Challenges in Early Years and Primary Education focuses on the teaching and learning of children in early years and primary school settings and creates awareness and a deeper understanding of current and critical education issues such as wellbeing, global education, online teaching, and teaching and learning in a multicultural society. This book encourages the development of the underpinning knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning, recognising good mental health and the solid principles of working with children, families and other professionals. Through discussions on a range of interrelated factors that contribute to children's development, and learning and progressive participation, expert contributors explore ways to respond to and ameliorate the effects of the pandemic and other possible challenges that education professionals and children might face in the future. Challenges in Early Years and Primary Education is ideal reading for educational practitioners including teachers and anyone working in aligned educational settings, as well as students in the field of early years and primary education.

Designed to assist educators of young children in building awareness of their roles as members of a global community in an increasingly divided world, this essential guide is an illuminating resource which answers the question: "Is it possible to teach global citizenship in the first five years of life?" Global Citizenship Education for Young Children takes a close look at the practice of two preschools with vastly different histories, curricula and demographics and introduces readers to the range of possibilities that exist within early childhood global citizenship education. Snapshots of practice, strategies to employ and opportunities for self-reflection provide readers with concrete guidance for how to build learning environments that encourage global citizenship in the first years of life.

This book presents unique results of complex studies from the all-Russian longitudinal study "Grow with Russia". In the framework of the cultural-historical concept, it focuses on the social situation of development, which is organized by adults, and its influence on cognitive and emotional development of children. It examines the role of the traditional play in children's development in modern conditions. The book explores the changes in social situation of development due to the digitalization of the world and its impact on child development, child groups and play development. The book searches for cognitive cultural tools as means of concept acquisition by preschool children in different domains as well as key factors that influence effectiveness of different cultural tools usage. This book provides international perspectives, making results from the study applicable to different cultural contexts.

Many families and educators are concerned with the school readiness skills that children acquire in preschool; however, they do not realize that these skills begin to develop during the infant and toddler years. Infant and toddler caregivers need to recognize the importance of a high-quality infant and toddler learning environment and learn how they can support children while they acquire essential skills for future success.

This book supports those training to work with young children to explore the many factors that impact on child health and wellbeing. Health is a concept that is often taken for granted in young children. If a child is physically active, appears well and is succeeding in learning, it is assumed that all is well. The growing statistics of child mental health issues tell a different story, as do the statistics for childhood obesity and the increasing number of physical health issues in childhood. This book explores and evaluates the strategies currently used in Britain to tackle this escalating situation and asks - what more is needed? The global pandemic has created a large increase in all childhood issues - the scale of which is yet to be ascertained. Supporting healthy childhoods has always been, and always will be, a constantly evolving agenda. What supported children 10 years ago may no longer be relevant in today's society.

Have you ever wondered why children behave the way they do or why they can become overwhelmed with emotions so quickly? This practical resource has been created to help educators effectively support their children's behaviour and better understand their emotions. The book focuses on the idea that all behaviour is a form of communication and explores central areas such as self-regulation and attachment, offering strategies that can be used to support challenging behaviour. Each chapter includes examples of practice, reflective questions and an activity for the reader to help consolidate their learning and encourage them to become 'behaviour detectives'. Key topics discussed include: * Attachment theory, adverse childhood experiences and the importance of feeling safe and secure in the home and setting. * Characteristics of children during conflict situations or moments of challenging behaviour. * Developmentally appropriate expectations for children, and why it is vital that expectations are realistic. * Emotion coaching and the significance of acknowledging and validating feelings. * Linking behaviour with schematic play. Written from first-hand experience and filled with practical advice as well as recommendations for further reading and resources, Supporting Behaviour and Emotions in the Early Years is an essential read for early years educators.

Helping Every Child to Thrive in the Early Years shows how a personalised and relationship-based approach to education and care can help overcome the 'disadvantage gap' in the early years. It examines the challenges that children from disadvantaged backgrounds face and looks at what settings and practitioners can do to enable every child to succeed. Drawing on the latest research and using the insight gained from many years of working in early education the book considers the impact that disadvantage can have on children's development and argues that building strong relationships with children and families is key to closing the gap. Chapters cover: The different kinds and effects of disadvantage The importance of having a clear vision and shared values The culture of early years and how it has shaped practice Developing strong parent partnerships Supporting children with additional needs Smooth transitions Full of practical advice and supporting anecdotes and case studies, this is essential reading for early years practitioners, setting managers and teachers working with children in Reception and KS1.

Understand early childhood as a unique culture to improve the quality of care provided to children. View the culture of childhood through a whole new lens. Identify age-based bias and expand your outlook on and understanding of early childhood as a culture. Examine various elements of childhood culture: language, belief economics, arts, and social structure to understand children's dispositions of questioning, engagement, and cooperation.

_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. Early Years expert Judit Horvath presents 50 fun and thoroughly creative ideas in this book designed to get children experimenting and investigating the properties of mud and clay. When given soil, clay or mud to play with, most children are instinctively motivated to explore and experiment. Mud, soil and clay are naturally open-ended, stimulating children to investigate possibilities, look for reasons and think of ideas. They are cheap and easy to source or access, simple to transform to suit any age group or activity, can be mixed with other materials, given a rich sensory experience via visual texture, deep colour, rich smell and tactile feel.

This innovative and user-friendly book uses a design thinking approach to examine transformative learning and liminality in physical education. Covering theory and practice, it introduces the important idea of 'threshold concepts' for physical education, helping physical educators to introduce those concepts into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The book invites us to reflect on what is learned in, through and about physical education - to identify its core threshold concepts. Once identified, the book explains how the learning of threshold concepts can be planned using principles of pedagogical translation for all four learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, affective and social). The book is arranged into three key sections which walk the reader through the underpinning concepts, use movement case studies to explore and generate threshold concepts in physical education using design thinking approach and, finally, provide a guiding Praxis Matrix for PE Threshold Concepts that can be used for physical educators across a range of school and physical activity learning contexts. Outlining fundamental theory and useful, practical teaching and coaching advice, this book is invaluable reading for all PE teacher educators, coach educators, and any advanced student, coach or teacher looking to enrich their knowledge and professional practice.

Understanding the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is of critical importance for the development of cultural literacy and plays a key role in societal coherence and inclusion. This international handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the place of religion in the societal educational arenas of the very youngest children across the globe. Drawing together contributions from leading international experts across disciplinary backgrounds, it offers a critical view of how to approach the complexities around the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care. Through its four parts, the book examines the theoretical, methodological, policy and practice perspectives and explores the complex intersections of transmission of "cultural heritage" and "national values" with the diverse, changing societal contexts. Each chapter contributes to an increased understanding of how the place of religion in Early Childhood Education and Care can be understood across continents, countries and educational systems. The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care is an essential resource for academics, researchers, students and practitioners working in Early Childhood Education, Sociology of Childhood, Religious Education and other related fields

As technology continues to play a pivotal role in society, education is a field that has become heavily influenced by these advancements. New learning methods are rapidly emerging and being implemented into classrooms across the world using software that is low cost and easy to handle. These tools are crucial in creating skillful learning techniques in classrooms, yet there is a lack of information and research on the subject. The Handbook of Research on Software for Gifted and Talented School Activities in K-12 Classrooms is an essential reference source that discusses newly developed but easy-to-handle and less costly software and tools and their implementation in real 21st-century classrooms worldwide. The book also helps and supports teachers to conduct gifted and talented school activities in K-12 classrooms. Featuring research on topics such as educational philosophy and skillful learning techniques, this book is ideally designed for software developers, educators, researchers, psychologists, instructional designers, curriculum developers, principals, academicians, and students seeking coverage on the emerging role that newly developed software plays in early education.

Everyone knows how difficult it is to get young children to share with others and we need strategies to help them understand why it's important - this book will help! Penny Tassoni, leading Early Years education consultant, author and trainer, presents a picture book with simple words and delightful full-colour illustrations by Mel Four that encourages children to share in a positive way. There is lots to talk about in Time to Share which makes this book ideal for starting conversations with children about why and how we share. It also includes a page of practical advice and tips for practitioners, parents and carers making it the perfect resource for supporting this essential life skill.

-Offers school-based mentors in Scotland a practical toolkit to develop their mentoring skills, giving them the guidance needed to effectively support trainee and newly qualified early years, primary, and secondary teachers. -Gives a broad overview of the mentoring process and of mentoring teachers for long-term career development, exploring the nature of the mentor-mentee role within the Scottish context, guiding the mentee through lesson planning, and offering strategies for observation and lesson analysis. -Includes lesson plans and feedback sheets, observation sheets, case studies, sample dialogues, and learning activities and exercise, giving mentors practical tools for use with teachers in a classroom setting. -Offers an online eResource offering downloadable resources and web-based training material.

This book examines differing classroom pedagogies in two early childhood programs serving vulnerable populations in Chicago, one program Reggio Emilia-inspired, while the other uses a more didactic pedagogy. The structure of classroom pedagogies is defined using Basil Bernstein's theories of visible and invisible pedagogy.

This guidebook is designed to support professionals with the effective use of the storybook, Luna Little Legs, which has been created help preschool aged children understand about domestic abuse and coercive control. Sensitively and accessibly written, the guidebook presents the adult with comprehensive information regarding domestic abuse and coercive control, and its impact on young children, putting them in a position to have important and informed interactions with the young children in their care. These conversations help children to make sense of their experiences of domestic abuse, giving them the opportunity to vocalise their feelings and to understand what to do when something is not right. Key features of this book include: Page-by-page notes to support the sensitive reading of the Luna Little Legs story Accessible information about domestic abuse and coercive control based on the latest research A comprehensive list of helplines and organisations in place to support adult victims of domestic abuse. This is an essential companion to the Luna Little Legs story, and is crucial reading for anybody working with young children and their families who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse and coercive control.

-Based on a comprehensive and exhaustive empirically-based analysis of children's play: the research observed and analyzed the play activities of 289 children who are developing typically, and 203 children who are developing with delays. -Use children's naturally occurring play activities for evaluation, as opposed to eliciting responses to contrived tasks or questions for the child or caregiver -Geared specifically for personnel who serve young children - from late infancy through the preschool period who are developing with delays: no other system covers the age span of late infancy through the preschool period. - The assessment is "language free" - does not require children to answer questions, thereby extending its use to children from various cultural backgrounds, children who are developing with language delays, and those with relevant disabilities. -Ideal where parents or caregivers may not be fully aware of what their child knows or can do. -The online training program for practitioners is designed for exclusive online use, rendering it appealing for wide-spread use.

Crafted from a research project that lasted for three years, this book examines the impacts of China's universal two-child policy under the lens of education and focuses specifically on early childhood. This book not only provides number projection, but also the prediction and judgment of the supply and demand of service resources in early childhood education. It attempts to reveal the attitudes and views of families and stakeholders on the universal two-child policy and present the public's policy requirements for the quality of early childhood education. In addition, it analyses possible problems and challenges in current kindergarten layouts and resources allocation. Lastly, it aims to provide references and bases for formulating the plan that adapts to changes of Chinese preschoolers, supply guarantee of future early childhood education and the construction of public service system. Offering rich insights into the current and future status of education in China, this text will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers of sociology, early childhood education, contemporary China studies, East Asian educational practices and policy.

This volume explores how television has been a significant conduit for the public consumption of changing ideas about children, childhood, and national identity, via a critical examination of programs that prominently feature children and youth in international television The chapters connect relevant cultural attitudes within their respective countries to an analysis of children and/or childhood in international children's programming The collection addresses how international children's programming in global and local context informs changing ideas about children and childhood, including notions of individual and citizen identity formation Offering new insights into childhood and television studies, this book will be of great interest to graduate students, scholars, and professionals in television studies, childhood studies, media studies, cultural studies, popular culture studies, and American studies

Now in its second edition, this popular text explores classrooms where technology and critical literacies are woven into childhood curricula and teaching. Using real-world stories, it addresses what ICTs afford critical literacy with young children, and how new technologies can be positioned to engage in meaningful and authentic learning. Concise but comprehensive, the text provides strategies, theoretical frameworks, demonstrations of practice, and resources for teachers. Updated with discussions of media literacy and new pedagogical tools, the second edition features new classroom examples and experiences that highlight the ways in which critical literacy, technology and media literacy come together in everyday life in the early childhood classroom. The inviting examples model how to use the interests and inquiry questions of young learners as a springboard for creating a critical curriculum. Each chapter includes Reflection Points, pedagogical invitations, and Resource Boxes to imagine new possibilities of working with students in engaging and supportive ways. The inspiring stories, guidance, and tools this book make it a great resource for pre-service teachers and students in Early Childhood Education and Literacy Education, and primary teachers and educators.

Building on the success of the first volume of Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective, this book further develops the crucial research of playwork as an emerging and unique discipline. The first volume explored how an understanding of playwork theory and practice can inform research into children's play. From the seven contributors, four common themes to researching play from a playwork perspective were identified: rights-based; process, critical reflection and playfulness. This second volume aims to explore these four factors from two angles. The first considers how four more playworkers have researched play in four different contexts: prison, gender and toys, in Dutch play provision, and in the area of autism. In the second part of the book, the four pillars of playwork research are explored by academics from other disciplines with an interest in playwork research. This will be of great interest to researchers and upper-level students in the fields of playwork, childcare, early years, education, psychology and children's rights. It will also appeal to practitioners in a wide variety of professional contexts, including childcare and therapy.

Drawing on participatory action research conducted with students, parents, families, and school staff in a Southwest community in the United States, this volume contests the interpretation of the achievement gap for students of Mexican descent in the American education system and highlights asset-based approaches that can facilitate students' academic success. By presenting the Asset-Based Bicultural Continuum Model (ABC) and demonstrating the applications in a variety of family, school, and community-based initiatives, this volume demonstrates how community and cultural wealth can be harnessed to increase educational opportunities for Latino students. The ABC model offers new strategies which capitalize on the bicultural and linguistic assets rooted in local communities and offers place-based strategies driven by communities themselves in order to be tailored to students' strengths. The text makes a significant contribution to understanding the social ecology of Latinx students' experiences and offers a new direction for effective and evidence-based academic and health programs across the United States. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers and academics with an interest in the sociology of education, multicultural education, urban education, and bilingual education. It will be of particular interest to those with a focus on Hispanic and Latino studies.

Universal Design for Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom, Second Edition focuses on proactively designing PreK through Grade 3 classroom instruction, environments, and assessments that are flexible enough to ensure that teachers can accommodate the needs of all the students in their classrooms. Featuring updated language and examples to elevate discussions about inclusion and access along with a stronger anti-bias focus, this second edition includes new content on trauma-informed practice, strength-based approaches, social-emotional learning, family partnerships, and using remote and virtual technology. Highly practical and easy to use, this book remains THE essential guide to UDL in the early years.

British Froebelian Women from the Mid-Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century presents a series of critical case studies of individual women who worked and advocated for the cause of Froebelian and progressive pedagogy in Britain from the mid-nineteenth century until the present day. The book presents a compelling picture of how women have contributed in powerful ways to educational life and child-centred practices. The book examines the beliefs and values of its subjects, offering crucial insights into how these women forged their professional identities and practice as new thinking about education and childhood emerged, and considers the differing forms of inspiration they drew from their connections with the Froebelian community. This book will be of great interest for postgraduate students and academics in the fields of Women's Studies, History of Education, Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Studies.

This book is a concise and accessible guide to observation as a tool for supporting learning for children aged 0 - 5. It provides comprehensive coverage of the what, why, and how of observation, brought to life with extensive case studies and contextualised alongside other crucial Early Years' topics, including child development and play. This book encourages readers to consider their own context and practice, with reflective questions at the end of each chapter and specific chapters on linking observations to the curriculum and sharing insights with parents and colleagues. The focus on both learning and self-reflection makes 'Observing Learning in Early Childhood' ideal for students, newly qualified teachers, and current practitioners alike. Dr. Stella Louis is a freelance early years consultant, with 34 years' experience of working with children and families across the UK, South Africa and Australia.