Play, which is both a context and process for children's learning, has become a pivotal pedagogical component in global early childhood education. The uptake of intentional teaching has contributed to the shift in understandings of play, from viewing play as a means of recreation and entertainment to a more socio-cultural perspective that…

When first released in 2009, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) recognised intentional teaching as one of its eight core practices (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). In 2022, the EYLF was revised to include a broader understanding of 'intentionality', encompassing both the educator and the child…

Expectations for increased conceptual outcomes in the early childhood education sector have foregrounded a need for more evidenced-based practice in support of children's play. One such avenue for researching models of play practices that support cognitive outcomes is to study the implementation of Playworlds. Grounded in cultural-historical…

There is a growing consensus in early childhood education and care (ECEC) that intentional teaching is pivotal for deep level learning, especially when teaching scientific concepts. However, intentional teaching alone does not always account for how educators communicate their intentions with children. To bridge this gap, we explore the…

Risky play promotes learning for children but can be challenging for adults who may then avoid providing these opportunities for children. Research about educators' intentional teaching for risky play is limited. The focus of this paper is a project where educators sought to change practice by embedding intentional teaching within children's risky…

Working with stories of children's relationships with place and technologies from an early childhood education pedagogical inquiry research project in Melbourne, Australia and Victoria, Canada, this article takes up the concept of "pedagogical intentions" to consider how educators and researchers might cultivate intentional teaching…

This study investigated the practice of two early-childhood educators and their interactions with 24 children (mean age 5.2 years) in an inner-suburban Australian preschool setting. The study specifically examined the nature of how educators 'intentionally teach' concepts to young children in a child-centred programme. Six hours of educator-child…

Parents play an influential role in children's emotional development. Numerous quantitative studies have examined the correlations between a "single" dimension of parents' emotion socialisation practices (e.g. parental emotion expression or attitudes) and children's emotional development. However, little attention has been paid to a…

There has been a paucity of literature investigating the teaching beliefs and intentions of Australian physical education teacher education (PETE) students that enter teacher training. The First-year Influences on Teaching Perspectives Exploratory (FIT-PE) study explores the teaching perspectives of first year PETE students; including teaching…

Background: This study was grounded in the differentiated instructional model where teachers tailor content, process/support, and product in response to their students' levels of readiness and interest. The value of differentiated teaching is well established; however, the implementation of such a technique is difficult due to differences in…

Despite the endangered status of the orangutan, very little research has sought to understand what people know about this species or the conservation challenges they face. As zoos are well placed to influence such understandings, the present study sought to explore knowledge following a visit to orangutan exhibits at three Australian zoos…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate ways in which university students are introduced to disciplines and thence to the professions based on those disciplines. Design/methodology/approach: E-mail interviews with a broad sample of university teachers in a variety of professional disciplines formed the basis of a grounded theory…

Technology is available and accessible in many mathematics classrooms. Adopting technology to support teaching and learning requires teachers to change their teaching practices. This paper reports the responses of a diverse cohort of 92 secondary mathematics teachers who chose to respond to an Australian state-wide survey (Mathematics with…

A facilitator is considered to act intentionally when they are deliberate about what they are doing and can provide rationales for their actions. The same facilitator is said to practice intuitively when they are not able to articulate a clear rationale for their actions, yet they are still able to facilitate effectively. A review of the…

In this article results from an examination of beliefs about teaching and learning primary mathematics are reported. Commencing and graduating pre-service teachers completed written surveys and interviews. Common to many pre-service teachers were memories of mathematics lessons with teacher demonstrations, completing set exercises, using…