Books by Marilyn (Monash University Fleer

Play-based learning is an important focus in the Early Years Learning Framework and in early childhood education degrees. This book examines play across time, culture and institutions, and analyses key theories from classical and contemporary perspectives. Includes vignettes and end-of-chapter glossaries.

Child Development in Educational Settings provides a comprehensive introduction to traditional and contemporary theories of development and learning in the contexts of early childhood and primary education.

Designed to prepare future educators for practice, Science for Children challenges students and offers practical classroom-based strategies for their science teaching careers. It presents a wealth of science content across the birth-to-twelve-years continuum, demonstrating how science can come alive in the classroom.

Theorising Play in the Early Years is a theoretical and empirical exploration of the concept of pedagogy and play in early childhood. The book provides an in-depth examination of classical and contemporary theories, with a focus on post-developmental perspectives, to move beyond a universal view of the construct of play.

Early Learning and Development provides a unique synthesis of cultural-historical theory from Vygotsky, Elkonin and Leontiev in the twentieth century to the ground-breaking research of scholars such as Siraj-Blatchford, Kratsova and Hedegaard today. It demonstrates how development and learning are culturally embedded and institutionally defined, and it reflects specifically upon the implications for the early childhood profession. Divided into parts, with succinct chapters that build upon knowledge progressively, the everyday lives of children at home, in the community, at pre-school and at school are discussed in the context of child development and pedagogy. The book explicitly problematises the foundations of early childhood education, inviting postgraduates, researchers and academics to drill down into specific areas of international discourse, and extending upper-level undergraduates beyond the fundamental underpinnings of their learning. Ultimately Early Learning and Development offers new models of 'conceptual play' practice and theory within a globally resonant, cultural-historical framework.