The current issue presents 16 papers that explore play, fun, adventure, excitement and creativity in early childhood education in all its forms. The issue takes a broad exploration of the multitude of ways that intrinsic motivation is embedded in children’s learning and the ways in which educators can start with the embodied and emotional relationship with learning as described at the beginning of this Editorial.

The study set out to explore different mathematical difficulties among 877 second-grade children and to test the effect of memorization versus conceptual practices with number combinations.

The aim of the present theoretical analysis is threefold. First, we examine the concept of deep learning in light of the three fundamental questions “why”, “what”, and “how” and make assessments concerning its status in contemporary literature.