their ability to imagine. To explore this idea, an analysis…

Michael Polanyi famously stated that "we can know more than we can tell," but is it possible to know more than we imagine? Or, on the contrary, does imagining play a role in elucidating what we feel we know but cannot fully express? In this article, the author argues that imagining can elucidate knowledge by helping us to name and color…

Vygotsky stated that concepts cannot be transmitted from mind to mind but instead developed through communication. Specifically, the instructional use of language would be the means for concept development. However, there is evidence to show that school concepts are particularly difficult to develop. Argumentation has been shown to promote the…

Previous research has indicated that young children's executive functions (EFs) can be bolstered through role-play [e.g. the 'Batman™ effect'; White et al.]. However, what is not clear is whether it is the role-playing of another's perspective, or something about the role played, which is responsible for the Batman™ effect. The current experiment…

Emotion regulation--as a vital part of children's development, school readiness, and academic success--begins to develop in infancy and toddler time. Much of the research on toddler emotion regulation are correlational studies in laboratory settings. Little attention has been directed to toddlers' emotion regulation in everyday naturalistic…

Reading texts of historical educators and being informed about their works and lives can be inspiring and exemplary for future teachers. In this article, I explore the learning processes that occur when student teachers study the classics, using frameworks from different disciplines, including social learning theory, drama theory, Aristotelian…

As societies become more aware of the importance of early socio-emotional skills for children's later success, teachers report that they are ill-equipped to support and enhance these skills within their 'traditional' teacher role. This paper turns to the contributions that Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and his adherents have made to our…

In this article, the authors problematize the dichotomization of play and learning that often shapes the agenda of early childhood education research and practice. This dichotomization is driven in part by the tendency to define learning in terms of formal learning (i.e. learning as an outcome of direct instruction and school-based approaches that…

According to Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), the highest levels of abstract thinking and self-regulation in preschool development are established in "pretend play using object substitutions." An extensive research literature supports Vygotsky's empirical model of the internalization of self-guiding speech (social speech > private speech…

Although different transformative learning theories have been described in the literature, a detailed integrative theory is yet to emerge. I argue that unduly intellectualist assumptions regarding cognition have hampered current understandings and have obscured transformative learning's cognitive and metacognitive essence. Firstly, Mezirow's…

This article focuses on authenticity of second language identity which has been at issue. Previous research of the authenticity of second language identity has revealed that second language identity may be inauthentic due to the impact from social context and the individual's competence and desires. The discussion in this article aims at exploring…

The author suggests the brain's cerebellum and cerebral cortex are the origin of culture and considers the cerebellar models that came to constitute culture to be derived specifically from play. He summarizes recent research on the behavioral, cognitive, and affective evolution of the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex that shows the development…

This paper aims to discuss the relevance that the concept of "perezhivanie" had for Soviet psychology and its implication for the development of topics that have been largely neglected both in Soviet psychology and in the Western Vygotskian tradition. According to the position defended in this paper, "perezhivanie" is not just…

Time factors complexly, dynamically interact with each other and with other contextualized variables in language learning. The time-tied nature of language learning is captured in what I call the "time-prism," which is the central symbol of temporality in this paper. The facets of the prism discussed in this article are (1) language…

Many American preschool children enter kindergarten without the emergent literacy skills needed to learn to read. To address this problem, this multicase qualitative study investigated the emergent literacy practices at Steiner Waldorf-inspired and Reggio Emilia-inspired schools. The research questions focused on how alternative preschool…