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The child is humanity's future; childhood experiences shape future social life and culture. Happier children, and thus happier societies, are the result of a proper definition and comprehension of the child and his/her childhood period and the elimination of harmful behaviours and attitudes towards children during their formative years. Childhood is a distinct period in various communities and historical periods.

When dealing with childhood and the history of childhood around the world, all types of information, documents and items that are assumed to be directly or indirectly related to the child will contribute to understanding the place of childhood in the historical process. The importance of the child's role in history was recognised, and childhood was encouraged in historical research. Understanding the historical changes in the concept of childhood will influence children's positive development and perceptions of childhood. As a result, we wanted to examine childhood through the lens of history.

Special education today in the Ukraine is dramatically different than its early origins which stressed communal guardianship for persons with disabilities to its current movement to inclusive education. The journey to inclusive education was inconsistent due to a variety of elements such as the collapse of the Russian Monarchy, a series of different governments and social-political structures, World War II and membership in the USSR which stressed a unification of the education system. However, special education professionals who worked at the Special Education Pedagogy Institute of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences continued to research and develop a philosophical instructional framework to educate students with disabilities that includes theoretical and practical aspects of inclusive education. This chapter provides a detailed description of this framework as well as prevalence and school placements aspects, classification and assessment parameters, and the impact of legislation for free public education. The chapter concludes with challenges to inclusive education such as attitude modification, infusing necessary teacher instructional strategies, and the incorporation of best practices from special education to regular education settings.

In the West, just as much as in Eastern civilisations, a concern for respect and civility, and therefore mutual and complementary development of all the parts involved in an action, has been a philosophical driver for more than two millennia. In a practical way this implies, for the ‘human individual’, that the consideration of others’ realisation and accomplishments are as equal and important as her/his own. As an example of this mutual co-development, European humanistic thinkers have written and reflected about the need of having a humanistic orientation on any social action; in this respect the work of Rousseau (1712–1778) and Montaigne (1533–1592) are especially notable. This line has also been explored more recently by the American philosopher Dewey (1909). Moreover, within this humanistic concern, other philosophers such as Socrates (in Plato's works – 399–384 B.C.) and later Kierkegaard (1851) reflected on the responsibility of action regarding the whole, for which it is necessary to consider the meaning of existence as the representation of the soul – in a spiritual context – that affects this ‘whole’ inter-related development. We talk then about the need to explore the sense of actions, the results pursued and their consequences.

Socially disadvantaged parents often concentrate on providing for their children instead of stimulating them to learn because of their own low self‐efficacy as learning agents. This study describes the development and pilot evaluation of a programme designed to empower new immigrant parents in Hong Kong to assume active, systematic and confident roles to teach their pre‐school children learning skills. A needs assessment was conducted to guide the development of the programme, which was also informed by research evidence and community engagement. A pilot trial was conducted and qualitative data were obtained from the participating parents. Parents reported improvements in their children's motivation to learn and the parent‐child relationship. The research provided information on programme design, delivery and implementation strategies. It suggested important entry points to engage and empower parents to provide timely stimulation to their young children.

The purpose of this paper is to inform designers and researchers about the current state of play in videogames in education and its broader context.

This synthetic piece reflects the author’s past decade of work and observation in the domain. It is not a research piece but a reflective essay.

Structural issues inflect the development of games for learning. Here, the author argues for the incubation of a new indie scene in educational domains on par with the burgeoning indie scene in commercial entertainment games.

This is a short essay for scholars, designers and leaders in games for learning who work inside academics yet aspire to have their work impact not only on publications but also on products.

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the life and work of a forgotten progressive educator – (Henry) Caldwell Cook who was an English and drama teacher at the Perse School in Cambridge, UK. By looking at his key work The Play Way (1917) as well as the small number of his other writings it further seeks to explain the distinctiveness of his thinking in comparison to his contemporaries with a particular focus upon educational democracy.

The work was constructed primarily through a reading of Cook’s published output but also archival study, specifically by examining the archives held within the Perse School itself. These consisted of rare copies of Cook’s written works – unused by previous scholars – and materials relating to Cook’s work in the school such as his theatre designs and a full collection of contemporary newspaper reviews.

The paper contends that Cook’s understanding of democracy and democratic education was different to that of other early twentieth century progressives such as Edmond Holmes and Harriet Finlay-Johnson. By so doing it links him to the ideas of progressivism emergent in America from John Dewey et al. who were more concerned with democratic ways of thinking. It therefore not only serves to resurrect Cook as a figure of importance but also offers new insights into early twentieth century progressivism.

The value of the paper is that it expands what little previous writing there has been on Cook as well as using unused materials. It also seeks to use a biographical approach to start to better delineate progressive educators of the past thereby moving away from seeing them as a homogenous grouping.

The Covid-19 crisis has inflicted a disruptive impact on the conventional institutional format of architecture studio pedagogy. As a result, there is a critical suddenness for an alternative approach to ensure continuity. The research pursues is to pursue a multidisciplinary study with a focus on the following domains: architecture, the science of learning and e-learning architecture. Inference from the study would become the basis for a theoretical proposition for improvement of the existing pedagogical framework. Moreover, the literature would add valuable insights to the knowledge base.

An exploratory research approach is used for this study. The inquiry-based approach enlightens on the role of the architect in society. Also, the nature of architectural design education that existed prior to the Covid-19 outbreak is examined. Further, the paper explores the impact of the paradigm shift from institutional mode to e-learning mode overnight. Purposefully multi-disciplinary studies are pursued to develop a broad understanding of the associated domains. This could effectively contribute to developing an effective pedagogical framework. This would facilitate the conduct of architecture studio discourse in a structured manner during the current scenario.

The confluence approach – a theoretical proposition for effective structuring of architecture studio pedagogy has evolved as part of the research. Further, the proposed virtual learning pyramid enlightens on the drive to continue on with augmentation of students existing creative acumen. Which is one of the universally sought-after goals of studio pedagogy even during times of uncertainties.

Pedagogues would find the study very meaningful for the conduct of architecture design studio in e-learning mode. They would also acquire a broad understanding of factors to be considered. The research would pave way for future studies in this area from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

The current Covid-19 crisis deters architecture studio discourse from being conducted in an accustomed institutional format. Therefore, it becomes important for institutions to ensure continuity of architectural education with the help of new measures. In concurrence, the research envisions an alternative approach: virtual design studio using e-learning mode. This would ensure continuity of architectural education even when the instructor and students are separated in either time or place.

The study presents a unique contribution to the limited literature available on architecture studio pedagogy during the e-learning scenario.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.