Children's play: An Investigation of Children's Co‐construction of Their World Within Early School Settings (original) (raw)

Play and its Pedagogical Potential in a Preschool Institution

Hrvatski Casopis Za Odgoj I Obrazovanje, 2014

The role of playing in young children's educational process is priceless. It represents the child's zone of proximal development and a possible transition into a higher stage of his/her cognitive and social development, and should be regarded as an integral part of the educational process in the institutions for early education. This implies providing proper conditions for playing and developing playing experiences, which includes creating a safe place and a positive environment for playing, offering "open" materials suitable for different stages of a child's development, providing enough uninterrupted playtime, showing an interest for children's activities and achievements, strengthening the children's cooperation, providing enough time for self-organization of the activities and allowing enough time to carefully listen and observe the children playing. Types of games and their complexity and educational value can be perceived from various perspectives, i.e. observed in terms of various theoretical approaches. This paper analyses playing from two framework perspectives-cognitive and social, and addresses the conditions in early education institutions needed for its uninterrupted activity and its pedagogic potential.

Children’s play, learning and development

2016

Play in humans, especially in human children, has been written about extensively by psychologists and anthropologists. Play forms are primarily exercise play, rough-and-tumble play, object play, pretend and sociodramatic play. Play behavior can take up an appreciable part of the time budget. There is a spectrum of views on the importance of play in human development, amongst theorists and amongst human societies generally. Different views can be found both historically and cross-culturally, from Spencer’s (1898) description of play as “superfluous and useless exercise”, through to Gaskins, Haight and Lancy (2007), who describe three types of societies with differing prevailing attitudes to play, which they call ‘culturally cultivated play’, ‘culturally accepted play’, and ‘culturally curtailed play’. The ‘play ethos’ (Smith, 1988), or “the realisation that play is essential for normal development has slowly but surely permeated our cultural heritage” (Department of Environment Repor...

Children's Perspectives of Play and Learning for Educational Practice

Play as a learning practice increasingly is under challenge as a valued component of early childhood education. Views held in parallel include confirmation of the place of play in early childhood education and, at the same time, a denigration of the role of play in favor for more teacher-structured and formal activities. As a consequence, pedagogical approaches towards play, the curriculum activities that constitute play, and the appropriateness of play in educational settings, have come under scrutiny in recent years. In this context, this study investigates children's perspectives of play and how they understand the role of play and learning in their everyday activities. This article reports on an Australian study where teacher-researchers investigated child-led insights into what counts as play in their everyday classroom activities. Children (aged 3–4 years) described play as an activity that involved their active participation in " doing " something, being with peers, and having agency and ownership of ideas. Children did not always characterize their activities as " play " , and not all activities in the preschool program were described as OPEN ACCESS Educ. Sci. 2015, 5 346 play. The article highlights that play and learning are complex concepts that may be easily dismissed as separate, when rather they are deeply intertwined. The findings of this study generate opportunities for educators and academics to consider what counts as " play " for children, and to prompt further consideration of the role of play as an antidote to adult centric views of play.

Play and Learning: Inseparable Dimensions to Early Childhood Education

This article is a theoretical discourse which examined the role of play as an indispensable entity for learning in early childhood education. Despite the fact that play has been universally acclaimed to be instrumental in facilitating learning, improving social skills, developing intellectual and physical prowess at the early childhood stage, many limitations have been observed to hinder the total implementation of the use of play at this level of education. Both the home and the school factors have been identified to hinder the full implementation of the use of play in teaching children. In view of this, this paper employed a descriptive philosophical research method. The concept of play was extensively discussed as it relates to learning in early childhood education. Also, factors hindering the implementation of the use of play were raised. As a result of this, a re-orientation on the need and use of play in teaching children at certain levels of development (which include teaching of values and morals) was suggested. Also stressed is the need to de-emphasize writing (hands on paper). Teachers, heads of schools and parents need to be further enlightened on this. In addition, there is need for continuous on-the-job training for teachers in order to handle the challenges encountered while using play to teach children. Keywords: Play, Learning, Education, Early Childhood Education

Understanding Play: The Perceptions of Children, Adolescents, Parents and Teachers

Play of Individuals and Societies, 2014

Play as a concept is complex and often contested 1 despite the fact that it is claimed that we know play when we see it. 2 There have been considerable attempts by theorists to define play such as by: category, 3 typology, 4 criteria, 5 and continuum. 6 However, it has been stated that it is difficult to have a common conceptualisation or definition of play. 7 Whilst there is a considerable body of literature on defining play by theorists, there is far less literature on understanding play from the perspectives of different professionals, parents, adolescents, and children. There is a growing research base of early years practitioners' understanding of play and how this relates to practice; 8 however, there is a lack of research on the understanding of play from the perspective of other professionals. There is also limited research on parents' and adolescents' perspectives of play. There is, however, an emerging literature on children's perspectives of play but it is not yet known how their perspectives differ from the perceptions of adults. It is important to have a shared understanding of play for three reasons: so that there is a common language with which to talk about play, 9 so that the same phenomenon is investigated by researchers, 10 and so that there is clarity in relation to play practice. This chapter draws on a series of case studies which have employed a range of methodologies including: questionnaires, interviews and experiments to identify perceptions of play in relation to the aforementioned groups. As well as identifying similarities and differences in perceptions of play across the different groups, the implications for practice and future research are identified.

Play in the Preschool Classroom: Its Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher's Role in Play

The goals of this paper were twofold. The first goal was to examine the emotional and social developmental value of play in the early childhood classroom. This issue is important because of the recent impetus for a more academic focus in early childhood classrooms, and questions about the developmental benefits of play. The second goal was to examine and discuss the role teachers could play in making play a developmental and educational experience. This is because understanding the significance of play could make teachers less apprehensive about using play to promote learning and development, and enable them answer questions regarding the value of play. Using these goals as a backdrop, this paper discussed views of children's play; the defining characteristics of emotional and social development; play and the socio-emotional development of children; and the role of early childhood teachers in children's play.

Why Play = Learning: A Challenge for Parents and Educators

Oxford University Press eBooks, 2006

Imagine a world in which children are encouraged 10 parrot answers. to fill in Ihe blanks. and 10 nOI go beyond the facts. Imagine a world in which onc size fits all (as in today's educational standards), and no size fils any. Madeleine l'Englc (1962) describes just such II world in her classic book, A Wrinkle i/I Timt!. Below them the lown was laid QuI in harsh angular patterns. The houses in the OU1skins were all exactly alike. small square boxes painled gray.... In front of all the houses children were playing. Some were skipping ropes. some were bouocing balls. Meg fell vaguely that~omelhing was wrong with lheir play.... "Look!" Charles Wallaee said suddenly. "The)"re skipping and bouncing in rh)'thm! Everyone's doing il at exaetl)' the same moment." This wos so. As the s1cipping rope hit the pavemenl, so did the boll. As the rope curved over the head of the jumping child, lhe child with lhe ball coughl lhe ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again.... All in rh),thm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the palhs. Like lhe nowers. (p. 103)

Play and learning—inseparable dimensions in preschool practice

Early Child Development and Care, 2006

This article is a theoretical discussion on the dimensions of learning in play and the dimensions of play in learning, using the playful interaction between children and teachers as a starting point. From an empirical study observations of two situations were chosen, one from a mealtime and one of children's play, both typical examples of playful interactions between teachers and children. The aim of the analysis was to detect and understand whether play and learning could be involved and how these dimensions might be expressed by children and teachers in the interactions. In research, as well as in the preschool practice, play and learning have been kept apart. Today the difference between these two concepts seems to be less well defined Joy, creativity, creation of meaning and children's possibilities to control and form goals are especially pointed out as dimensions that all seem possible and important in both play and learning. Play is pointed out as an important part of the learning process, and the teacher's responsibility for play and learning has been elucidated in new curricula. Our analysis of the observations shows that although both of the situations were different in character, dimensions of play and learning were found in each of them. In our first example the act of play and learning was to follow the child, while the second one deals more with an act of both words and actions, and focuses on children's interest in order to make them involved. Encouragement, imitation and communication become prominent in both of the situations, as well as joy, creativity, creation of meaning and children's possibilities to control and form goals. The study highlights the importance of the teachers when it comes to the development of a situation of interplay, and how this situation will appear to the children. Play and learning are dimensions that stimulate each other and could be seen as an indivisible entirety, which is a part of children's experiencing, and which helps them create an understanding of their surrounding world in a lifelong process.

Play for learning and transition to school

Play has been recogonized as essential in children’s learning, but the quality of play has not been defined adequately. Learning in play denotes cognitive, social, emotional and physical processes. In these processes co-operation and interaction between educators, parents, children, and their environments are important. Children are considered as active actors in their learning. Mature play integrates play with learning, and thus is able to convey learning in a form of play. In this chapter the contextual orientation of early childhood play, which forms a theoretical basis for mature play, is introduced. Furthermore mature play is defined first in accordance with teachers, and play and learning theories, and secondly with children’s views. Finally mature role-play is discussed from a developmental perspective.