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This case study examines how elementary preservice teacher candidates used "hybrid" (both paper and digital) notebooks, the extent to which the digital portfolio showed evidence of changes in understanding, and whether candidates plan to use notebooks in their science lesson and unit plan assignments. Activity and reflection entries posted in an online digital portfolio from candidates in 3 science methods courses (each a bounded case) were analyzed for patterns in use and evidence of changes in thinking, and lesson and unit plans were examined to determine whether candidates planned to use some kind of notebook in their teaching. Findings show that when using hybrid notebooks, candidates make use of digital tools, but many prefer having the option to use paper notebooks to synthesize their reflections. Evidence of changes in thinking about science content and pedagogy were found in both paper notebooks and in digital entries, but more often in digital reflections. Instructor modeling might play a role in how candidates plan to use notebooks for learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are sound educational and examining reasons for the use of coursework assessment and practical assessment of student work by teachers in schools for purposes of reporting examination grades. Coursework and practical work test a range of different curriculum goals to final papers and increase the validity and reliability of the result. However, the use of coursework and practical work in tests and examinations has been a matter of constant political as well as educational debate in England over the last 30 years. The paper reviews these debates and developments and argues that as accountability pressures increase, the evidence base for published results is becoming narrower and less valid as the system moves back to wholly end-of-course testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering is receiving unprecedented attention in early childhood and elementary classrooms. Teachers of young children may recognize the ways young children act as natural engineers as they design and create with materials from the classroom or playground. Everyday experiences such as choosing the type of bag: paper, plastic, or a reusable cloth bag at the grocery store can also be used to build explorations with engineering design and challenges. The meaningful integration of children's literature with engineering design challenges provides the further benefit of supporting the kinds of literacy instruction fundamental to primary classrooms. One method to consider is the use of Text Sets, a strategy from literacy that involves the selection and use of a variety of texts chosen intentionally along one or more dimensions where multiple kinds of texts might meet multiple needs or purposes. Lesson suggestions are provided for using text sets of books from different literary genres including biography, narrative, expository, and procedural books and activities to explore the properties of paper, plastic, and fabric with preschool through second grade students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traces the evolution of the elementary PROTEACH teacher education program. Goal of the program; Key features of elementary PROTEACH; General structure of the program; Thematic focus; Factors influencing the implementation and revision of PROTEACH.

The work of elementary science teaching is challenging given the wide array of subject matter most teachers are expected to teach and a systematic de-prioritisation of science at these grades. In this literature review (63 papers; 2010–2020), we use a framework of readiness for science teaching. Using this framework allows us to illustrate foundational characteristics and abilities that preservice teachers may start with and develop as they become well-started beginners for elementary teaching in the face of systemic challenges. To this end, we identify what is known from the research literature about the strengths that preservice elementary teachers bring to this difficult work with regard to their characteristics and abilities in addition to the challenges they face, describing a foundation on which preservice teachers can build. We also highlight additional studies that show how teacher education can build on preservice teachers' strengths and support them in areas that are challenging. We identify themes around novices' identities, dispositions, emotions, beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, knowledge, engagement in and with science practices, lesson planning, and lesson enactment. Finally, we highlight four implications for science teacher educators, noting focal areas that may compensate for challenges preservice elementary teachers face while building on their strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several activities wherein teachers can help elementary students to understand the practical applications of scientific methods with the use of paper towels. Cost analysis; The quickest picker-upper; Volume of absorption; Comparing cost effectiveness; Physical concept of the activities. INSET: Which is greener?.

The research question studied in this paper is how teachers' task designing can be enhanced in professional development. We show that this can be done by scaffolding. Scaffolding is used in problem solving and we apply it by considering designing a task as a problem. In the paper, we describe a professional development of four teachers led by a mathematics educator. The professional development consisted of 10 meetings. The teachers were first exposed to a well-designed task in geometry as learners and then were asked to design new geometry tasks for their students. The mathematics educator helped them by supplying scaffolds such as modelling, reflection, articulation and worked examples. The data consisted of video-recordings of the workshops and a semi-structured interview with each of the teachers at the end of the project. The data analysis shows how the use of particular scaffolds was helpful while preserving the teachers' autonomy as task designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article centres on formative writing assessment with children in the elementary grades. Participants in the investigations included in this special issue represent a span from the very youngest students just learning to write to students in fifth and sixth grades who generally have overcome the barriers of knowing how to encode writing, but who face increased demands for producing discursive, audience adapted texts.

Most children and young people (CYP) worldwide are classified as inactive because they fail to meet the World Health Organisation recommendations for physical activity. Online interventions that use devices like exergames, smartphones, social media, and wearables have the potential to improve physical activity engagement because of their extensive reach and opportunities for learning and use across contexts. The objectives of this systematic review were to update the evidence-base on online physical activity interventions for CYP since 2015, analyse the outcomes associated with online interventions across physical, cognitive, social and affective domains, and assess the mechanisms (i.e. pedagogical strategies) of online interventions that resulted in outcomes related to physical activity. A systematic search of the literature was conducted across 4 databases (MEDLINE, PudMed, EBSCO and EMBASE) using key words related to online interventions, physical activity and CYP. The inclusion criteria were: CYP aged 5–18 years in the general population; use of an online-based medium to deliver an intervention related to physical activity; outcomes related to changes to physical activity, and in physical, cognitive, social and affective domains; and quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies. A modified version of the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs was used to assess study quality. A mixed methods approach was used to analyse and synthesise all evidence. 26 papers were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria, including randomised control trials (n=8), non-randomised interventions (n=12), observational studies (n=3) and qualitative papers (n=3). The target population of most studies was children (<12 years) where data collection mostly took place in a school setting, in elementary schools, and in physical education lessons. The interventions reported on positive changes to CYP's physical activity behaviours, through increases in physical activity levels and emotions, attitudes and motivations toward physical activity. Gamification and personalisation were the main mechanisms of online interventions that elicited positive changes in behaviours. The studies in this review provide a convincing rationale for the use of online interventions to support CYP's engagement with physical activity, due to the positive effects on physical and affective outcomes. New evidence is provided on the key mechanisms of online interventions (gamification and personalised learning) and the contexts in which online interventions are likely to be effective (elementary school PE) that can be used by health and education practitioners, organisations, policy makers and/or researchers to reach and engage CYP in physical activity. This study had some limitations that mainly relate to variation in study design, over-reliance of self-reported measures, and sample characteristics, that prevented comparative analysis. Registration number: PROPSERO; CRD42020215597. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As I sorted through my Mother's belongings, I reflected on things that shaped my childhood and continue to inform my life experiences, including how I engage with curricular materials and my students. As a former elementary teacher, turned teacher educator, I understand that students' knowledges and experiences shape their academic learning. Framed by Pinar and Grumet's theory of currere, and through poetic inquiry, this paper considers childhoods as a synthetical, proleptic, moment. My stories, combined with stories of my former students, inspired this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the South African findings from an international mixed methods study between the LEGO Foundation, Dubit and the Universities of Sheffield (England) and Cape Town (South Africa) on young children's learning with digital technology. The findings of the study, the first of its kind in South Africa, show the consistency of qualities and experience of play, but also reveal socio-economic, linguistic, ethnic, gender and racial inequalities in the play environments of both groups of 3–11-year-olds. Yet, despite these structural inequalities, the play ecologies of children in resource-constrained environments show their creativity within the digital/non-digital environment. The paper discusses some of the analytical tools used and the geo-political issues raised, and considers these in conjunction with selected data. We conclude that the different socio-cultural conditions and geo-political realities offer new insights about the role global education research can play in helping combat structural inequalities in resource-constrained environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging technologies have been widely used in applications designed to increase potential for learning enhancement. This study develops a mobile application to integrate augmented reality (AR) functionality into physical puzzle-type games. In the application, learners see visualizations of three-dimensional (3D) dinosaurs and interact with relevant multimedia learning content. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed platform, experiments were conducted to evaluate impact on learner achievement and motivation. Experimental (AR-based) and control (paper-based) groups included a total of 53 fifth-grade students. Pre- and post-activity questionnaires (adapted from the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction (ARCS) Model of Motivational Design), and pre- and post-learning quizzes were used for assessment. Results showed that the AR-based group scored significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the Paper-based group, raising implications for a new approach to teaching natural science at the elementary school level. However, the AR-based group also showed a relative drop in confidence, suggesting that further investigation is needed to understand the impact of AR technology on learner motivation. This study provides a case for the integration of AR technology into typical physical games. The results raise important concerns for further research in technology enhancement in education. Future research should include a wider range of content topics and target groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cummins suggested that within a social context of unequal power relations, classroom interactions are never neutral, but located on a continuum ranging between the reinforcement of coercive relations of power and the promotion of collaborative relations of power. Drawing on this understanding, the purpose of this paper is to examine instructional practices and interactional dynamics in elementary English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to explore the impact of the English-dominant instructional context on emergent bilingual students’ access to and investment in literacy learning. The paper is based upon a selection of data from a collaborative research project conducted in a multilingual, multicultural elementary school in a large Canadian city. The paper describes students’ creation of multimodal, multilingual stories about their migration experiences and explores how making these stories opened opportunities for negotiating understandings of students’ identifications. The paper concludes that, though relations of power tend to endure in English language teaching, pedagogical pivot points exist, offering the possibility to transform these understandings through an affective practice and relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates an Environmental Education programme where the barriers and opportunities for professional development, access to specialist resources, provision through technology and partnership are considered within the context of Wales and the demands of a new curriculum. The findings reflect on the first three years of an education programme that uses a Theory of Change framework to plan for learning with 9–11 year olds in Wales, UK. Drawing on qualitative individual and group interviews with teachers and pupils across six schools, the successes and challenges of this framework are presented. I suggest that combining a Theory of Change framework with a Capability Approach—focussing on values and agency—offers a more useful planning tool for curriculums developing strategies where teacher agency is encouraged—compared to using one approach alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey study investigated structural relationships among school culture, self-efficacy, and outcome expectation, and teacher agency development toward the national curriculum reform in South Korea, employing Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Specifically, focusing on school culture as an environmental factor and teacher self-efficacy and outcome expectation as two different personal determinants, as per Bandura's model, this study aims to examine how these factors influence Korean teachers' agency development towards the national curriculum reform that has enhanced autonomy on them. In all, 605 elementary school teachers' data were analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis with phantom model approach. Findings indicated that the school culture fostered by supportive teacher-principal and teacher- teacher relationships directly influenced individual teachers' agency over either school- or classroom-level curriculum. In addition, teachers' self-efficacy and outcome expectation both directly influenced their agency towards reform for enhanced autonomy and mediated associations between school culture fostered by supportive teacher-student relationships and teacher agency to exercise curricular autonomy within their classrooms. The paper gives implications applying these findings, considers the utility of SCT in the Korean context, and covers limitations and future research ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a systematic literature review of Bhabha’s Third Space theory in empirical research focussing on children (aged 4–12 years) in multicultural educational institutions. Communities around the world are becoming ever more diverse and, within educational policy, there is a resultant paradox between increasing diversity on the one hand and complexity reduction through curriculum standardisation on the other. Third Space theory has gained significant popularity within educational research as a powerful lens which practitioners can adopt to support children in culturally diverse communities to fuse knowledge from home and school contexts. This paper reviews empirical research that utilised the third space to support children’s development of academic skills while simultaneously nurturing their agency and identities. The paper also draws attention to contemporary applications of Third Space theory with some cautions. While modifications to theory over time are inevitable, some adaptations are far removed from its founding principles of transformation and liberation. Hence, the appropriateness of using the term Third Space becomes questionable. The article concludes with recommendations for future practitioners, policy makers and researchers to consider when adopting Third Space theory as a framework for supporting children’s learning and identity development in educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show how children's creativity manifests in literary aesthetics and how they explore moral subjects as a result. Literary aesthetics involve a range of artistic elements or expressions within a textual work. Writers may use aesthetic properties to express individual appreciation or how people view the world, often in relation to moral values. This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the relation between aesthetics and moral value in children's writing. First, we situate our discussion within the context of reflexivity theory, which framed the larger study from which these data are drawn. Second, we apply appraisal theory within the lens of reflexivity to analyse children's writing samples for their aesthetic representations of moral qualities. As a result of our study, we show how teachers may improve and complicate the way children practice literary aesthetics in their writing. We argue it is important for students to learn about aesthetics in writing as aesthetics are a key quality of literary expression and may educate readers on the perception and moral values of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a qualitative inquiry looking into the experiences of parental involvement in the context of Philippine public elementary education. This paper has two goals. First, it aims to present the strategies that Filipino parents employ in order to influence children's education. Second, it aims to examine unique involvement strategies among Filipino parents. Data of this paper were culled from 12 focus group discussions conducted in 5 provinces of the country. The results of the study suggest that there are parental involvement strategies unique to the Philippine context owing to the poor economic conditions of some Filipino families. While it is not directly related to education, making ends meet and providing food for the family's table were seen as parental involvement strategies. To compensate for the limited direct involvement in education, Filipino parents looked for other means to be able to help their children excel such as exempting the latter from doing household chores, avoiding vices, and maintaining quality family relationships. It against this backdrop that this paper recommends that future quantitative studies on parental involvement in the Filipino parents' context need to consider indirect parental involvement strategies as indicators or variables as these may have spillover impacts on children's schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Policy on Education (NPE) in Nigeria stipulates that every child should be taught in the language of its immediate environment in the first three years of elementary education. This paper examines the NPE as it affects elementary schools in Ogu-speaking communities in Southwestern Nigeria. Using the research instruments of interviews and focus group discussions across three local government areas in Ogun and Lagos States, where there is a significant presence of Ogu people, data collected reveal that the NPE is not being implemented in the communities under study, as Yorùbá remains the medium of instruction. The study argues that rather than facilitating Ogu vitality, the policy has had negative implications for the language, as its speakers continue to experience widespread shift to Yorùbá. This is because Ogu children are forced to acquire some degree of proficiency in Yorùbá before they can even be admitted to elementary schools in their own communities. Inevitably, the paper does a critique of the contradictions of the NPE in Ogu-speaking communities and calls for government intervention in saving minority languages by seeing to it that it facilitates the actual implementation of the NPE in every community in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel process perspective on educational equality policies by examining the relationship between gender equality discourses and gender binary inequalities in the deliberative design process of the Finnish Basic Education Core Curriculum 2014. The analysis applies Nancy Fraser's theory of three-dimensional justice to feedback comments (n = 73) and the equality statements included in the draft and final core curricula. The study demonstrates how gender equality discourses affirm or transform gender binary inequalities and how they changed statements between curriculum versions. The findings show that transforming gender binarism was possibly a challenge to promoting equality in the curriculum design process: No discourse alone was able to transform binarism, and only discourses affirming binarism changed the final curriculum. This paper argues that a combination of redistributive and recognitive equality discourses can contribute to the transformation of gender binarism to make it a core element of educational equality discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative book design connects learning in visual arts and language arts. Explore the benefits of bookmaking and specific steps to create a variety of book formats with children. Examples of imaginative books, such as accordion, flip, paper bag, and pop-up, are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This theoretical paper explores how researching the identities of musician-teachers can be differently conceptualised through a critical posthuman lens. Wider calls to action demand an expanded professionalism of musician-teachers, but when such recommendations are combined with fixed notions of identity as self-contained and producible, they risk becoming essentialistic and exclusionary. Foregrounding the intricacies and tensions in locating the teacher subject therefore posits a need for theories of complexity and becoming. Barad's agential realism provides an onto-epistemological shift, such that the musician-teacher is not separable from the world, but intra-actively comes into being through a relational ontology, exposing identity as a mechanism of capture through series of agential cuts. These material-discursive entanglements and performativity of the dichotomous musician-teacher role are then discussed. By thinking difference differently and addressing relations of power, these have ethical implications for research and what comes to matter, drawing on non-representationalism and signalling post-qualitative methodologies. This philosophical framing does not serve to reduce complexity, to figure out what works, but rather stays with the trouble – the messiness – by arguing for future empirical work that is inclusionary in the widest sense and grounded in the embodied, affective experiences of musician-teachers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention on children and young people's (CYP) wellbeing has increased internationally over the past two decades, particularly in the context of education. This small scale, preliminary study was conducted across four state-funded schools in England (two primary; two secondary) amidst a time of policy change that saw the introduction of Mental Wellbeing Support Teams in schools, and the mandating of statutory Health Education curricula. The study investigated whether psycho-informed lessons could be developed aligned to curriculum guidelines, and how pupils would engage with this learning content. Drawing on Positive Education (PE) theory, and Self-Determination theory (SDT) the researchers worked collaboratively to co-develop and deliver lessons to CYP (aged 9–11 years, and 14–15 years). This paper describes the theoretical underpinnings of the lessons, learning activities used, and critically reflects on pupils' engagement. Implications for practice are considered and recommendations made regarding possible future teaching of mental wellbeing in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing community and parental connection with schools is a widely advocated means of improving levels of student learning and the quality and accountability of education systems across South Asia. This paper draws on a mixed-methods study of accountability relations in education in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Bihar. It explores two questions: what formal platforms exist to enhance connections between socially disadvantaged families and the schools serving them; and (how) do they influence engagement with student learning? It finds that various platforms have proliferated across public, low-cost private and non-government schools. But, while they promote enrolment attendance and monitoring, a substantive focus on student learning is empirically demonstrated to be missing everywhere. The paper argues that an apparently surprising similarity of (dis)connection is located in system features that are common across school types, locations and social structures. It proposes that this is a 'field' in which connection, facilitated by various platforms, is performed according to bureaucratised norms of accountability that even pervade family and community responses. Seeing this as a socially constituted 'field' that constrains meaningful discussion of learning across schooling provision for disadvantaged families contributes new insight for accountability-focused reforms in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a small-scale action research project aimed at helping a school whose teachers were concerned about the behaviour and achievement of their Year 8 group. Two focus group was used to identify any worries or concerns of pupils in Key Stage 3 (Years 7–9; aged 11–14). These concerns were further explored using a ranking exercise completed by all 486 pupils across the three year groups. The same pupils then completed the 'Psychological Sense of School Membership' questionnaire. The results of the ranking exercise are reported. The pupils' scores on the PSSM questionnaire suggests that pupils in Year 8 identified least with the aims of the school. The scores did show that a third (33%) of the pupils in Year 8 scored at a level regarded as 'of serious concern'on the PSSM questionnaire indicating a negative view of the school. The results of the both exercises were shared with the teachers and a plan drawn up th improve the school's pupil management. Further development of this initiative was bought to a halt by the closure of the school in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of writing skills to school and life success, there is scant research into the enabling and constraining conditions that shape elementary students' views about their writing practices. This paper examines students' views about writing through the lens of reflexivity theory. Applying an explanatory sequential model of mixed-method design, it first describes the development of a self-report questionnaire to investigate the views of 570 elementary students about themselves as writers. Second, it draws on semi-structured interviews with 46 students across Years 3 to 6. The results show that the majority of students see themselves as autonomous and meta-reflexive writers. In addition, results indicate time, teacher pedagogy and the place to practice writing as contextual conditions experienced by learners and place an emphasis on the personal conditions such as students' lack of confidence, persistence and ideas. We discuss implications for further practice in elementary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, opposition to traditional standardized tests is widespread, particularly obvious in the admissions context but also evident in elementary and secondary education. This opposition is fueled in significant part by the perception that tests perpetuate social injustice through their content, design, and use. To survive, as well as contribute positively, the measurement field must rethink assessment, including how to make it more socioculturally responsive. This paper offers a rationale for that rethinking and then employs provisional design principles drawn from various literatures to formulate a working definition and the beginnings of a theory. In the closing section, a path toward implementation is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing research interest in school inspection throughout Europe; however, there have been few comparative studies between Swedish and Norwegian school inspectorates. Such a study is necessary since little is known about how inspection policies are shaped through ‘governing modes’ in the two Nordic countries. This paper explores the similarities and differences between state school inspection policies within the two countries from 2002 to 2012. Based on a rigorous, comparative document analysis of 23 policy documents, a particular focus is given to how school inspection adheres to professional-bureaucratic control as a mode of governing and/or details national expectations through performance audit, potentially intervening into school practices. We demonstrate that even if the cases of public administration seem to be somewhat homogenous from the outside, there is substantial evidence of major differences in the inspection policies of these two countries which can be explored by comparative analysis. Specifically, this paper contributes both conceptually and comparatively to understanding how a study of purposive and evaluative modes of governing can add to the field of school inspection studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several reports published within issue on topics including pastoral education, interrelationship between children's experiences of the natural world and pastoral education, and the therapeutic power of visual creativity.

A compositional effect is when pupil attainment is associated with the characteristics of their peers, over and above their own individual characteristics. Pupils at academically selective schools, for example, tend to out-perform similar-ability pupils who are educated with mixed-ability peers. Previous methodological studies however have shown that 'phantom' compositional effects can arise purely from measurement error. Through simulations using English National Pupil Database data, this paper demonstrates that moderate rates of measurement error in baseline scores can produce a systemic bias in value-added ('Progress') scores that favours higher ability pupils. This bias is large enough to explain the ostensibly superior performance of selective 'grammar' schools that is seen in the English data and create an appreciable bias across the school performance distribution. This paper describes how such biases can arise from 'regression attenuation' and discusses the more general methodological implications of the results. The paper concludes that the consequences of baseline measurement error on school value-added scores is greatly mitigated by controls for school-level prior attainment, but that the English 'Progress' value-added measures, as they do not control for prior attainment at school-level, are seriously biased and that the observed 'grammar school effect' is likely to be largely or wholly spurious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores development in teacher beliefs and ideas for adaptations with respect to students who display challenging behaviour. These students have the same right to inclusive education as other students, but evidence suggest that this still is a partially unsolved issue. The study's context is an elementary school using Lesson Study as method for professional development over a four-year period. We have used content analysis and compared teacher talk during planning meetings at the beginning and end of the four years. The main findings are increased attention towards student behaviour, increased use of contextual explanations for student behaviour, a marked increase in ideas for adaptations, and ideas changing from exerting external control to engaging students in learning activities. The findings are discussed as to whether they support inclusion and how Lesson Study might have contributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented for the featured articles within the March 2014 issue, focusing on schooling in African countries, including contributions by Shoko Yamada, Christine Smith Ellison, and Roger Jeffery.

An introduction is presented that discusses topics including Irish government recommendations for improving literacy and numeracy, the use of the Mosley Model of Circle Time in primary schools, and the use of mind mapping and concept mapping in science education.

The day-to-day environment surrounding the child influences its physical, social, and emotional wellbeing. The study was conducted to understand how the perception of children and their parents about the outdoor play spaces influences their outdoor participation. Face-to-face interviews with parents, a walk-along interview with children and audit of public open space were conducted in different neighbourhoods in the city of Pune (India) which differed in social and spatial characteristics. This paper suggests a conceptual framework that defines the setting of participation and factors influencing the motivation of participation in the outdoor environment. The quantitative study of parents' interviews and qualitative analysis of children's sketches highlight different aspects like play and mobility range, open space visitation, activities of children, spatial qualities of the open space and perception of children and their parents. The findings brought forth difference in parents and children's perception of risk in open spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore students' self-reported growth of mathematical understanding resulting from writing about the historical development of a mathematical concept. Using excerpts from undergraduate students' written reflections about their experiences with the task of writing about mathematics, this study describes three emergent themes concerning how these students explicitly assessed their own learning: self-awareness of initial understanding, learning from the task of writing, and deeper understanding of mathematics. The results indicate that writing about the historical development of mathematics encouraged students to acknowledge their existing mathematical understanding as well as extend or develop new understandings. Furthermore, writing about mathematics can serve as a viable assessment of individual student learning and provide insight into what students understand independent of formal assessment based on procedural skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the occasion of its sesquicentenary, which coincides with an extended period of school closures imposed due to the effects of a global virus pandemic, this paper analyses the Elementary Education Act of 1870, and in particular in relation to its implications for compulsory attendance at school. It did not introduce compulsory schooling but helped to shape the ambiguities and uncertainties surrounding school attendance that have persisted into the twenty-first century, such as the case of the Isle of Wight Council v. Platt in 2017 and highlighted in the school closures of 2020. The paper discusses the historiography of educational legislation, looks closely at the requirements for school attendance in the 1870 Act and related legislation, and then examines the historical and contemporary repercussions of this ambiguity and ambivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the early years of children's education have long been acknowledged as crucial in supporting learning and development, there has been less focus on argumentation literacy as a way to promote active learning. This conceptual paper explores a new cross-disciplinary teaching framework, called the kaleidoscope framework of inquiry dialogue, which explicates the role of elementary school children's collaborative argumentation processes during inquiry dialogue. The two key theories (reflective devices) in the framework include reflexivity and epistemic cognition. Using a kaleidoscope metaphor, we conceive of dynamic theoretical interactions which depend on aspects of children's collaborative argumentation skills and learning/teaching contexts (the pieces of coloured glass contained within the kaleidoscope) that are in focus at any particular point in time. This paper first discusses inquiry dialogue and collaborative argumentation, followed by an overview of the underlying theories of reflexivity and epistemic cognition used in the kaleidoscope framework. Implications for supporting elementary school children's collaborative argumentation processes during inquiry are discussed throughout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research that delves into the sociocultural perspectives of health and physical education and physical activity (HPEPA) in the lives of ethnic minority students in Westernised countries is often conducted by investigators who are Westerners, native English speakers and racially different from the study participants. Limited research is conducted by researchers who have racial and/or linguistic identities similar to those of study participants, and even fewer reports include the reflexivity data of the research process. This paper draws upon my own experience, as a young Hong Kong-Chinese female Australian, of conducting research with Chinese students and their White HPE teachers in Australia. I discuss a number of aspects of the epistemological dilemmas of being an insider and outsider as a researcher, and the practical and methodological issues in recruiting participants and conducting research with them. In addition, reversing the ethnic gaze by focusing on the teachers (i.e. a young Chinese female conducting research with White teachers) can help to illuminate new perspectives on the construction of otherness and positionalities within research. The reflections add to current discourse on problematising HPEPA research in general, particularly when researching the Other. This paper concludes that an intersection of racial, ethnic, class, gender and age identity can and does have some effect on the research process, as the Chinese students raised particular questions to a young, female Chinese researcher, and they were more willing to talk about racial and cultural issues they felt I could relate to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a complex task that requires that the teacher be skilled at responding effectively and ethically to unexpected situations. Many have linked a teacher’s facility in the classroom to Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, translated in this paper as practical wisdom. While the relationship between practical wisdom and teaching has gotten attention, more concrete ways of cultivating practical wisdom in teachers is needed. In this paper, I highlight how a particular practice, descriptive review, can help teachers develop practical wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper details the findings of a study which focused on the analysis of the cultural representation of disability in school textbooks in Iran and England. The paper argues that whilst inclusive education could facilitate the incorporating of disabled pupils into mainstream schools, there needs to be deeper examination as to how this transition should take place for children aged 3–13. The paper suggests that in such examinations, school textbooks might be of significance in familiarising non-disabled pupils, teachers and authorities with the issues related to disability and disabled pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the findings of a study that examined the questions elementary education teacher candidates (TCs) posed while facilitating a number talk or a discussion about a word problem with elementary school students. The TCs in this study were undergraduates participating in a practice-based mathematics pedagogy/methods course designed to provide multiple experiences unpacking, planning, and rehearsing pedagogies focused on eliciting students' mathematical thinking. Recordings of the TCs facilitating a discussion were analyzed using two different frameworks: question types from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles to Action and components of eliciting students' thinking. Findings indicate varied levels of questions across participants, but showed that some TCs were able to pose question types aimed at effectively eliciting students' mathematical thinking. Implications for future studies include further examination about how to increase TCs' enactment of effective questions in classrooms after practice-based teacher education activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's literature provides elementary teachers and students the opportunity to critically engage in the world around them. However, too often teachers choose not to engage students in discussions of complex social issues out of a sense of fear or discomfort. In this paper, we explore the reflections of 11 teachers who chose to engage their students in discussions of three complex social issues: immigration, migration, and forced relocation. Specifically, we highlight the successes, challenges, and surprises teachers reported after completing a three-week long unit that integrated discussions of complex social issues with computer science and science. Findings suggest that despite teacher reservations, students are interested in talking about complex social issues and through engagement with children's literature are able to engage in thoughtful, personal, and critical conversation about these issues. Further, through discussing critical social issues, teachers and students were able to build the culturally responsive social-emotional skills essential for effective participation in a diverse democratic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the first significant change to Special Educational Needs (SEN) legislation in England for over a decade, a change that promises new approaches to identification and assessment, increased parental choice and enhanced pupil outcomes. The paper aims to examine to what extent this new framework can live up to its claims in the field of emotional and behavioural difficulties. It analyses the policy context and some key details of this legislation by focussing on approaches such as person-centred planning, multi-professional collaborations and recent mental health initiatives in schools. It also explores what can be expected from the legislative requirements for collaboration between health, social care and education agencies to improve outcomes for children and young people. The paper concludes by addressing tensions between medical and social model assumptions by proposing a systemic approach to multi-agency working and an educationally oriented and integrated functional framework for identifying and assessing emotional and behavioural difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature trails can be used as a tool for young children to learn about inquiry-based science and math in an open and natural environment. A nature trail provides the opportunity for children to develop their gross motor skills by walking, hiking or playing on the trail and enhance social skills by doing outdoor activities with their friends. The nature trail activities described in this paper are geared toward pre-K to grade 3 children and created by the pre-service early childhood teachers (PSECTs) who attended a five-week nature-based education course held in late spring/early summer term. The nature-based activities supported not only the Maine's Early Learning and Development Standards (MELDS) but also the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and Common Core Math Standards (CCMS). The PSECTs enjoyed creating the activities and appreciated the positive feedback from their classmates when they were trying out the activities on the trail. Creating a nature trail for young children was a new and eye-opening learning experience for all the PSECTs and they were encouraged as teachers to build new nature-based activities that would benefit their future students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a universal curricular framework that is intended to aid K-6 schoolteachers holistically and humanistically developing their students' computational thinking (CT) skills (e.g. algorithmic thinking, abstraction, decomposition, generalization, patterns recognition, evaluation, and logical thinking). This framework, which can be applied to any subject at the elementary school level, is grounded on specific principles that we have gleaned from both learning theories and considerations on child development. New media literacy skills (NML) and social-emotional skills are also targeted, as they are strongly connected with CT skills and display bidirectional linkages that can comprehensively benefit students in various ways (cognitively, imaginatively/creatively, materially, socially, and affectively/emotionally) without the need for digital technologies or coding. The universal nature of our curricular proposal rests on the following factors: it is based on a cross-disciplinary approach that can be applied in ways that mirror real life; CT is seen as a universal skill that should be learned by everyone, not just computer scientists, and is applicable to every aspect of daily life; one-sided intellectualism is avoided; and, lastly, the resulting classroom practices have an impact on and are influenced by children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivating children's creativity and imagination is fundamental to preparing them for an increasingly complex and uncertain future. Engaging in creative learning enables children to think independently and critically, work cooperatively, and take risks while actively engaged in meaningful projects. While current trends in education, such as maker movements and computer science education, are dramatically expanding children's opportunities for engagement in creative learning, comparatively few empirical studies explore how creative learning can be integrated into elementary school curricula. In this paper, we investigated five key design strategies for integrating creative learning in school curricula through computer programming activities. The five design strategies, drawn from design meetings with in-service teachers and two pilot studies, comprise (1) prepare an object-to-think-with for specific curricular ideas, (2) find a context that provokes a leap of ideas within a disciplinary framework, (3) facilitate tinkering through disciplinary inquiry, (4) pair students and establishing developer and researcher roles, and (5) provide feedback to connect computer programming projects to disciplinary ideas. Implementing these strategies with mixed-method analysis indicated positive support for the efficacy of these design strategies. We also provide insights into difficulties with integrating creative learning into school curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has explored how science teachers can create equitable learning environments. In addition, research demonstrates that representations can be powerful tools for supporting disciplinary learning and inviting and leveraging students' diverse ideas and practices. Yet, professional development (PD) about representations has primarily focused on teachers' knowledge of disciplinary practices rather than on how teachers can value and build upon students' representations as resources for equitable sensemaking. In this paper, we present cases from a year-long professional development program with in-service elementary teachers designed to support science teaching with representations. Through our work with these teachers, we have illustrated an approach to using representations that supports equitable sensemaking by: (1) making space for students to create personally meaningful representations, (2) amplifying students' representations, and (3) helping students iteratively refine their representations and ideas. These findings extend literature about inclusive science teaching by illustrating how focusing on students' representations can support equitable sensemaking and by addressing tensions that emerge between equitable teaching, science standards that prioritize canonical knowledge and practices, and monoglossic language ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past two decades, youth-focused professionals have increasingly called for social-emotional learning (SEL) education in schools. A holistic approach to youth development suggests that, given the interconnected nature of development in the domains of career development and SEL, children and youth are better supported whenwe provide education in both domains in an integrated way. An opportunity exists to examine possible links between the two domains. In this paper we integrate a model of SELwith models of childhood career development competencies and career-related reasoning, offering a new understanding of how social-emotional experiences and competencies are integrated into children's career development processes. We identify strategies for educators to incorporate this integrated model into their classroom practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to give an overview of teachers' library use in northwestern Greece. A questionnaire was distributed and filled in by 221 teachers (117 of upper elementary education and 104 of secondary) and was reinforced by interviews with 35 teachers. Teachers of elementary and secondary education supported that a school library with a plethora of appealing books and other resources can contribute greatly to the promotion of a culture of reading in contemporary school. A significant difference was observed between high-school teachers and upper elementary teachers with respect to the function of their school library. Further, elementary school libraries in one prefecture of Greece (Kastoria), compared to another (Ioannina), were found to be more functional, indicating that teachers' interest for enriching their school library, as well as their enthusiasm, effort, and commitment in the school library can help children make more use of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors have, for some years, studied the concept of ‘possibility thinking’ (PT), or ‘what if’ and ‘as if’ thinking in children aged 3–11, which generates novelty – and the pedagogical strategies which foster it. They have argued, on the basis of previous qualitative studies, that ‘PT’ is at the core of creativity in education. Having begun as a conceptual study for 7 years, this team has undertaken empirical studies of PT in classrooms. This paper discusses findings from the third phase of empirical work focusing on 9- to 11-year olds. The particular research question addressed here is ‘What characterises possibility thinking as manifest in the learning engagement of children aged 9–11?’. In a small-scale qualitative study, involving co-participation with teachers, the paper features episode analysis of naturalistic video data featuring children aged 9–11 in two schools. It focuses on PT evidenced by children engaged in a range of classroom activities, some established as individual activities and others as group work. The study reveals some features of PT in both sites (question-posing [Q-P], question-responding [Q-R], self-determination, intentional action, development, being imaginative, play/playfulness, immersion and innovation) to differing degrees of strength. Risk-taking was absent in both and a new feature, collaboration, evident in both. Differences were documented in how Q-P and Q-R manifest, compared with earlier studies with younger children. This study seeks to make an evidence-based contribution to the characterisation of PT as driving creativity in the classroom, with implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]