Play and Play-Based Learning Notes

Chapter Objectives

• Reflect on play experiences
• Introduce theory and research supporting the value of play in early childhood
• Examine historical and contemporary theories of play and curriculum approaches
• Explore various types of play and stages of play for children of different age groups
• Discover current trends in children’s play experiences, including social and cultural factors
• Consider pedagogy and the role of teachers in facilitating children’s play, including the transition to more formal learning and teaching in the primary years
• Reflect on partnerships between educators and families in promoting play-based learning and development.

Key Terms

• Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
• games with rules
• play-based learning
• play-based curriculum
• practice play
• symbolic play
• theories of play

Introduction

• Chapter focuses on children’s play and play-based learning.
• Encourages reflection on personal childhood play experiences and their influence on views about play.
• Highlights extensive theory and research supporting the value of play in early childhood.
• Emphasizes the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)'s support for play-based learning.
• Notes that school support for play is more contentious, often limited to recreational play outside of 'learning' time.
• Aims to promote the understanding of the important benefits of play for young children, including those in school settings.
• Argues play should be central to the early childhood curriculum.
• Play allows children to make sense of their world, interact with others and the environment, expand their thinking, and enhance their desire to learn.
• Children's play evolves with their growth and development and is influenced by social and cultural contexts.
• The chapter highlights historical and contemporary theories of play, curriculum approaches, and pedagogical practices to facilitate children’s play.
• Play is recognized by the United Nations in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
• Play as a means for children’s learning is at risk due to pressure on teachers to reduce play-based learning in the curriculum and replace it with academic learning.

Play-Based Learning

• Defined as "a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations" (DEEWR, 2009).

Play-Based Curriculum

• Defined as "a planned intervention by a skilled educator who is concerned with promoting educational goals that are aimed at realising a child’s potential."

What is Play?

• Play is universal, with all children engaging regardless of culture; it is intrinsically motivating and powerful.
• Play is not universally defined, understood, supported, or valued across cultures.
• Wood (2013) describes play as:
  • child-chosen
  • child-invented
  • pretend but done as if real
  • focused on the doing (process not product)
  • done by children not adults
  • requiring active involvement
  • fun
• Common characteristics identified in research:
  • Symbolic: objects assume new meanings
  • Meaningful: reflects existing knowledge
  • Active: involves physical or mental activity
  • Pleasurable: provides fulfillment
  • Voluntary: children choose to participate
  • Rule Governed: has rules about time, equipment, roles, etc.
  • Episodic: has a beginning, middle, and end
• Traditionally, play is compared to work; 'Play is children’s work'.
• Nell and Drew (2013) consider mastery of play the most important developmental task for young children, offering a natural means to investigate the world and build meaningful knowledge through firsthand experience.
• The EYLF defines play-based learning as a context where children organize and make sense of their social worlds through active engagement with people, objects, and representations.
• Play-based learning is learning through discovery and exploration, facilitated through interactions with others.
• A play-based curriculum involves planned intervention by a skilled educator to promote educational goals and realize a child’s potential.
• It includes planned teaching of literacy, numeracy, and science, teacher intention, outcomes, and standards.
• Examples in early years context (birth to five years) include the five learning outcomes:
  • Children have a strong sense of identity
  • Children are connected with and contribute to their world
  • Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
  • Children are confident and involved learners
  • Children are effective communicators
• Memories of childhood often revolve around fantasy or social play.

Play as a Learning Tool

• Early childhood education recognizes play as essential for learning and development.
• Friedrich Froebel established kindergarten in 1837 based on 'play and activity'.
• Froebel urged parents and teachers to play with children to create genuine bonds and mutual respect.
• He believed teachers should learn from children through play to discover how and what to teach.
• Froebel valued purposeful play.
• Psychologists, theorists, and educators like Rousseau, Dewey, Piaget, Montessori, Steiner, and Vygotsky have also advocated for learning through play.
• Research supports the link between play and children's learning and development.
• Learning through play is one of the eight practices of the EYLF, which draws on international evidence and forms the foundation for quality learning and teaching in Australian early childhood education and care settings.
  • Piaget's theory of cognitive development emphasizes action and self-directed problem-solving.
  • Learners discover how to control tools and materials and understand the consequences of their actions.
  • Piaget viewed children as scientists who actively construct knowledge through discovery, active learning, experience, and social interaction.
  • He saw play as an indicator of cognitive development.
  • Piaget described three types of play within different stages of cognitive development: functional play, symbolic play (pretend play), and games with rules.
  • Piaget advocated for open-ended learning experiences where children play and explore uninterrupted for long periods.
  • Vygotsky believed that play is the most important factor in children’s development, having the potential to lead development rather than just reflect it.
  • Play facilitates cognitive development by enabling children to function above their current intellectual level and extend their cognitive skills.
  • Play creates support at the highest levels of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), where learning is assisted by knowledgeable others and cultural tools.
  • Teachers expand knowledge and skills by planning play experiences within children’s ZPD, challenging yet achievable.

Games With Rules

• Games include board games, card games, sport, or playground games such as hopscotch and tag, involving two or more players.
• Observations of children’s play support both Piagetian and Vygotskian theories.
• Play has a valuable role in early childhood education, whether children practice what they have learned or construct new knowledge.
• With the endorsement of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), play has received formal professional recognition as a core component and educational tool in early childhood practice.
• DAP refers to programs grounded in child development theory and research designed to meet the developmental needs of children.
• Play is high on current educational agendas in policy, research, and practice in Australia.
• Play also provides the basis of a number of curriculum approaches including the Reggio Emilia approach, Emergent curriculum, Steiner/ Waldorf, Montessori and the Walker Learning Approach.
• Theory and research support play as a powerful tool for children’s physical, cognitive, language and literacy, and social and emotional development.
• Development in one area affects the others (whole child approach).
• Research shows play is critical for developing symbolic thought, language and literacy, logical-mathematical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Dramatic and socio-dramatic play integrates many areas of learning across the curriculum, where children play with materials, possibilities, knowledge, language, ideas, emotions, stories, roles, relationships, identities and rules.
• Play promotes imagination and creativity, an important component of the curriculum.
• Through play, children achieve satisfying accomplishments, developing their sense of wellbeing.
• Positive relationships are essential in early childhood education, and play builds relationships.
• Play is important for children to form meaningful relationships with peers, adults and significant others, supporting their learning, development, and wellbeing.
• Through play, children construct identities and extend their communication skills, practicing their verbal and nonverbal skills by negotiating roles and appreciating the feelings of others.
• Play teaches children to wait for their turn, share materials, and respond to others’ points of view.
• Play is important for children’s relationships with the environment, with significant benefits from outdoor environments where children explore, discover, and learn with all their senses.
• Outdoor experiences in natural spaces develop physical coordination, increase creative and imaginative skills, strengthen social relationships, foster intellectual development, decrease childhood obesity, and build confidence and self-esteem.
• Children who struggle with concentration benefit from playing outdoors because of the space, fresh air, and freedom.
• Outdoor play improves attention spans, classroom performance, nature literacy, and local understanding.
• Outdoor learning spaces offer more physical, active play and invite open-ended interactions, spontaneity, risk-taking, and connection with nature.
• Outdoor play increases physical activity, healthy development, and overall wellbeing.
• Alternative to play-based curricula are academic, didactic programs where teachers direct children's learning in a highly structured way through direct instruction.
• In didactic programs, there is limited choice and control for children.
• Pressure to start formal education earlier, especially in the year prior to school, does not reflect how young children learn.
• Didactic instruction in early years may harm intellectual, social, and emotional development.
• Didactic teaching does not necessarily produce greater academic skills and outcomes and may worsen academic performance.
• Research reveals negative effects of academic pre-schools and kindergartens.
  • A German study compared direct-instruction kindergartens to play-based kindergartens: by Grade 4, children from direct instruction kindergartens were less advanced in reading and mathematics and less well-adjusted socially and emotionally.
  • A USA study found children from play-based pre-schools in Grade 4 performed better and got higher grades than children from academic pre-schools.
• A play-based curriculum provides concrete, hands-on materials for children to construct meaning, understanding, and skills, alongside intentional instruction and scaffolding from teachers.

Theories of Play

• Theories of play uncover perceptions of how and why children play, first developed during the eighteenth century.
• Fleer (2013) describes four broad theories of play: classical, grand, developmental and post-developmental.
• Classical theories, popular during the nineteenth century, are no longer used, but aspects of them can be found in contemporary theories of play. They include:
  • Spencer’s surplus energy theory
  • Lazarus’s relaxation and recreation theories of play (1883)
  • Groos’s practice theory of play
  • Hall’s recapitulation theory of play (Fleer, 2013)
• Grand theories include play as part of their theory.
• The theories discussed in this chapter are:
  • grand theories, including Erikson’s psycho- social theory (1950) and Piaget’s theory of play (1962)
  • developmental theories, including Parten’s six stages of social play (1932) and Smilansky’s four stages of social play (1968)
  • post- developmental theories, including Fleer’s conceptual play (2010); Goncu and Gaskin’s play as a form of cultural expression (2011); and Vygotsky’s imaginary situation (2005)
  • contemporary critical and feminist post- structural views of play.
• They are informed by earlier notions of play and useful for future teachers, with further reading provided for other theories not included.

Theories Of Play

• Theories that uncover perceptions of how and why children play.

Grand Theories

• Developmental theories include psychoanalytic theory and often refer to stages of development and offer historical as well as contemporary value.

Erikson’s Psycho-Social Theory (1950)

• Erikson drew on Freud’s psycho- sexual theory, concentrating on the conflicts between parents and their children (Fleer, 2013).
• Erikson discussed the importance of children’s play for their emotional development (Erikson, 1977).
• ‘Psycho’ and ‘social’ refer to the child’s inner psychological state (their mind) being connected to the social context (their relationships).
• Through make- believe play, children learn about their social world and develop new social skills; play promotes children’s social competence.
• Erikson described eight major stages of psycho- social development that build on previous stages.
• The first four, which relate to early childhood, are:
  • trust versus mistrust (birth– eighteen months)
  • autonomy versus shame and doubt (eighteen months– three years)
  • initiative versus guilt (three– five years)
  • industry versus inferiority (six– twelve years) (Van Hoorn et al., 2015).
• A crisis occurs at each stage that the child must overcome, with each stage building upon the successful completion of earlier stages.
• Unsuccessful stages reappear as future problems, but mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage.
• The outcome of one stage is not permanent and can be modified by later experiences.
• Erikson emphasized the role of play at each childhood stage of development (Van Hoorn et al., 2015).
• Play is central to the industry- versus- inferiority stage, providing opportunities to explore interpersonal skills through initiating activities.
• Erikson’s psychosocial theory is highly and widely regarded.
• Play therapy emerged due to Freud’s and Erikson’s work. Children remodel perceptions of their past and the present and explore possible future experiences through play.
• Teachers who value Erikson’s theory support children’s emotional and social wellbeing.
• Bowlby’s attachment theory complements Erikson’s theory, suggesting relationships, particularly those built through social play, provide the foundation for children’s learning and development.

Piaget’s Theory of Play (1962)

• Jean Piaget described four stages of development:
  • the sensorimotor stage (birth– two years)
  • preoperational (or symbolic) stage (two– seven years)
  • concrete operational stage (seven– twelve years)
  • formal operations stage (twelve and up) (Fleer, 2013).
• Stages relating to children birth to seven will be discussed in relation to types of play.
  • In the sensorimotor stage, the child is involved in practice play, repeating an action over and over such as putting objects inside a container, tipping them out and putting them in the container again.
  • In the preoperational stage of play, the child is able to engage in symbolic play and can imagine something that is not present. This could be demonstrated through symbolic action— for example the child pretending to be the mother or the family dog.
  • The concrete operational stage includes play involving games with rules, such as board games, card games, sport or playground games such as hopscotch and tag, involving two or more players (Fleer, 2013).
• The child constructs knowledge through the process of assimilation and accommodation to reach a stage of balance, or equilibrium, between what is known and what is experienced.
  $Mental structures either change to take account of new data (accommodate) or incorporate the new information within existing structures (assimilate)$ (Dockett & Fleer, 1999).
• Piaget’s theory can be helpful for our teaching practices: we should provide a wide range of concrete materials and visual aids, and allow children many opportunities for hands- on experiences to build their skills.
• Our focus should be on the child’s thinking and understanding rather than the ‘product’ of their play, such as something that they have built.

Developmental Theories

• Theories of play draw upon child development theories that use maturation as a point of progression in play.
• Maturation is the process by which we change, grow and develop and determines the sequence of development.
• These theories usually identify specific stages of play through which children progress.
• These theories can be used as a guideline for how children develop, and should be used in conjunction with post- developmental theories for a more accurate picture of child development.

Parten’s Six Stages of Social Play (1932)

• Mildred Parten observed and recorded children’s play, uncovering the changes in children’s play as they developed.
• Parten described six distinct stages of play that generally, but not always, corresponded to children’s ages:
  • unoccupied play— where the child is in the vicinity, but does not seek to enter the play (birth– two years)
  • onlooker play— where the child observes others play and has little direct involvement (common to toddlers between two and three years)
  • solitary play— where the child plays alone, and shows little awareness of, and has no interaction with, others (two- and- a- half– three- and- a- half years)
  • parallel play— where the child plays independently alongside, with little or no interaction with others (two- and- half– three- and- a- half years)
  • associate play— where the child is involved in the same play experience as others, with similar equipment doing similar things, communicating but with no defined plan or goals (common around three to four years)
  • cooperative play— where the child works with others towards a shared goal or plan, cooperating through communication and negotiation (four– six years) (Fleer, 2013).
• Dockett and Fleer (1999) identify that contexts affect children’s play, such as the familiarity of playmates and equipment, the nature of the play, and the individual preferences of the child.
• Social play fosters children’s wellbeing and development.
• Teachers should plan their environment to support children’s positive social play with others.

Smilansky’s Four Stages of Social Play (1968)

• Sara Smilansky described four stages of children’s social play:
  • Functional/ practice play— occurs in the first two years of life and involves the repeated use of objects or actions such as bouncing a ball. In practice play infants explore objects using their body (sucking and touching) and progress towards other, more sophisticated, skills such as throwing.
  • Constructive play— begins around two years of age when children start to manipulate materials to create or assemble a structure, such as building a castle. These structures may not be representational initially (e.g. representing a castle) but are the child’s attempts to produce an effect with the materials they are using.
  • Dramatic play— usually occurs from around two or three years of age, and involves children imitating the world around them. This leads to cooperative dramatic play around themes the children agree upon.
  • Games with rules— involves children, usually around school age (six years), understanding and following the rules of a game. Games with rules include board games, card games and sports games.
• Smilansky’s investigations of play have been extensive and have contributed much to research and practice (Dockett & Fleer, 1999).
• The main criticism of developmental theories of play is the belief that children follow particular stages of play which are universal for all cultures and in all time periods (Fleer, 2013).
• Children from different cultures have been shown to play very differently from the stages of play that developmental theories tend to suggest all children go through (Fleer, 2013; Rogoff 1990).
• However, this theory can be useful as a guideline for understanding the development of children’s play and the types of play experiences teachers can provide.

Post-Developmental Theories

• Post- developmental theories of play differ from developmental theories of play as they support the view that play complexity builds in relation to the specific types of play activity children experience rather than their age.