This edited volume brings together international research that explores children’s creativity in STEM inquiry. It takes the position that creativity is relevant in all aspects of life and is essential for adaptable and innovative thinking. The research informed content of the book, highlights both challenges and opportunities for growing children’s creativity. The book focuses on fostering children’s creativity and natural curiosity in the world around them through STEM inquiry. Through STEM inquiry, children are learning through a cross- disciplinary approach where they apply concepts from multiple fields as they are thinking creatively, problem solving and constructing solutions. Educators play a critical role in encouraging children’s creativity by modelling creativity, providing creative projects for children and importantly, establishing rich culturally connected environments where children have the resources, conditions and opportunities for acting and thinking creatively. The book provides a lens for looking at children’s creativity in a range of different cultural settings. It offers insight and guidance to future research and will build educators’ capacity for developing children’s creative practices.

"Meg goes to Maker School to hone her talent for building with boxes, but when Simone, another boxitect, arrives they become so competitive they nearly fail in the annual Maker Match." --

This book is designed to build educators’ confidence and competence so they can bring STEM to life with young children. The authors encourage pre–K teachers to discover the value of engaging preschoolers in scientific inquiry, technological explorations, engineering challenges, and math experiences based on learning trajectories. They explain the big ideas in STEM, emphasizing teaching strategies that support these activities (such as language-rich STEM interactions), and describe ways to integrate concepts across disciplines. The text features research-based resources, examples of field-tested activities, and highlights from the classroom. Drawing from a professional development model that was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, this book is an essential resource for anyone who wants to support preschool children to be STEM thinkers and doers. “I have read a lot of really good early childhood science education books over the years, and as far as I am concerned, this is the best one yet.” —From the Foreword by Betty Zan, University of Northern Iowa “This excellent book shows that the important ideas of STEM are within every teacher’s and child’s grasp.” —Douglas Clements, University of Denver “Teaches STEM content while sharing strategies for robust and developmentally appropriate instructional practice. This book is the real deal!” —Beth Graue, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Zusammenfassung: This Handbook paints a portrait of what the international field of curriculum entails in theory, research and practice. It represents the field accurately and comprehensively by preserving the individual voices of curriculum theorist, researchers and practitioners in relation to the ideas, rules, and principles that have evolved out of the history of curriculum as theory, research and practice dealing with specific and general issues. Due to its approach to both specific and general curriculum issues, the chapters in this volume vary with respect to scope. Some engage the purposes and politics of schooling in general. Others focus on particular topics such as evaluation, the use of instructional objectives, or curriculum integration. They illustrate recurrent themes and historical antecedents and the curricular debates arising from and grounded in epistemological traditions. Furthermore, the issues raised in the handbook cut across a variety of subject areas and levels of education and how curricular research and practice have developed over time. This includes the epistemological foundations of dominant ideas in the field around theory, research and practice that have led to marginalization based on race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, religion, and ability. The book argues that basic curriculum issues extend well beyond schooling to include the concerns of anyone interested in how people come to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values that they do in relation to subjectivity and experience

Science exploration plays a vital role in children's lives as they make sense of the world around them. Now in its fifth edition, Science in Early Childhood complements the recently updated Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Australian Curriculum: Science. It offers a comprehensive introduction to the essential elements of science learning and teaching for pre-service teachers and early childhood professionals. This edition has been revised to closely align with the EYLF and Australian Curriculum: Science. It includes more content on sustainability – a rapidly growing area in early childhood science – and a stronger focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. Each chapter includes case studies, reflection questions and practical tasks which help to bridge the gap between theory and practical applications of new concepts. Supplementary resources are available online for instructors. Science in Early Childhood is an invaluable resource for pre-service teachers and early childhood professionals.

This book presents a wide range of international perspectives that explore the different ways the diverse forms of drama supports learning in science. It illustrates how learning science by adopting and adapting theatrical techniques can offer more inclusive ways for students to relate to scientific ideas and concepts. The theatrical processes by which subject matter can be introduced, thought about, discussed, transformed, enacted and disseminated are shown to be endless. The first section of the book considers different ways of theorising and applying drama in classrooms. The second section provides a range of case studies illustrating how role play, performance, embodiment and enquiry approaches can be utilised for learning in primary, secondary and tertiary education contexts. The third section demonstrates how different research methods from questionnaires, particular kinds of tests and even the theatrical conventions themselves can provide rich data that informs how drama impacts on learning science.