Childhood Education Innovations
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Childhood Education: Innovations is an education magazine that provides unique, stimulating information about educational programs around the world. Articles explore solutions to specific challenges affecting schools, teachers, and learners and showcase the most recent innovations being developed and implemented to address those challenges. Readers will find inspiration for transforming education to better serve children and society. Published 6 times a year, CE Innovations provides a window into the work being done to bring quality, equitable education to all children. It stands alongside the Journal of Research in Childhood Education as one of our signature publications.
CONTENTS
May/June 2025
“Mantle of the Expert: Using Story Worlds to Engage Young Minds”
In a Mantle of the Expert experience, the teacher sets the scene and brings the students into a story as if they are a team of experts. They don’t need to have any real-world expertise; the “mantle” of the expert is not about what they know, but rather about taking on responsibility. By asking, “What would be your most urgent concerns?,” the teacher invites the students to enter the fiction and take on responsibility. As they get to work, the teacher weaves in curriculum content while also developing skills in drawing, writing, and creating. In this way, the curriculum comes alive. The content—the knowledge, skills, and understanding—is relevant and immediately applicable.
“Dancing Toward Well-Being: How ChezaCheza Uses Dance to Transform Education in Kenya”
ChezaCheza, which means playful in Kiswahili, brings dance-based learning to students who need it most. The organization’s approach brings a refreshing shift to traditional education, making space for well-being, self-expression, and social-emotional learning. This is especially critical in Kenya, where educational challenges threaten to stifle the potential of many young people. The concept is simple yet transformative: use dance to create safe spaces where students can explore emotions, build self-esteem, and develop essential life skills.
“Nurturing Resilient and Capable Individuals Through Nature Therapy”
Natural environments offer proven healing benefits, supporting children’s psychological stability, emotional development, and immune functions through attention restoration and sensory integration. Within this context, Kneipp therapy emerges as a holistic approach addressing physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being through preventive measures. This holistic health approach addresses not only physical well-being but also emotional and spiritual health. This article examines a South Korean early childhood program that integrates Kneipp therapy’s five pillars — water, exercise, nutrition, herbs, and lifestyle — into its curriculum. Set in a region rich with forests, mountains, rivers, and diverse plant life, the program exemplifies how natural environments can be leveraged for children’s holistic development.
“CARE for Well-Being: Supporting Ukrainian Educators”
The Ukrainian educational landscape has been significantly disrupted by Russia’s invasion. Amid the chaos, educators are seen as superheroes, adapting curricula, providing unwavering support to traumatized students, and keeping education alive. But these superheroes are humans who themselves are grappling with the daily realities of war — anxieties, fear for loved ones, and the uncertainty of tomorrow. A true lifeline for Ukrainian educators has been the Holistic Language Pedagogies Project, led by the Center for Professional Learning at Childhood Education International and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. The Project brought together educators from across Ukraine and the United States to enhance professional development and foster partnership. Through workshops and training sessions, educators expanded their expertise in social and emotional learning, asset-based pedagogy, content and language integrated learning, project and play-based learning, and technology use in the classroom.
“Communities Sustain Teacher Well-Being, Innovation, Learning, and Leadership”
In recent years, the collaborative and collective nature of teaching and (professional) learning has come to the forefront in education, including through a focus on professional learning communities, teacher learning circles, and communities of practice. It is widely recognized that teachers need communities of support, care, and growth in order to do their best work and thrive in their chosen profession. In this article in a series on teacher learning and leadership, we hear from a dynamic, transnational educator, Dr. Marissa Winmill, who both participates in and leads communities of practice. She describes the communities she is most involved with currently, explains why—as a busy educator and mom—she makes time for community engagements, and shares the impact of communities on her (and her teacher colleagues’) learning, well-being, and capacity to innovate and lead in the education ecosystem.
“Teaching Emotional Intelligence Through Classroom Management”
Emotions can either facilitate or impede children’s academic engagement, work ethic, commitment, and ultimate school success. Therefore, it is essential for educators to recognize and address emotions constructively. Emotional intelligence has become essential in understanding human behavior, social interactions, and personal development. It is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions while also being aware of and influencing the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence is a learned ability to identify, understand, experience, and express human emotions in healthy and productive ways. Developing emotional intelligence in children and young adults has been shown to improve academic performance, social skills, and emotional well-being.
“Model Preschool Lab for Diverse Learners”
A cutting-edge classroom at Pitt Community College in North Carolina has given education and child development students a real-world environment in which to prepare for early childhood education careers. The goal was to create a model classroom that would allow students to plan and evaluate a state-of-the-art learning environment focused on STEAM learning, social-emotional development, and meeting the needs of diverse learners. ECD students have opportunities to learn about licensing requirements and how to plan developmentally appropriate environments and activities, select materials, set up interest centers, and display children’s work.
“Bridging the Gap: Primary Education in the Philippines”
While secondary and tertiary education in the Philippines have received increased attention and resources in recent years, primary education — the cornerstone of lifelong learning — remains underfunded. The author of this article asks the question: How can we build a strong education system if the foundation is unstable? Primary education is not just another level in the system — it is the foundation upon which everything else is built. These early years are when students develop core skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as the critical thinking abilities they will need throughout their lives. The article explores why investing in primary education is critical.
“I-Shape by Shape: Real-World STEM Learning in Malaysia”
I-Shape by Shape is a creative way to foster young children’s informal engineering talents using a local landmark as inspiration. The curriculum focuses on a number of important engineering topics that have been identified by a thorough literature evaluation. Integrating basic technology and engineering elements, this initiative encourages participants to devise creative and innovative solutions for real-world challenges by engaging in both minds-on and hands-on activities. The program’s objective is to cultivate learners’ engineering skills while also bolstering their problem-solving abilities, computational thinking, design thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, data literacy, and computer science proficiency.
“Grandma Gatewood: Learning 20th-Century Local History”
In a unique program at a corporation farm in rural Ohio, families with elementary-age children engaged in a literacy book walk that connected families with books and the community. A local figure of note served as a theme and feminist role model. Emma Rowena Gatewood, known as Grandma Gatewood, survived a difficult life of hardship and abuse, going on to hike the Appalachian Trail as a senior citizen and earning national prominence for her role in promoting recreational walking. While promoting literacy, this program also introduced families to the benefits of hiking, women’s history, and local community history.
“Empowering Access With Tools You Already Use”
Accessibility tools in the classroom can facilitate learning for all students in many ways. Educators need to understand how to increase accessibility to support all students. Fortunately, many of the tools already being used in the classroom have built-in accessibility options. Whether the goal is to provide opportunities for students to participate, facilitate learning for all, or limit distractions when using technology, the necessary tools are already at our fingertips.