Play Africa, with over 40 innovative exhibits and/or programs since inception, was created as a means to address the inequalities and lack of high-quality experiences that affect the early development of children from birth to age 10 in South Africa. The results from the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) paint a dire…

As schools collaborate with other educational and cultural institutions, students, families, and teachers benefit from expanded learning experiences. In 2020, digital technology learning was added to the New Zealand school curriculum so that every student, beginning at five years of age, would develop an understanding of computational thinking and…

Every individual has a fundamental right to quality education. Yet there are often huge disparities in the quality of education a rich child can access compared to the education a poor child can access. This is true in India. The Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS), a social innovations lab in Madhya Pradesh, embarked…

Children's museums offer a rich collection of onsite and online resources to tap into children's curiosity and expand their horizons.

By transforming education to focus on nurturing creativity, teachers can better ensure that their students are receiving the best preparation for a future of rapid change. This article describes how Alla Tkachuk founded MASK (Mobile Art School in Kenya, www.mobileartschoolinkenya.org) to champion art for creativity in Africa. Starting as a small…

Access to play has been recognized as a universal right of children (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31) and promoted by international and national organizations with a focus on children's well-being, such as Childhood Education International, the International Play Association, the US Play Coalition, and the Alliance for…

We can support students' deep engagement with content through innovative delivery. The techniques developed at the Field Museum in Chicago to share science knowledge through storytelling can provide inspiration for both formal and informal educators.

Second language learners face countless obstacles in the classroom, including communication and comprehension limitations and difficulty building relationships with peers. Many teachers struggle to build an inclusive classroom environment and ensure all students, especially those with linguistic and other learning disadvantages, are learning. This…

Policymakers and educators emphasize science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction as key to individuals' and nations' future economic prosperity. It can be considered to be of particular value to students in developing countries and for disadvantaged students in developed countries. As families play a critical role in a…

This comparative study explores the verbal communication between museum educators and young children, based on principles of developmental psychology. In early developmental stages, when student learning is greatly dependent on verbal communications from the teacher, observation skills may be developed through purposeful instruction. Through the…

In San Diego, California, 800 public school students from the inner city are attending a program called School in the Park (SITP), for approximately one-fourth of their 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-grade education. This unique program blends rigorous academic standards (formal learning) with hands-on, experiential curricula (informal learning), using…

Discusses the qualities that educators need to function effectively in a range of child care settings (multiple settings) such as traditional schools, shopping malls, industrial establishments and museums. Decision-making skills, sensitive communicative skills, interest in continuing to learn, and questioning of practice are among the qualities…

Presents guidelines for parents and teachers on preparing young children (3 to 8 years old) for a visit to the art museum. In preparing children for museum experiences, education for the art museum should be related to child development, begin long before entering a museum ("museum education"), and be sequential. (BB)

Briefly reviews the history of the first kindergarten system in the United States on the occasion of the transformation of the Des Peres School in St. Louis, Missouri, into a museum and library. The transformed facility contains a restored kindergarten classroom, the Susan E. Blow museum, local historical and educational archives, and meeting…

Describes the children's museum movement, exhibits common to children's museums, and the role of children's museums in providing interactive environments for young children to complement the learning that goes on in classrooms and at home. Provides contact information for five children's museums. (DR)