One of the crucial 21st-century digital skills, in the context of digital transformation, is problem solving—equally so in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In the context of kindergarten, learning through play is central; therefore, pretend play, and particularly guided pretend play, is suggested as an innovative way to foster skills for digital problem solving. As yet, the potential of pretend play for children’s learning about digital transformation and digital problem-solving processes has hardly been researched. The paper examines how children solve digital problems in guided pretend play. In an explorative intervention study “We play the future”, an information technology center (IT center) is introduced as one of the play corners for pretend play in kindergartens, together with other inputs such as a smart home corner (Internet of Things) or autonomous vehicles. Children’s play was video recorded. From the 15 participating kindergartens, 13 h of sequences involving the IT center were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicate that children identify problems in a play situation and solve them using problem-solving strategies, such as devising new applications and installing software. Furthermore, the findings show that the kindergarten teacher’s participation in the pretend play is important for enabling longer and more complex problem-solving processes. Consequences for further teacher training to foster problem-solving skills during guided pretend play are discussed.

Digitalisation and the accompanying transformation processes, involving data, technology and people, are part of children's life and will shape their future. Competences, such as digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving are crucial to these transformation processes. In early childhood, these competences are essentially acquired through play, especially pretend play. The project ‘we play the future’ draws on the potential of pretend play to enable young children to be actively engaged in imagining themselves shaping digital transformation in the roles of inventors, developers and users. Drawing on an analysis of fields currently undergoing digital transformation, eight inputs for pretend play were developed to areas of digital transformation (eg, robotics, autonomous vehicles and Internet of things). Fifteen kindergarten teachers implemented the pretend play on digital transformation in their kindergarten after taking a half‐day introductory professional development course. The children's play was filmed and analysed using qualitative multimodal interaction analysis in order to examine the ways in which the pretend play encourages the exploration of digital transformation amongst the children. The results reveal the potential of pretend play for children to explore digital transformation and to acquire the digital competences needed in the future. Practitioner notes: What is already known about this topic? Children integrate imaginative digital technology in their play. Guided pretend play is important for children's learning in kindergarten. What this paper adds Ideas for pretend play in kindergarten to enable children developing an understanding of digital transformation in a playful way The paper presents findings from video analysis which indicate that children are using competences needed for the digital future during pretend play Implications for practice Digital education should not just be focused on using and programming digital devices but include pretend play to explore digital transformation; through the inputs for pretend play suggested in the project, the kindergarten teachers support the children developing an understanding of digital technology. The inputs for pretend play enable children to develop competences such as technical and digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving.

Teacher expectations not only relate positively to student achievement, but also to student beliefs such as their self-concept. Nevertheless, most studies focus on the relations with student achievement, followed by studies on beliefs. Beliefs are a significant determinant of academic success and can include student self-concept or emotions, such as anxiety. The extent to which anxiety can be influenced by teacher expectations has been investigated in very few studies. This paper examined how teacher expectations related to changes in student achievement, self-concept, and anxiety in mathematics within a school year. The data were from a longitudinal study “Outcomes of teacher education”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and based on 28 teachers and 509 primary school students. Teacher expectations were operationalized using the residual approach. Student mathematics achievement was assessed via a standardized mathematics test and their self-concept as well as their mathematics anxiety via a questionnaire. The multi-level structure was considered in the analyses, because the interclass-correlation of student mathematics achievement exceeded the critical value of 10%. The results showed that teacher expectations were positively related to student achievement as well as self-concept and negatively related to anxiety towards mathematics. The change in the explained variance was small (self-concept and anxiety) to large (achievement). The results extend findings on the expectation effect in the classroom, as they focus not only on student achievement but also on student beliefs and are discussed regarding their significance for academic success.

Over the past 50 years, many studies have investigated the impact of teacher expectations on student achievement and indicated small to moderate effects. Currently, it is still unclear which student‐related factors (e.g. socioeconomic status, or gender) moderate the expectation effect. There is still a need to gain a better understanding of the relation between teacher expectations and students' characteristics. The present study aims to examine the accuracy of teacher expectations as well as student‐related moderators of the expectation effects on students' achievement. The analyses are based on data from a longitudinal study including 28 primary school teachers and their students (N = 509). The results show that high expectations of teachers correlated positively with student achievement in mathematics, although no significant moderating effects were found. These findings strengthen the importance of ensuring high teacher expectations for all students.