Role of Imagination in STEM Concept Formation

Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University, Australia. Additionally, she was awarded the 2018 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council, and former President, International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and Tables1 Beginning the Journey into Early Childhood Science Education Research: Beyond Alternative Conceptions1 Introduction2 Beginning the Journey3 Concluding Remarks and Future DirectionsPaper 1: Children’s Alternative Views: Alternative to What?2 Conceptual Play: New Research Agendas Driven by Policy Changes for Play-Based Settings1 Introduction2 National Reviews and Imperatives for Early Childhood Science Education3 International Imperatives Shaping Early Childhood Education4 Concluding Remarks and Future DirectionsPaper 2: ‘Conceptual Play’: Foregrounding Imagination and Cognition during Concept Formation in Early Years Education3 Building an Evidence-Based Model for Early Childhood Science Education: The Place of Emotions in Science, Motivating Learning into Play, and the Teacher in Play Relations1 Big Research Problems Need a Suite of ARC Discovery Grants2 Bringing in Emotions and Drama into Science3 Motives and Motivating Conditions4 Leaping Forward …5 Going Back …7 Thinking Differently about the Problem: Teachers Inside of Children’s PlayPaper 3: Affective Imagination in Science Education: Determining the Emotional Nature of Scientific and Technological Learning of Young ChildrenPaper 4: The Demands and Motives Afforded through Digital Play in Early Childhood Activity SettingsPaper 5: Pedagogical Positioning in Play–Teachers Being Inside and Outside of Children’s Imaginary Play4 Conceptual PlayWorlds: New Model of Practice for Supporting Early Childhood Teachers in the Intentional Teaching of STEM1 An Educational Experiment and a Conceptual PlayWorld as an Intervention2 The Five Characteristics of Conceptual Playworlds3 ConclusionPaper 6: Conceptual Playworlds: The Role of Imagination in Play and LearningPaper 7: Scientific Playworlds: A Model of Teaching Science in Play-Based SettingsPaper 8: Conceptual PlayWorlds as a Pedagogical Intervention: Supporting the Learning and Development of the Preschool Child in Play-Based Setting5 Conceptual PlayLab for Early Childhood STEM: Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship Scheme1 Engaging with Social Media – Making and Curating Content2 Video Productions3 Halfway through the Five-year Period of Funding6 Agentic STEM Practices: From Role-Playing “As If” Engineer/Scientist to Imagining This As a Career1 Mentoring in the Academy …2 Building the Legacy and Circling Back …3 Where Are We at Now?4 Future Imagining in Engineering5 Engineering PlayWorlds6 Looking ForwardPaper 9: When Preschool Girls Engineer: Future Imaginings of Being and Becoming an EngineerIndex