Category: Effective Teaching Approach

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Effective Teaching Approach Kindergarten Language Development

The Playful Pen: Strategies for embedding Writing Instruction into Daily Play

To explore how educators can integrate early writing instruction into kindergarten classrooms through guided play. Sanchez (2025) addresses the growing tension between play-based learning and the rigid, policy-driven academic curricula common in modern early childhood education. Because strict mandates often cause frustration for young learners during formal writing tasks, Sanchez (2025) proposes guided play—a blend of child-led exploration and intentional adult scaffolding—as a pedagogical solution to meet literacy goals while preserving autonomy.

The study was designed as a five-month participatory action research project conducted by Sanchez (2025) in a public kindergarten classroom of 25 students. Sanchez (2025) dedicated one hour daily to guided play, intentionally introducing targeted writing tools, books, and printables into popular areas like the playdough, block, dramatic play, and Lego centers. By carefully observing and interacting with the children, Sanchez (2025) seamlessly integrated early writing prompts into their natural play routines.

By thoughtfully curating materials and engaging in collaborative dialogue, Sanchez (2025) successfully motivated students to independently incorporate writing into their spontaneous play. Children naturally began authoring authentic texts, including “how-to” guides for playdough snowmen, labels for complex block mazes, dramatic play pie recipes, and step-by-step Lego instructions. This playful approach transformed writing from a stressful, mandated chore into a joyful, self-directed activity that empowered even the most reluctant students.

Sanchez (2025) concludes that guided play effectively dismantles the false dichotomy between structured academic learning and early childhood play. The research highlights that successful implementation requires dedicating adequate classroom time, encouraging storytelling with an audience, and fostering a supportive community among educators. Ultimately, intentional scaffolding allows writing to evolve from an isolated academic skill into an authentic, meaningful communication tool that honors young children’s agency.

 

Source (Open Access): Sanchez, A. (2025). Guided play in the kindergarten classroom: One teacher’s inquiry into scaffolding play-based writing instruction. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53(6), 2089-2098.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01931-w… Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Kindergarten

The Mediating Role of Playfulness: Linking Parental Play Support to Creative Thinking in Hong Kong Kindergartens

Play is theorized as a crucial way children express and develop their creativity. Grounded in the bioecological model of human development and Vygotsky’s theories on play and creativity, Fung and Chung (2025) aim to address a gap in research by examining how family factors within a child’s microsystem influence creative potential. While previous research often defined creative potential solely as personality traits, Fung and Chung (2025) operationalize it through cognitive processes: divergent thinking (generating multiple solutions) and convergent thinking (deducing the single best solution). They hypothesized that parental beliefs about play would indirectly foster these creative thinking skills by nurturing children’s playfulness.

The participants were 181 children (aged 4 to 5 years; 54.1% girls) recruited from nine kindergartens in Hong Kong, along with their parents. Data collection involved both parent-reported questionnaires and direct behavioral assessments of the children. Parents completed the Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS) to measure their support for play and the Children’s Playfulness Scale (CPS) to assess their child’s playfulness across five dimensions: physical, social, and cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor. Children’s creative thinking was assessed directly: convergent thinking was measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R), while divergent thinking was evaluated using the figural circle task from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), where children drew pictures based on circles.

Preliminary analyses showed that all five aspects of playfulness were positively correlated with parental play support, but only social spontaneity and cognitive spontaneity significantly correlated with the children’s creative thinking processes. A path analytic model was used to test the relationships, revealing that the direct link between parental play support and children’s creative thinking was non-significant. Instead, the relationship was fully mediated: parental play support positively predicted social spontaneity, which in turn predicted convergent thinking, and it positively predicted cognitive spontaneity, which predicted divergent thinking. The model demonstrated adequate fit, confirming that the influence of parental support on creativity operates through specific aspects of the child’s playful behavior.

Fung and Chung (2025) conclude that parental play support is a crucial environmental factor that fosters creative potential, but it does so indirectly by nurturing a child’s playfulness rather than directly teaching creative skills. Specifically, parents who value play create an environment that encourages social and cognitive spontaneity, which are the specific drivers of convergent and divergent thinking respectively. This finding supports the bioecological model, highlighting how the home microsystem shapes child development. Practically, Fung and Chung (2025) suggest that to enhance creativity in early childhood—a critical period for development—educators and policymakers should focus on interventions that help parents understand the value of play and promote playful behaviors in the household.

 

Source (Open Access): Fung, W. K., & Chung, K. K. H. (2025). Interrelationships Among Parental Play Support and Kindergarten Children’s Playfulness and Creative Thinking Processes. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 101907.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2025.101907

 … Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Maths and Science Learning Primary School Education

Spatially-Enhanced Science Instruction in Elementary Schools: Evidence from a Randomized Study

Gagnier et al. (2026) examine whether embedding spatial thinking practices into elementary science instruction can enhance teachers’ and students’ spatial skills. Rather than relying on stand-alone spatial training, the study evaluates a spatially-enhanced (SE) science curriculum that integrates five spatial strategies—gesture, spatial comparison, spatial language, sketching, and explicit visualization instruction—into daily classroom teaching. The intervention was implemented across an academic year with 35 third-grade teachers and 572 students from a large urban U.S. school district serving predominantly historically underrepresented populations.

Using a randomized design, teachers and students were assigned to one of three conditions: business-as-usual instruction, an NGSS-aligned curriculum (NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards), or an NGSS-aligned curriculum with embedded spatial enhancements. The NGSS-aligned curriculum emphasized core disciplinary ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts specified in NGSS, but did not include explicit instruction targeting spatial thinking. By contrast, the spatially-enhanced condition incorporated the same NGSS-aligned content while systematically embedding the five spatial strategies into instructional activities.

Pre- and post-assessments of spatial skills were administered to both teachers and students. Hierarchical linear regression results indicate that teachers exposed to the spatially-enhanced curriculum demonstrated significantly stronger gains in overall spatial reasoning, particularly in spatial visualization, compared with their counterparts in the other conditions. In contrast, student gains in spatial skills were more modest and did not consistently reach statistical significance.

The findings highlight teachers as a critical leverage point for spatially-enhanced instruction. By integrating spatial thinking into everyday science teaching and professional learning, the study demonstrates a feasible, curriculum-embedded approach to strengthening teachers’ spatial competencies. While student outcomes appear more sensitive to implementation and contextual factors, the research underscores the promise of spatially-enhanced curricula as a scalable pathway for enriching STEM instruction in elementary education.

Source (Open Access): Gagnier, K. M., Holochwost, S. J., Tomazin, L., Alsayegh, S., Fatahi, N., Gold, B., & Fisher, K. R. (2025). Spatially-enhanced science instruction in elementary school: Impacts on teachers’ and students’ spatial skills. Learning and Instruction, 102248.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2025.102248… Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach K-12 Education Programme Evaluation

Equity in Teacher Education Programs: Conceptions and Program-Level Efforts

Ko-Wong (2025) conducts a systematic review to examine how teacher education programs (TEPs) in the United States conceptualize, implement, and prioritize equity. Drawing on 58 empirical studies that met rigorous inclusion criteria, the review synthesizes program-level equity efforts across coursework, field placements, recruitment strategies, faculty development, and structural reforms. The analysis highlights substantial conceptual ambiguity: many programs invoke equity rhetorically while relying on race-evasive framings, thin interpretations of fairness, or narrow emphases on access and achievement. Few studies explicitly address Whiteness, racism, power, or meritocracy—core constructs in critical equity frameworks.

Using an adapted strong-equity lens, the review finds that most TEPs focus on surface-level or fragmented activities, such as required multicultural courses or isolated field experiences, which often lack coherence and long-term impact. Although coursework and community-based placements can support preservice teachers’ awareness of diverse learners, evidence suggests that these efforts frequently fall short of transforming candidates’ racial literacy or challenging institutional hierarchies. Only a limited subset of programs adopt more systemic approaches that integrate equity across curricula, partnerships, supervision, and program structures.

The findings underscore the persistent gap between equity rhetoric and equity enactment in teacher preparation. Ko-Wong argues that meaningful progress requires programs to name and confront systemic racism, destabilize dominant ideologies such as color-evasiveness and meritocracy, and reimagine TEPs as sites of structural change rather than individual skill development. The review concludes with recommendations for advancing strong equity through conceptual clarity, coherent program design, and deeper engagement with racial justice frameworks.

Source (Open Access): Ko-Wong, L. (2025). Equity in Teacher Education Programs: A Systematic Review of Conceptions and Program-Level Efforts. Review of Educational Research, 00346543251382579.

https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543251382579… Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Higher Education

From Empathy to Quality Long-Term Care: A Generative AI-Based Art Therapy Approach

Chang et al. (2025) explore the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into art therapy in nursing education, aiming to enhance students’ empathy and performance in gerontological care. Traditional art therapy courses often engaged students in drawings to foster their empathy and understanding of elderly nursing. However, such approaches have been criticized for their limited effectiveness, as many students lack interest in artwork or confidence in drawing. To address this problem, the authors developed a generative AI-based art therapy approach grounded in the self-directed learning (SDL) model, including three SDL phases: self-management, self-monitoring, and motivation.

The study adopted a quasi-experimental design over three weeks with 65 nursing students enrolled in a gerontological nursing course. Participants were divided into either an experiment group (n = 33) or a control group (n = 32). The experiment group was guided to set learning goals and plans (self-management), use ChatGPT to create artworks and reflect on their progress (self-monitoring), and connect personal experiences and emotions with elder care to foster empathy (motivation). In contrast, the control group received traditional technology-based art therapy instruction. The Instruments included a validated empathy questionnaire and an art therapy performance rubric covering five dimensions: expression, emotional depth, use of color, symbolic meaning, and creativity to evaluate participants’ outcomes.

Findings indicated that the experiment group demonstrated significantly higher empathy scores than the control group (η2 = 0.196). They also outperformed their peers in the control group in art therapy performance, particularly in expression (d = 0.79), use of color (d = 0.81), symbolic meaning (d = 0.91), and creativity (d = 0.51). Epistemic network analysis (ENA) further highlighted stronger connections between expressive and symbolic dimensions in the experiment group’s artworks.

Overall, the study provides evidence that generative AI tools, when combined with SDL strategies, can foster both cognitive and affective growth among nursing students. By supporting empathy development and enhancing creative performance, this innovative approach contributes to preparing future nursing professionals for the challenges of long-term care in aging societies.

 

Source (Open Access): Chang, C. Y., Wang, P. L., Li, C. J., & Hwang, G. J. (2025). From empathy to quality long-term care: a generative AI-based art therapy approach based on the self-directed learning model. Interactive Learning Environments, 33(5), 3333-3353.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2024.2443072… Read the rest

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Effective Teaching Approach Kindergarten

Educational Robotics and Kindergarteners’ 4Cs Development

A recent meta-analysis by Sapounidis and colleagues examined the effects of Educational Robotics (ER) on the development of kindergarteners’ twenty-first century skills, namely communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. From an initial pool of 2141 records, 22 empirical studies met inclusion criteria, yielding 53 effect sizes based on 2192 participants across 12 countries.

The authors applied a random-effects model, which revealed a significant overall positive impact of ER (Hedge’s g = +0.87). When analyzed separately, the strongest effect was observed for collaboration (g = 2.14), followed by critical thinking (g = 0.86), communication (g = 0.55), and creativity (g = 0.51). Despite notable heterogeneity (I² > 79% across domains) and some publication bias, the results consistently indicated that robotics-based interventions may enhance young learners’ social and cognitive capacities. A meta-regression further showed that longer intervention durations were associated with stronger positive effects, highlighting the importance of sustained engagement with robotics activities.

The findings suggest that ER is particularly powerful in promoting collaborative and critical thinking skills, where children engage in teamwork, problem-solving, and reasoning activities with peers and robots. Communication can also be supported by encouraging idea sharing, while creativity—though less studied—emerges as an area of potential growth if adequately scaffolded.

This study fills a critical gap in early childhood education research, as previous meta-analyses often overlooked kindergarten populations or mixed them with higher age groups. The authors recommend developing tailored robotics curricula and teacher training programs to maximize ER’s benefits. Overall, ER appears to be a promising educational tool for fostering holistic skill development in early childhood.

Source (Open Access): Sapounidis, T., Rapti, S., & Vaiopoulou, J. (2025). Effects of educational robotics on kindergarteners’ collaboration, communication, critical Thinking, and creativity: A meta-analysis. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 34, 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-024-10149-1… Read the rest