This qualitative study aimed to investigate enablers and barriers facing community-playgroup families in the provision of play opportunities for children throughout periods of lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a capabilities approach, focussing specifically on the concepts of resources, capabilities and…

The literature on play and learning attests many developmental benefits for children. The Australian curriculum endorses play-based learning (PBL) as an age-appropriate teaching pedagogy. However, what enables or prevents PBL in the classroom is not well documented. The present study examined the responses of 334 teachers currently employed in…

Adults, including early childhood teachers and caregivers (i.e., parents, carers, kinship members), have an important role in supporting young children's learning through play in early childhood. However, little consideration has been given to the relationship between these significant adults' perspectives of play and the play experiences of young…

Risky play promotes learning for children but can be challenging for adults who may then avoid providing these opportunities for children. Research about educators' intentional teaching for risky play is limited. The focus of this paper is a project where educators sought to change practice by embedding intentional teaching within children's risky…

Research shows that epistemic cognition can support reasoning about the inclusion of diverse children. We argue that, to engage in such reasoning, children need the capacity to consider and evaluate competing knowledge perspectives (epistemic cognition) and to be cognitively flexible. Cognitive flexibility involves a subset of skills within the…

Embracing and embedding the rich cultural knowledge, languages, concepts and skills that Aboriginal families and children bring to playgroup is key to empowering families as their children's first teachers and strengthening young children's self-esteem, pride, confidence and identities. In this article, we share our story of how we have explored…

Recent research suggests there is a lacking presence of assessment and its role in informing intentional teaching in the practice of play-based pedagogy. Formative assessment can be effectively embedded in pedagogy when practitioners are geared with practical tools that can be implemented within naturalistic settings. In recent times, there has…

The Internet of Things is reshaping many households' digital landscape and influencing children's play and learning, especially in the form of toys that are named the Internet of Toys (IoToys). IoToys may generate a significant influence on children's growth. While increasing attention is drawn to the IoToys, confusion around their…

An important milestone in early childhood education and care is reached in 2021 as "Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia" is reviewed. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) was groundbreaking. It has been influential in providing national guidelines around pedagogical principles, practice…

Identifying and describing children's play behaviours is an important component of evaluating child development. The Behaviour Mapping Schedule is a direct observational tool which aims to describe and quantify children's play behaviours but is yet to undergo reliability testing. This study aimed to determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability…

This paper reports on findings from four case studies, as part of a large-scale study undertaken to evaluate the KindiLink initiative across Western Australia in remote, regional and metropolitan communities. KindiLink is an educator-led playgroup initiative in public school sites in Western Australia targeted at Aboriginal children and their…

Community playgroups, which are one type of playgroup and early childhood service, operate on a weekly basis under the leadership of volunteer caregivers (including parents, kinship members, family-day carers and other adults in children's lives). Caregivers and children voluntarily attend and participate in community playgroups. Although…

Research highlights that early childhood teachers (ECTs) hold varied opinions on the value of superhero play (SP) to young children's learning and development. This study sought to investigate how ECTs in Victoria are responding to superhero play, and to examine the beliefs that underpin their responses. Interviews were conducted with eight ECTs…

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in 2017 that explored practitioners' experiences and perceptions of the provision of play pedagogies in contemporary Western Australian early childhood education contexts. Interviews were conducted with four play-based learning teachers and an open-ended survey was…

The incorporation of digital technologies is explicitly addressed in the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. The use of augmented reality (AR) technology, as one form of digital technology, is increasingly embedded in digital applications because it allows individuals to interact with real and virtual objects. A significant body of…