Purpose: Being "literate" is well established as key to active civic participation, right from the earliest years of life. Young children's natural curiosity and motivation to understand the world and their places within it through playful explorations offers rich opportunities for learning. Reported here are findings from a STEAM…

Research studies show that all students--young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural--benefit immensely from classrooms filled with art, creativity, and laughter. Fun, playfulness, creative thinking, and individual expression reinforce positive experiences, which in turn lead to more engaged students, better classroom environments, and…

L. S. Vygotsky's contributions to social research shifted paradigms by constructing now-foundational theories of teaching, learning, language, and their educational interactions. This article contextualizes a nearly forgotten, century-old research corpus, "The Fundamentals of Defectology." Drawing on "Defectology," two…

Introducing creativity to the classroom is a concern for teachers, governments and future employers around the world, and there has been a drive to make experiences at school more exciting, relevant, challenging and dynamic for all young people, ensuring they leave education able to contribute to the global creative economy. "Creative…

This paper details aspects of a research project that explored nineteen Australian primary (elementary) schoolteachers' perspectives of Creative Arts education. The study investigated the participants' personal Arts experiences and training, as well as their views of Arts pedagogy. In depth interviews with the participants highlighted the…

New theory on adaptive teaching reflects the social dynamics of classrooms to explain what practicing teachers do to address student differences related to learning. In teaching adaptively, teachers respond to learners as they work. Teachers read student signals to diagnose needs on the fly and tap previous experience with similar learners to…

This discussion of creativity in its educational context first considers the role of the creative product, process, personality, and environment. A proposal for teaching student teachers to teach more creatively is offered. The approach stresses development of originality, fluency, abstraction, elaboration, and openness. (DB)

The article helps elementary teachers develop science programs geared to their students, emphasizing the appropriateness of hands-on activities and developmental learning. It presents three Earth Day water projects on rain and puddles, water drops and surface tension, and water purification that can be tailored for specific classes. (SM)

To actively and pleasurably involve children in a wide variety of literature, a teacher can follow a "World's Fair model" to broaden each child's language ability while guiding him through the genres. The child, encouraged to develop an "allocentric" mode of perception, extends himself as he might at a fair to take in new objects and information…

Describes Louisiana's "Every Day Counts" program which helps boost elementary students' math skills via daily 10-minute activities with their bulletin board. The school calendar is used to explore patterns, examine data, and make predictions. Children work with place value, measurement, time, money, mental math, geometry, estimation,…

Suggests ways for teachers to help elementary school children connect with history by enhancing their natural interest in stories. The approaches, adaptable to any age and topic, include using children's literature, acting, and storytelling. Stories of the past provide a base upon which children build larger ideas about history. (SM)

Examines issues raised at the third meeting of experimental educators, held in Moscow in 1988. Argues a teacher's creativity guarantees an educational system's health and successful reform. In a question-answer format, analyzes resistance to educational change, and teachers' responsibilities, rights, and relationships with students and…

Provides a brief discussion of the possibilities and pitfalls of using video for a research or final project. Outlines some pre-production questions to ask and guidelines to follow in producing a video for academic credit. Discusses technical considerations, content, and issues of confidentiality and ethics. (MJP)

Reports on activities and concerns of the Soviet Union's Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in conjunction with educational reform. Calls for systematic improvement, of which "the pedagogy of cooperation" is only a part. Emphasizes creative teaching methods and better coordination between research and classroom practice. Reviews individual…