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Pre-Primary Sources

Pre-Primary Sources

Written by: pre-primary-sources
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About this listen

In the world of early childhood education, "research says" can be a conversation stopper. But at Pre-Primary Sources, we talk about the science of child development with researchers and practitioners to get a broader picture of what the evidence says and how it can be applied.

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Episodes
  • Coloring Pages and Creativity, with Tiffany Pearsall
    Feb 5 2026

    While there isn't often a hard and fast rule, coloring pages are often looked at as "busy work" or as having no place in a child led classroom, with beliefs about the potential for negative impact on children's creativity and discovery. Why would a child want to learn to draw independently if we have pages already made with all of the pictures they could want to draw! Surprisingly, there's very limited research on coloring pages and their impact on creativity... or anything else for young children.

    References:

    Creative and Mental Growth (Third Edition) Viktor Lowenfeld

    Nurturing Creativity: An Essential Mindset for Young Children’s Learning by Rebecca Isbell and Sonia Akiko Yoshizawa

    Coloring-Book-Type Experiences and Children's Divergent Pictorial Production* N. ASHLEY RANDALL, JR.; THOMAS W. DRAPER

    Music from:

    Audio File URL: https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-retro-electronica-284413/
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    38 mins
  • Teacher as Researcher, with Alexandra Dutton
    Jan 16 2026

    The Reggio Emilia approach values the idea of the teacher as researcher; program director Alexandra Dutton, of Old Firehouse School, has nearly 20 years of experience supporting educators in their role as researcher of their own group of children.

    Find Fireside Chats on the Young Mind wherever you get your podcasts!

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    42 mins
  • Critical vs. Radical Scholarship
    Jan 2 2026

    Before we talk about specific research in early childhood, I wanted to talk about the history of the institution of science-- how it has served to both expand human knowledge and block out those it has deemed "unfit" to be in its halls, how unintentional bias and purposeful bigotry have made and maintained their way in, and how modern scholars can work to expand the canon of what we know and how we know it. Lizz talks with Dr. Bee, a professor of sociology, about bias, science, and what it means to be a radical scholar.

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    50 mins
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