Purpose: Chinese kindergarten teachers commonly held "loving and caring for young children" as a core professional ethic, but many reported fatigue and burnout because of this ethical practice. This study presents a unique account of how children's free play has helped transform teachers' professional ethics and increased their…

Background: Schools play an important role in promoting physical activity (PA) through school day schedules and policies. Purpose: To investigate different intensities of children's movement behavior during instructional time, recess, and in relation to the Ontario Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy. Methods: Movement behavior intensities were…

This paper reports a finding that emerged from a wider study into children's engagement with literacy provision in child-initiated play. In this observation-based study 25 of the 42 children involved were observed engaging a particular form of participation, a learning modality that aligns with Rogoff's et al.'s (2003) description of first-hand…

This paper investigates the impact of the LEGO® Serious Play simulation technique on accounting students' learning outcomes. Data is from a stratified random sample of undergraduate accounting students at a leading higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emerging market. This paper uses parametric statistical analysis…

The author examines guided play among students in a South African classroom using a play-and-write workshop constructed by her and her students. She determines that the workshop displays the characteristics of playful learning, lies on the playful learning spectrum, and fits the criteria for guided play. She concludes that, given the benefits of…

At a young age, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit restrictive/repetitive or stereotypical behaviors that hinder their participation in the general community. The play activities of children with ASD often lack creativity, diversity, and flexibility due to deficits in social and communication abilities. Play activities for…

Preschool is a critical period for children. They need to develop a variety of skills (e.g., social and emotional skills, cognitive skills, motor skills) that are important for their development between the ages of 3 and 5. Dramatic play provides children with safe environments that allow them to learn and practice those important skills as it…

Contradictory reports of play strengths and weaknesses for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) persist in the literature. We compared the play of 19 children with ASD to 19 typically developing (TD) children matched on language and cognitive skills. All children were verbal. Results revealed no differences in indiscriminate actions,…

The author discusses Johan Huizinga's "Homo Ludens" and the animating mood that it calls the "play spirit." He argues that these styles of playfulness represent a major practical and theoretical contribution Huizinga offers contemporary studies of play, and he considers Huizinga's methodology in a reading that runs counter to…

The mobile gaming phenomenon "Pokémon Go" is one of the first successful mainstream games to feature augmented reality (AR) components, giving players the feeling of hunting Pokémon in real-life settings. "Pokémon Go" offers players access to "Pokélayer," a game layer laid on top of the real world, combining GPS and…

Technology is transforming children's lived experience with spatial play. In particular, parents may interact with children differently depending on whether they play together with tangible or digital materials. The present research examined whether the medium for play (tangible or digital) affected kindergarten-aged children's language experience…

A substantial number of empirical studies in the field of Early Childhood Science Education have explored science concept formation in early childhood educational settings. Most of these studies focus on the process of science concept formation during a teaching intervention or a school year period. However, less is known about how children form…

The aim of this study is to identify if children's play behaviour, temperament, and special educational needs (SEN) are interrelated. It is important to increase the awareness of the joint effects of temperament and SEN on behaviour so that early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers can provide the appropriate support for children with SEN…

Research from the interdisciplinary "science of learning" indicates that children learn best when they are actively engaged in learning that is meaningful, socially interactive, iterative, and joyful. These principles coalesce in active playful learning, especially "guided play." This active, playful pedagogy enhances learning…

This article seeks to reframe how early childhood educators think about their role in play by answering these questions: What really matters in play? How should we spend our time and energy planning, implementing, and building our expertise around play in early childhood teaching and learning? The answers reside in 5 big ideas from play research…