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Play And Learning In The Early Years – When my son opened the door to his kindergarten classroom this morning, one child spread colorful squares of felt on the floor of a large dollhouse. Another table, stripes, green grass—wrapped in smooth sticks and trunks—hidden gnome figurines and forest creatures. Past the play kitchen and nursery, children put together heavy blocks to make a city or a pirate ship. In a nearby room, a rice bowl held cloth and measuring cups and spoons and rakes. The place invites the game.
Play-based learning is popular in preschool settings and has been linked to the development of 21st century learning skills including collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creativity, and confidence.
Play And Learning In The Early Years
However, standards-based accountability and increasing pressure from parents and state officials to meet academic standards early in kindergarten have led teachers to focus on more efficient methods, such as direct instruction, continuous memorization ah, and working papers.
The Benefits Of Play Based Learning
While direct learning is beneficial in some areas, such as phonics, a balance of play-based learning is still essential. Some states are ensuring children’s access to classroom play by legally mandating kindergarten-based play. In 2018, New Hampshire amended its education law to require “child-directed experiences,” including “movement, creative expression, exploration, community, and music.” Yet, many teachers in New Hampshire and beyond are unsure of what play-based learning looks like and how they can facilitate it.
And their implementation of game-based practices are also integrated. “Teachers often say ‘oh yeah, I’m doing that too’ because they let their students play for 20 minutes at the end of the day,” said Christine Brennan, New Hampshire’s Vice Chancellor of Education, “but there’s a lot of more. more than that.”
One study found that teachers who view play and learning as separate activities often give children the opportunity to engage in “free play,” while those who view play as a conduit for learning use ” directed play.”
Understanding the different types of play can help educators, school leaders, and policy makers enhance the potential of play in their classrooms.
Best Equipment For Early Year Development
Free and guided play has certain benefits for children. Free play describes child-directed, voluntary, and flexible play. Often, but not always, it involves pretend play where children take roles and perform sociodramatic scenes. Teachers and researchers alike see the value of such play as social, emotional, and developmental; Children gain skills by negotiating relationships and conflicts with their peers and role-playing new situations. Research has found that in classrooms where free play is prevalent, teachers tend to interject active lessons into free play periods and rarely intervene. Teachers usually use these play periods to prepare another lesson or attend to administrative tasks.
Guided play implies an active role for teachers, but what form should their guidance take? Pyle and Danniels describe four types of directed play that follow a continuum from child-directed to teacher-directed.
While the results of free play are mostly social, guided play can produce a wide range of learning outcomes. In fact, a recently published meta-analysis found that, for children under eight, guided play is more effective in teaching academic content than direct instruction.
While several important skills and knowledge areas, such as alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness, benefit from direct instruction,
Why Play Is An Integral Part Of A Child’s Early Years
Research suggests that the most age-appropriate and effective approach is a balanced approach that includes brief periods of direct instruction in a structured learning environment.
New Hampshire is one of several states that recently passed legislation mandating play-based learning in kindergarten classrooms. Others, like California, hope that the move to full-day kindergarten will provide more time and opportunity for play. Policy is an important lever to ensure that children’s right to play is protected,
And Brennan is very proud of New Hampshire’s leadership in this area. However, it acknowledges that policy alone cannot guarantee quality or equality of opportunity for children to play.
Our REL Northeast & Islands team is excited to partner with the New Hampshire Department of Education and other stakeholders in a multi-phase project to develop a state-based education initiative. We plan to jointly design a measurement strategy to monitor play-based learning practices across the state. Data from this innovative implementation measurement will inform training development to strengthen the use of data to refine game-based learning practices. Finally, we plan to produce a fact sheet for parents and school administrators to communicate the research evidence that supports a play-based approach to parenting.
Boost Imagination With ‘loose Parts’ Play
Regarding the work ahead Brennan said, “We hope that this collaboration can build the ability of adults to connect the law to classroom practice, and develop parents’, teachers’, and administrators to understand that learning can happen through play. and happy.”
Zosh, J.M., Hopkins, E.J., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Neale, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Solis, SL., & Whitebread, D. (2017).
Learning through play at school: A study of integrated and balanced pedagogy that fosters children’s general skill development in the primary school classroom.
Stagnitti, K., Bailey, A., Hudspeth Stevenson, E., Reynolds, E., & Kidd, E. (2016). Investigating the impact of play on the development of play and language skills.
Why Play Based Learning Is Essential For Early Childhood Education
Vogt, F., Hauser, B., Stebler, R., Rechsteiner, K., & Urech, C. (2018). Play-learning and early childhood mathematics learning outcomes.
Bubikova-Moan, J., Næss Hjetland, H., & Wollscheid, S. (2019). ECE teachers’ perceptions of play-based learning: A systematic review.
Pyle, A., & Daniels, E. (2017). Sustaining play-based learning: The teacher’s role in play-based pedagogy and the fear of hijacking play.
Skene, K., O’Farrelly, C. M., Byrne, E. M., Kirby, N., Stevens, E. C., & Ramchandani, P. G. (2022). Can orientation during play enhance children’s learning and development in learning situations? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Social And Emotional Learning In The Early Years
Paige, D. D., Rupley, W. H., Smith, G. S., Olinger, C., & Leslie, M. (2018). Acquisition of letter naming knowledge, phonemic awareness, and spelling knowledge in kindergarten children at risk for reading. In this week’s blog, Early Childhood Teacher, mom and blogger over at Teacher Types, Lauren Hunt shares her views on the importance of play in Early Childhood and provides great examples of how to incorporate play in a variety of settings.
Allowing your children to play is well documented to have a positive impact on cognitive and cognitive development allowing your child to learn problem solving skills, risk taking, develop their language, improve their memory and strengthen and build important brain pathways. In fact, the wider early years education framework in Australia is supported by play-based learning which is taught in every school and nursery. Here’s Lauren’s perspective…
As a parent, have you ever uttered the phrase “They’re just playing”? Or as a teacher, do you often hear parents say “They’re just playing”?
Learning through play is one of the most commonly used practices in the Early Childhood sector. It is a well-researched theory and Early Childhood methods such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia base their philosophy on this concept.
The Benefits Of Water Play For Children’s Development
Most Friday afternoons, I schedule “Free Activity” time for my five-year-old class. When I take a moment to stop and observe the children closely – the learning that takes place is truly unique. Especially because the kids don’t know they are learning and enjoying themselves! This is the key to play-based learning.
However, it should be noted that the teacher has an important role to play as well as the facilitator – to question the children, to motivate and to promote their learning. In my personal experience, childcare and nurseries do this well. It is when children begin formal education that play-based learning becomes less and academic paper-type lessons take over. It’s all about finding a balance – between personal early childhood beliefs and the values and expectations and processes of my school.
Pictures with notes (either written by the teacher or the student depending on their ability) are a great way to document children’s play-based or hands-on learning for parents, and provide evidence of what they did in that lesson – instead of paper. a work that sticks to a book.
The learning environment is also an important factor in providing children with adequate opportunities to learn through play. Inviting learning centers and activity tables with carefully selected, key words, images and tools can provide wonderful learning opportunities.
What Is Play Based Learning In Early Years?
So the next time your child is playing – stop and take a closer look. Listen to the language they use, send them questions, stimulate their thinking and join the journey.
Want to get in touch with Lauren? Head over to her blog Teacher Types for great ideas on Early Childhood.
About the Author: Lauren Hunt Lauren has been an Early Childhood Teacher in Adelaide, South Australia for the past 10 years and currently teaches Kindergarten. She is passionate about play-based, hands-on learning as a teacher and mother to her active 2-year-old daughter. Lauren writes about sensory play ideas, developing literacy skills and encouraging the hearts and minds of young children on her blog, Teacher Brands which she started in 2014. She also enjoys professional photography. Stay connected
