This study explored preschool teachers' beliefs about the benefits of young children's outdoor play and play in naturalized play environments. Three face-to-face in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews were administered. For data analysis, Charmaz's (2006) constructivist grounded theory was employed using two steps of coding, initial and…

Bringing learning through play pedagogies to schools and children requires major investments in teacher professional development (TPD) that builds teachers' understanding of the value of learning through play, enables them to build and practice strategies and skills to support learning through play in the classroom, and supports their ongoing…

In this conceptual article, we propose a new approach to investigating changeable factors in teaching. Using a constructivist approach as a conceptual framework, we argue for investigating changeable factors recognizing their malleability and suggest studying teaching as a set of natural experiments. Methodologically, we propose an abductive…

Calls to bring more equity into science education research (McWayne and Melzi, 2023) are most notable for early childhood. We know very little about the teaching of science to infants and toddlers, yet this is where science education begins. To address the dearth in research, we undertook an in-depth intervention study in an Australian early…

This article will provide a guide for physical educators to implementing play-based learning within their curriculum, including how play-based learning can be implemented, how to create a conducive environment that allows for play-based learning, and examples of activities that involve play-based learning.

Preschools and kindergartens will become the happiest environment for children when they adopt innovative thinking about the value of active playful learning, have only developmentally appropriate expectations, manage behavior solely with kindness, and, in general, foster healthy social-emotional development and create a joyful, positive…

Children identified with developmental disabilities or delays (DD) are increasingly being educated in inclusive mainstream classroom environments. At the kindergarten level, there have been pedagogical shifts towards the promotion of play-based learning, with few resources addressing how teachers can support inclusion in play. Forty-two Ontario…

Research indicates that mathematical understanding before formal schooling influences later attainment. This study investigated the mathematical activities of preschool-aged children in Japan, a neglected topic despite the high mathematical attainment of Japanese children. Preschool activities were investigated using surveys, observations, and…

The value and importance of play for children's well-being, learning and development is evidenced by its inclusion within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its increased policy and research presence on a national and international stage. However, with a need for educators and pupils to navigate a range of implicit tensions in…

This article analyses the educational possibilities of art installations in the training of future early childhood and primary school teachers. I start by reviewing the origins of installation art before presenting an experience designed for teachers based on the creation of scale models and installation experiences. Scale model installations…

This study examined the affordances of an embodied humanoid robot to engage children in play and learning from the perspective of embodied cognition in two studies as part of multiyear design research. In Study One, we observed how the robot's embodiment, accompanied by its sensors and movements, elicited embodied reactions of eleven children…

Increasingly concerns are expressed about the formalisation of early childhood education and the loss of opportunities for children's play in a range of European and European heritage countries. This paper takes up this challenge by discussing, from a cultural-historical perspective, the relations between play and learning in pre-school settings.…

Background: Child care centers are important for children's behaviors. Aims: To examine the cross-sectional associations between child care environmental characteristics and physical activity and sedentary time in children. Methods: Participants were 124 toddlers and 118 preschoolers from 19 centers in Alberta and Ontario, Canada, in the…

This paper brings together two studies, conducted independently in two different countries, Turkey and Australia, both focusing on supporting early years teachers to research and strengthen their own practice in relation to play-based pedagogies. It reports on the professional learning programmes that were implemented to improve understanding…

There are some studies indicating that parents make a significant contribution to children's conceptual learning through play, whereas very few studies have been done to identify parents' pedagogical positioning in children's imaginative play for supporting their learning and development. This paper is seeking how Indian-Australian immigrant…