How can teachers encourage productive struggle in mathematics and yet minimize the exposure to shame often associated with struggle? In this article, the authors offer constructive ways to position struggle in the classroom to minimize shame and promote doers of mathematics.

Human development theories identify child-initiated play as the primary source of early learning. Accordingly, the role of early childhood educators is to utilise the natural medium of play as a context for learning; an educational approach known as play-based learning. Recently, Western Australia (WA) has experienced an erosion of play-based…

An individual is born with millions of neurons and the quality of the experiences he/she will have at the early years can potentially determine the future life of that person. This makes quality early childhood education pivotal. However, the perception people have about this influence how they prepare themselves to provide that quality early…

Pedagogy is understood as embedded in the relationship between teaching and learning. In a globalising world with cross-cultural educational reforms, how the teaching-learning relationship is understood, recognised and developed is important. Reforms to the Saudi Early Years curriculum are based on the American High/Scope Model and Developmentally…

In this follow-up to "Guidance for Every Child," author Dan Gartrell, EdD, expands on the advice broached in that book -- that children need guidance rather than discipline. Guidance is teaching for healthy emotional and social development. On a day-to-day basis as conflicts occur, guidance is teaching children to learn from their…

Laurie Ewert-Krocker emphasizes the teacher's role in nature's prepared environment. Without directing or controlling the child's work, learning spaces can be maximized for concentration by connecting the adolescent's intrinsic learning to the beauty and order of the natural world. The most artful balance is the global understanding of the…

Social-emotional skills provide a critical foundation for learning and wellbeing in early childhood and beyond. In this article we present specific teaching strategies that teachers can implement within the context of supportive, responsive relationships to foster young children's developing social-emotional competence. The teaching strategies…

The benefits of play to children's development and academic learning are often discussed in the research. However, inconsistencies in definitions of play and differing perspectives concerning the purpose of play in educational settings make it challenging for teachers to determine how to productively integrate play-based pedagogies into their…

Polli Soholt points to normalization in the first plane as leading to the successful realization of the human personality, which is the basis of social development. Children who have cultivated concentration and purposeful work at an early age develop the virtues to become world citizens. Normalization can be assisted by certain practices: 1)…

This author acknowledges that teachers agree that "adolescents aren't always interested in the topics adults consider important for them to learn." It is easy for adults who have forgotten the wonder and uncertainty of the adolescent years to declare that students today are more uninterested in school and undisciplined in life than…

Excellent teachers in early childhood programs are intentional in all they do with and for children. They do not assume that children's development will happen without support, encouragement, and scaffolding or without presenting appropriate challenges for the children. Intentionality is a key message in "Developmentally Appropriate Practice…

Well-informed teachers of young children recognize the importance of children's social development. The development of social skills lays a critical foundation for later academic achievement as well as work-related skills. Social development is such a key issue with young children that a number of methods to address social skills have been…

Debunks various myths and misperceptions concerning developmentally appropriate practices. Developmental appropriateness is a philosophy, not a curriculum. Despite using alternative learning strategies such as guided play, teachers are in control, facilitate real academic learning, and build on what they already know. DAP is universal and can…

This reference guide describes the implementation and use of mixed-age classrooms in Oregon. Those schools that wished to be included provided information on a prepared form. Responses from 94 elementary schools from 23 counties are presented. Each school's profile includes information on school statistics, a description of the program, how the…

Young dancers, girls most particularly, are subject to subtle and not-so-subtle messages of exploitation based on sex. What are the implications for dance educators who are trying hard to advocate for dance and who are trying to encourage appropriate pedagogical practices? Due to the hegemonic pervasiveness of "objectifying" dancers for…