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In the literature in recent years, a number of developmental studies have demonstrated the importance of children entering the school environment with a solid foundation of mathematical content knowledge and argued that problem solving, as an important mathematical process, should be acknowledged in early childhood mathematical education. However, there is less research on how children process mathematics information through problem solving in play-based early childhood education settings. This paper draws upon a cultural-historical concept of play, motives and pedagogical process of a playworld approach to investigate how Mathematical Playworld creates the motivating conditions for young children to achieve a meaningful learning experience about repeating patterns? We argue that Mathematical Playworld, as a new pedagogical approach within the worlds of imaginary situations, should be promoted, as it builds the motivating conditions that support meaningful learning of mathematical concepts in the double sense created in children. This study also contributes to understanding young children’s mathematical problem-solving processes in the collective imaginary situation, considering how learning processes become personally meaningful for children and capturing teachers’ role in play for supporting children’s mathematisation.

In 1999, two years after the publication of The Racial Contract, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Mills for the first time when I organized a panel at the American Political Science Associatio...

This study explored the lived experiences of 20 Australian early childhood preservice teachers while on practical experience placement and examined the factors that informed their pedagogical experiences when working across both prior-to-school and school settings. Transcripts from interviews were analysed using grounded theory-informed methodology. Findings highlighted that preservice teachers’ prior experiences, and their experiences during placement, shaped their perspectives and pedagogical decisions when working across the two education contexts. Findings showed a disparity between preservice teachers’ practical experiences on placement in prior-to-school and school settings. Understanding the discontinuities for early childhood preservice teachers between the two education environments is instructive for theoretical knowledge, content design of tertiary degrees and the support needed for successful transference of skills and induction into early childhood teaching contexts. Close work with industry partners is needed on mentorship and explicit application of early childhood technical knowledge in differing curricula environments.

Many researchers investigated university students' behavioural intention to undertake online courses during COVID. However, few examined how students' intention might change throughout COVID by incorporating their learning capability and approaches. The universities in China went through a process from lockdown in February to reopening in September 2020. It provided a unique context for university students in China to experience emergent online learning for approximately six months before returning to normal face-to-face or blended learning on campus. The researchers conducted a questionnaire survey among 193 Chinese university students to investigate the changes in their behavioral intention to learn online throughout COVID. Additionally, the researchers explored the relationships between the participants' behavioral intention and the factors of learning capability in general, application of specific online learning strategies, online course engagement levels, and academic performance. It was found that the participants' intention to study online significantly increased during COVID and then slightly decreased after the university reopened. The participants' intention of online learning after COVID was predicted by their prior intention, learning capability, application of online learning strategies, and online course engagement. The participants' perceptions about online learning revealed that, when choosing future course delivery modes, they would a) reflect on their own disposition, capability, and needs, b) compare different learning modes, and c) examine course quality and teachers' competency. The participants also shared advice regarding their expectation of future online courses which may help shape university educators' pedagogical practices and provide insights for university online and blended course delivery from learners' perspectives.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-022-11320-0.

Advances in technology have seen a proliferation of touch-screen interfaces available to young children. These screens have changed the way in which young children engage with digital technology; with increased exposure and use, it raises debates about the suitability of integrating digital technology within early childhood settings. There are limited empirical studies that investigate the appropriateness of emergent digital technology within the field of early childhood. Based upon the TPACK model, this timely paper thus discussed the Digital Play Model (Numeracy) and reported on a project investigating the integration of digital technologies into childcare settings. In particular, the focus of this paper was to report on the use of games using a gestural interface device have on 3- to 4-year-old children’s ability to learn numeracy concepts. This study found that young children’s numeracy learning outcomes were improved. This paper also provided empirical evidence of the use of Apps via iPad technologies on young children’s numeracy learning, with an implication to a need for a pedagogical model for successful integration of digital technology within early childhood settings Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This chapter introduces the background to this book, with a focus on the use of reflective practice in teaching, and teacher educators’ learning from reflective pieces written by pre-service teachers. This chapter then describes the structure of the book, which consists of six parts. Parts I to V include 33 pre-service teachers’ own narrative stories as well as the five editors’ reflections on these pre-service teachers’ pieces. In the final chapter, the five editors reflect on the content and development of this volume.

This chapter presents our reflective conclusions on this volume. It starts by noting how some of the chapters observe how teachers sometimes find it difficult to keep up to date with their practices, and how this highlights the importance of reflective practice, as is also acknowledged in some of the other student chapters. We then note how some of those contributions also help illustrate the complexities of teaching. After a brief update on what some of the student contributors to our earlier volume (Geng et al. 2017) are now doing, we also discuss how the development of this volume provided the teacher educator editors with a significant opportunity for reflective practice as well.

As an early career practitioner, I was very much focused on curricula, pedagogy and behaviour management within my teaching practice. I believed that concentrating on those elements of teaching would allow me to walk into any educational environment and have the ability to ply my trade regardless of the individual personalities of the children I taught. I was aware of children’s differing capacities and would certainly cater my teaching style to fit the needs of the child; however, it was not until I worked with a particularly challenging young boy in a child care centre that I realized something was missing from my understanding of how to best help children reach their potential. The child’s primary educator taught me how to consider the child from a ‘goodness-of-fit’ model (Churchhill in Early Child Educ J 31(2):113–118, 2003), focusing on the child’s well-being as a way to maximize the child’s learning. Through a process of self-study, I was able to reimagine my educative practice within early childhood environments to move beyond the basics of what I had known and began to consider other holistic elements of children’s development, namely well-being.

Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw just over twenty-five years ago,1 appears frequently in mainstream media discourse and represents a well-recognized body of work that ranges fr...

This article explores the shift to the left in Latin America within the context of understanding power relations among, within, and between social movements and the state. We examine the emergence and development of social movement resistance to neoliberal globalization in Latin America over the past two decades, as well as how charismatic leaders of the left have captured state power. Through an analysis of the Zapatista and Appista Movements in Mexico, the Piqueteros and workers' movements in Argentina, the Chavistas in Venezuela, and the Aymara coca-growers and indigenous movements in Bolivia, as well as an examination of presidential behavior and state power in these countries, this article describes and enumerates the alternative models of power in use in Latin America today, arguing that a combination of strategies working both with and autonomously from the state works best to achieve leftist ends. The social movements associated with the shift to the left in Latin America today are adopting not on...

People conduct learning for our knowledge, and learning can be undertaken outside learning institutions, between different people among social communities. Learning can be done not only publicly but also through private and reflection time. Education cannot be conducted within certain hours or certain places. It can happen anytime, with anyone and by any culture. This paper was based upon the perception and experience of the two high education lecturers in teacher education, made observations of pedagogical practices and philosophies of two young children playing iPad. Based upon the importance of reflective practice, this paper uses reflective narration to illustrate the influence from observing two young children’s use of iPad on two lecturers’ own teaching approaches in higher education settings. This paper uses the method of narrative inquiries and examples of observations of two children’s playing were demonstrated. This paper provides several future research interests into use of gestural interface technology in teaching strategies, and lecturers in higher education, particularly educators in information technologies and early childhood education will find this paper interesting in their own reflection and therefore improve their own teaching outcomes.

(2004). Incomplete revolutions: Gendered participation in productive and reproductive labor in Mozambique and Nicaragua. Socialism and Democracy: Vol. 18, Gender and Globalization: Marxist-Feminist Perspectives, pp. 7-42.

Mozambique and Nicaragua have each experienced a transition from a Marxist–Leninist, revolutionary state to a liberal–democratic–capitalist, multi-party state in the 1990s. However, in Mozambique, the historic party of the revolution, FRELIMO, remains the party in power, whil in Nicaragua the Sandinistas have been the opposition party since 1990. What impact have these transitions had on democracy, civil society, and the nature of women's organizing in the post-revolutionary period in each country? This article offers a critical examination of the notions of “democratization” and “civil society” by assessing the gains and losses that each country has experienced in terms of political, economic, and participatory democracy in the post-revolutionary period. Then, using the example of contemporary women's movements and current constructions of “feminism” emerging in each country, this article attempts to show the potential of autonomous women's organizing in civil society today.

Social movement theorists have tended to focus on issues of movement formation, origin and mobilization rather than on movement or organizational change over time. Those studies that have examined organizational change over time have tended to equate survival with success and demise with decline. Through research, interviews and participant-observation methods, this study examines eight national-level feminist organizations within the U.S. women's movement to try to identify particular characteristics of success and survival over time, while at the same time redefining traditional notions of organizational success. Success, which may include policy impact, public education, placing pools of activists into the movement for further mobilization, and achievement of policy goals, and may not necessarily mean survival or organizational maintenance, is often determined by an organization's ability to respond internally to external pressures. The organizations that have been best able to construct confl...

This study aimed to assess the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and ability to use text messaging, and assist their use of this technology in the classroom teaching context. Data were gathered by means of a questionnaire and text message exercises. Fifty-three pre-service teachers participated in the study. It was found that although different tasks required different contributions of word numbers to complete the text messages, the percentages of text abbreviations were the same in all text messages. It was also found that participants who used more text abbreviations in their text messages had more correct scores in translating text abbreviations into Standard English. Moreover, participants who rated themselves higher in their self-rated writing and reading abilities used more text abbreviations in their text messages. Teacher educators may find this paper useful in understanding pre-service teachers’ knowledge and ability to use text messages, with a further view to developing professional training sessions for improving their abilities in using text messaging technologies effectively in their teaching.

This paper examines the issues of health and physical education among Indigenous young children in remote communities in Australia and the need for the implementation of technology-assisted physical activity. It was found that although these children were assumed to be very fit, they have higher rates of diseases than non-Indigenous young children, such as Type 2 diabetes. Technology assisted physical activity (Exergame) has been examined in relation to the Indigenous young children’s health and physical education in remote communities. It was also found that there is a need to implement the technology-assisted physical activities into Indigenous young children’s health and physical education classroom. Physical and health educators including general teachers and/or PE specialists in remote communities may find the investigation useful in promoting health and physical education through the use of technology-assisted physical activities among Indigenous children in remote communities.

The purpose of the paper was to identify how useful was the technical support provided by educational websites in relation to the interaction between students and educational websites, and the findings showed that students reported that all the identified technical support helped them achieve more productive usage of educational websites. Website designers and online teachers may find these results useful in enhancing the effectiveness of online teaching as well as designing and using instructional programs.

This study compared the differences of involvement scale between traditional and technology assisted physical activities. Seventeen (12 girls and 5 boys) 5-year-olds participated in both traditional running game (15 minutes) and Wii Fit jogging game (15 minutes). Observation was used to study the child's level of involvement. The study found that technology assisted physical activities involved participants higher than traditional activities in energy, facial expression & posture, persistence and the overall rating. This study also found that the 5-year-olds who like technology were involved more in technology assisted activities than traditional activities. This study concluded that technology-assisted tools have higher involvement level on the 5-year-olds' physical activities.