1

Play and Learning Module Mini Module 1

Information Book

2

This Mini Module - GOAL 1

‘Teachers need to understand that play is natural to all children and that through play a child will learn’

Skills and Knowledge At the end of this completed Module the Teacher:

Will have an understanding of how play-based experiences provide children with opportunities to build their personal identities as successful and responsible learners and can support children’s learning and development.

Will have an understanding of how play allows children to consolidate learning and have an understanding of how children are capable as learners and how to see and use this, in their learning environment

Will have an understanding of the importance of promoting play and learning involving parents/carers, helpers, other professionals in the wider community and also value the child’s existing social and cultural

understandings and practices.

Activity 1 – Getting Started

Please read this scenario

A parent comes to you at the end of the school day and tells you that they are very concerned because all their child tells them that they do all day is play with bricks. The parent also tells you that when they come to collect their child they only ever see them playing.

Think about what would you say to the parent and why? Record your answers in your participant’s handbook on page 2. You will revisit these answers at the end of this mini module.

3

Understanding Play and its importance?

Why is it important to have good quality play experiences in the classroom? What is play and whay do we encourage children to take part and enjoy their play experiences

The essence of play is fun, enjoyment and achievement. It is widely accepted that in early childhood most of children’s learning is acquired through play.

When playing, children define their own goals and interests, decide what is success and failure and pursue these goals in their own way.

Motivation for play, exploration and discovery comes from the child when they are fully absorbed in play. Play will ensure a child feels satisfied with what they have achieved. Play is a child’s work; the playful child is an achieving child.

Play should be exciting and stimulating for every child

Consider, do you offer these types of opportunities for the children in your class?

Activity 2

Please think about your knowledge about play. What do you think play allows children to do in your class? If you were to offer good quality play experiences for your children what would they be learning? Please put your first ideas on page 3 in your participant’s handbook before you turn to the next page.

4

Now you have thought about your ideas and written them on page 3 here are some other ideas below:

Play also allows children to: Explore their boundaries Test their abilities, thoughts and knowledge Use their initiative Take risks and make mistakes without fear of failure Build trusting relationships with children and adults Express their feelings and emotions Develop their own individual personalities and characteristics Develop their skills in adapting to new situations

How does Play promote learning?

These are some of the ways that your children in your class will learn through your play experiences

• The development of problem-solving skills • The supporting of early language development and literacy • Inclusion of science and exploration • Using of early mathematical concepts • Development of children’s social skills • Developing imagination and creative interests and abilities.

Activity 3 You have read the above ideas about how play promotes learning. Can you think of any different suggestions or which ones above do you think you offer your children the opportunity to develop in your class? Please now go to the participants handbook page 3, and complete your answers

5

The 12 Features of Play ‘The 12 Features of Play’ were created by Tina Bruce. She believes that if the 12 features of play have been considered or planned for in the classroom then the play experiences will be a good quality for children. It is important for you to consider the 12 features. This is also about you as teachers valuing children’s play experiences. Read the following list and think about how many of them you think about when you are planning your activities in your classroom or that the children have the opportunity to do. For example: Number 1 – do your children have the opportunity to have first hand experiences to try new things?

1. Using firsthand experience

2 Making up rules

3 Making props

4 Choosing to play

5 Rehearsing the future

6 Pretending

7 Playing alone

8 Playing together

9 Having a personal agenda

10 Being deeply involved

11 Trying out recent learning

12 Co-ordinating ideas, feelings and relationships for free-flow play

Bruce, T (2001) Learning through Play: Babies, Toddlers and the Foundation

Years/ Hodder and Stoughton p.117

6

Additional Reading Material

What is play?

There is great difficulty in using the umbrella term ‘play’. The focus needs to be refined so we can establish what is meant by this word. Many things called ‘play’ by those of us working with children are not so. (Bruce 1997) It is useful to be aware of the main arguments and theories of play, as all of them have continuing influence on the way in which we conceptualize play today. This section will outline some of the major theories of play. Theories of play can be said to fall into five main categories: • play as a means of ridding the body of surplus energy or as an evolutionary phase; • play as a means to understand the social world; • play as a means of developing cognitive skills including language; • play as means to come to terms with emotional and inner states; • formal taxonomies of play.

What distinguishes play from other forms of human activity are it’s qualities of spontaneity and self-initiation. Across human cultures all children, in normal circumstances, have an intrinsic desire to play. The features of play include the symbolic use of objects; it’s pretend ‘as if’ nature, the construction of rules, and the fact that play is more often than not fun and risk-free, and does not have to have an end purpose. Play enables children to explore the customs and roles of their direct community, to reflect upon their inner selves and their emotions, to encounter abstract thinking and to develop communication skills. Play is also often said to provide a vehicle for children to create meaning from their experiences (Bruce 1997). We will now briefly review a range of theoretical perspectives on play. We can see that biologists, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists and others have all attempted to define play from their particular theoretical standpoint. Early theories tended to concentrate on global evolutionary explanations with a focus on the physical features of play. Later theorists have, in the main, focused on the internal, emotional functions of play. The cognitive role of play came to the fore

7

in the mid-twentieth century, and has been a key feature of later approaches to play, influencing the development of services for young children. More recently, there has been a consolidation of play theory, providing an overall holistic framework for child development within a social context. The significance of play within the developmental context has been increasingly recognized. Today, from a developmental perspective, we draw on a rich range of theories and ideas from a variety of academic disciplines, enabling us to value play as a vital way of being in early childhood. Historical views of play Herbert Spencer, in 1878, drew links between children’s play and that of animals. He noted that play occurred because of excess energy. He also drew parallels between play and art, viewing art as a product of surplus energy after basic human needs had been met. Spencer’s ideas can be traced to those of Schiller (1845), who also saw play as a means for children to use up surplus energy. He suggested that it was because children did not have to work to survive, as adults did, that they therefore had amounts of energy that were not used. Play was important for adults too as it was linked to creativity and beauty. Other writers of the time thought that play in fact restored and did not deplete energy. These theories were known as ‘recreation’ or ‘relaxation’ theories. Another interesting theory from the turn of the twentieth century was that of Hall (1908), who proposed that in play, humans progress through all the stages of evolutionary development, and children’s play is the evidence of this. For instance, the animal stage of human development is repeated in children’s desire to climb and swing. Hall’s ‘recapitulation theory’ rests on the notion that play provides an outlet for instinctive behaviours, and that play lessens instinctual urges. Groos (1901), in The Play of Man, saw play as a preparation for adulthood, with children acting out and pretending to take on adult roles. He also began to elaborate the role of play as a means by which children develop consciousness. Later on Bruner (1983: 43 quoted in Bruce 1997: 31) extended this definition by describing play as ‘preparation for the technical and social life that constitutes human culture’.

8

Similarly, Maria Montessori (1870–1952) placed importance on children learning about reality. She viewed pretend play as primitive and felt that children benefit from adult guidance to enable them to explore the properties of the real world through specially constructed play materials. Behaviourist perspectives on play such as that of Skinner (1938) conceptualize play as a learnt response to a set of stimuli – for example, toys. Play was also seen as a set of problem-solving behaviours, because of its complex and investigative features. More recently Bateson (1972), considered play as a means of developing children’s communication skills. This theory is based on his observations of the shared ‘scripts’ that children create as they play together. Children will often talk about what a character will say and do, and then go on, in character, to act this out. This ability to reflect on communication, as Bateson observes, provides children with ‘metacommunication skills’ – that is, the ability to reflect upon and consider the functions and forms of communication. In 1962, Jean Piaget was one of the first to shift the focus on play away from social and emotional development and towards cognitive development. Piaget argued that play contributes to intellectual development through the processes of ‘accommodation’ and ‘assimilation’. Assimilation is the dominant mode in play, with children achieving it through play by taking an idea and making it fit with what they know and understand. With the emergence of symbolic play and abstract thinking, evidenced through a child’s ability to represent the world, we see the basis for the development of later symbolic behaviours. The symbolic nature of play can be seen as a necessary precursor for other symbolic behaviours such as writing or formal dance. The theories of Lev Vygotsky (1978) stress the mental representation of symbolic actions and objects as one of the key features of play. He went as far as to say that play is the leading activity of childhood, as it supports all aspects of a child’s development. The ability to mentally represent experience, as happens during play, leads to the ability to think in abstract terms, one of the most important facets of human behaviour. Added to this, Vygotsky stressed the importance of social and cultural factors in the development of play. He noted that make-believe play is socially and culturally determined, and as children explore this type of play

9

they are deepening their understanding of the social life and rules of their communities. Many others have written about play, and as well as proposing explanations of its function, attempts have been made to categorize play in all its forms. For instance, Mildred Parten, writing in the 1930s, categorized play into the following types: children as onlookers; solitary play as a child plays alone; parallel play, when children play alongside but not with each other; and group play, when children play together. Corinne Hutt (1979) created a taxonomy of play – attempting to categorize play into different types. According to Hutt, broadly speaking, the three main categories of play are: • epistemic play – within which children learn and explore the world and its properties; • ludic play – when children are using their imaginations but are not learning; • games with rules – structured activities. The notion of some types of play being of higher value as more is learnt is not an uncommon feature in theories of play. Many theorists describe play when children are engaged in imaginative exploration and creation as lacking in structure and depth. It could be argued that this ascription of lack of value is more about the fact that researchers find, or have found until recently, it very hard to follow, understand and encapsulate children’s imaginative free play. Adults, by their very presence, will affect children’s play and the introduction of film and video as research tools has provided an additional dimension of investigation into play.

More recently, Tina Bruce (1997) draws on chaos theory as a model for play. When play is at its most fruitful, it is in ‘free-flow’, she argues. What this means is that children are solving problems, and symbolically representing their experiences, in ways that are highly creative and spontaneous and of high intellectual order. This requires space, opportunity and safety. Bruce also offers a critique of the way many other theorists place value on structured play and games with rules, without full appreciation of the value of free-flow play. For Bruce, (1997, 2001) free-flow play: • is an active process without a product; • is intrinsically motivated;

10

• exerts no external pressure to conform to rules, pressures, goals, tasks or definite directions; • is about possible alternative worlds which involve ‘supposing’ and ‘as if’, involving being imaginative, original, innovative and creative; • is about participants wallowing in ideas, feelings and relationships, involving reflecting on and becoming aware of what we know or ‘metacognition’; • actively uses previous first-hand experiences, including struggle, manipulation, exploration, discovery and practice; • is sustained, and when in full flow, helps us to function in advance of what we can actually do in our real lives; • requires the use of technical prowess and competencies we have previously developed, allowing us to be in control; • can be initiated by a child or an adult; • can be solitary; • can be in partnership, or groups of adults and/or children, who will be sensitive to each other; • is an integrating mechanism, which brings together everything we learn, know, feel and understand.

CHILDREN AND DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY

McGraw Hill, www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk

11

Activity 4 - Your Play Experiences You would have had many play experiences of your own when you were younger. This activity gives you the opportunity to think back and remember what play was like for you. Think back to what you have read and understood in the previous pages. Do any of your experiences match? Can you see the link? Think about one play experience that you enjoyed in your childhood. Draw

a picture of what it looked like

Give one example of how you ‘play’ as an adult. Draw or write what this looks like

Please go to page 4 in your task booklet and complete your answers

Module 1 - Reading Read the information below about the stages of development in play. Sensorimotor intelligence .... in infancy play is embedded in sensation. Play means using all the senses and showing a like, dislike in response usually communicated by expression and body language. (Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Bredekamp, 1987, p.

What might the child be doing in their play at different developmental stages? Birth to 3 years

Sensorimotor intelligence- in infancy play is embedded in sensation. Playing means using all the senses and showing a like, dislike in response usually communicated by expressions and body language.

( Developmentally Appropriate Practice- Bredekamp, 1987, p. 3 )

Preoperational thought- in the pre-school years play has the beginnings of a purpose. Children play and explore using all the senses and will often introduce a story or idea that links to previous experience developing knowledge and understanding of their world.

12

Preoperational thought....in the preschool years play has the beginnings of a purpose. Children play and explore using all the senses and will often introduce a story or an idea that links to previous experience, developing knowledge and understanding of their world. Themed play activities are a major tool in facilitating deep level learning at this age.

Operational thought...the play has consolidated learning and continues to inform the maturing child.Free flow play is still vital to the older child, they know what they are good at and know that they can use play activities to develop specific interests and skills.

Piaget’s Developmental Stages

JEAN PIAGET IS A SWISS PSYCHOLOGIST who began to study intellectual development (Dembo, 1994). His Cognitive Theory is influential in both education and psychology fields. He proposed that the thinking process will develop through each of the stages until a child can think logically. Understanding cognitive development helps us arrange appropriate lessons and learning environments. An instructor should assess a child’s current level of maturity before beginning the instructional design process. The following are four of Piaget's developmental stages:

4 to 8 years

Preoperational thought- being purposeful in play based learning. Themed play activities are a major tool in facilitating deep level learning at this age.

Operational thought- the play has consolidated learning and continues to inform the maturing child. Free flow play is still vital to the older child, they know what they are good at and are able to use play activities to develop specific interests and skills.

4 to 8 years

Preoperational thought- being purposeful in play based learning. Themed play activities are a major tool in facilitating deep level learning at this age.

Operational thought- the play has consolidated learning and continues to inform the maturing child. Free flow play is still vital to the older child, they know what they are good at and are able to use play activities to develop specific interests and skills.

13

Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 Years)

Even though Piaget was opposed to applying age norms to the stages, most researchers consider approximately the first two years of life to be the Sensorimotor Stage (McCormick, 1997). Infants mainly make use of senses and motor capabilities to experience the environment. For instance, if infants cannot see or touch an object, they stop trying to find it. Once infants develop the capability to recognize that a hidden object still continues to exist, they start searching for it.

The characteristic limitation of this stage is ‘thinking only by doing’. The Sensorimotor infant gains physical knowledge.

Preoperational Stage (2-7 Years)

The second stage in Piaget’s theory of development coincides the preschool years. Children start to use symbols such as language to represent objects. For instance, the child understands the word “apple” although a real apple is not seen. However, the Preoperational child still learns from concrete evidence while adults can learn in abstract way. The Preoperational child is also unaware of another person’s perspective. They exhibit egocentric thought and language.

The Preoperational child lacks the concept of conservation. When a preoperational child is presented with two rows of apples that contain the same number of apples, if one row is lengthened without any change in the number of apples, the Preoperational child states that the rows are not equivalent. The appearance of the objects gives the wrong impression about them. Children’s decisions are dominated by their perceptions.

Conservation does not happen simultaneously in all subject areas. Children can understand conservation of numbers around age 5-6, and understand conservation of substance, or mass around age 7-8.

Additionally, the Preoperational child is likely to centre on only one dimension of an event and ignore other important details. Also, children concentrate more on the static features of an event than on the transformations from one state to another. Last, children in the Preoperational period at times will see some relationships between particular cases while in actuality there is none. For instance, a child might say, “If an apple is red, then a green fruit is not an apple.”

14

Concrete Operational Stages (7-11 Years)

The next stage generally represents the elementary grade years. The concrete operational child begins to think logically. Operations are associated with personal experience. Operations are in concrete situation, but not in abstract manipulation.

Concrete operations allow children to classify several classes into a bigger group or to combine a number of classes in any order. Although objects are moved or reordered, no change takes place.

In addition, concrete operations allow children to order objects in terms of more than one dimension. Children at the concrete operational stage can solve conservation tasks. The operational thought is reversible. The concrete operational child can operate an action, and then go back to the original condition. For instance, 3 + 2 = 5 and 5 – 2 = 3 (see Image 2).

The limitation of the third stage of cognitive development is that operations are only carried out on concrete objects, and limited to two characteristics at the same time.

Formal Operational Stage (11 Years and Beyond)

After roughly 11 years old, students have the ability to consider many possibilities for a given condition. They are able to deal with propositions that explain concrete facts. They have the ability to use planning to think ahead.

Most importantly, students at Piaget’s final stage of cognitive development increase their ability to think abstractly. They can solve complex and hypothetical problems involving abstract operations.

Formal operational thinkers can recognize and identify a problem. They can state several alternative hypotheses, execute procedures to collect information about the problems to be studied, and test the hypotheses.

Lin, S. (2002). Piaget's developmental stages. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/piaget/start.htm

15

Activity 5 Look at the photographs on pages 13 - 16 of the task booklet. Please think about the links between child development and play. Using the information that has already been given to you and what you

already know about children and their development think about what the experience shown in your picture is allowing the children to do?

Please go to pages 5,6,7, and 8 in the participants handbook and answer the questions.

Read and Review Think about what you have learnt so far. Could you answer the following questions if you were asked?

Why is play important? What does play allows children to do? What does play promote?

You may wish to read back through some sections in this handbook until you are confident to answer the above questions

16

Play and the Community

This section is about Play and the community. Why do we need to think about the community when we are encouraging positive play experiences in school?

Play makes an important contribution to community life. It is crucial for social interaction and for forming and maintaining relationships.

Children learn from the way others in the environment around them react to their play, the effects of their actions and the respect others give to them.

It will support the children to understand that as a member of their community they have a responsibility to be a respectful citizen.

Play helps a child develop their skills and knowledge and ensures they are

valued as active community members.

Children can contribute to the community and to society when they are visible and when the environment within which they live maximizes all opportunities for play.

Facilities used for outdoor play such as parks, beach and play areas are frequently seen as focal points for communities and offer opportunities for real social interaction for children and for the wider community. This supports the development of a greater sense of community spirit.

17

Activity 6 – Play and the Community

Thinking about Play and the community, please consider the following questions:

How do you encourage the children in your class to understand about their community?

How do you get the children to ‘go out’ and learn about their community and key places and people?

How do you ensure that key people in the community are supporting

children’s play and learning in the classroom?

Think about what you do in your school. Please make a note of your thoughts on pages 9 and 10 of your participants handbook

Activity 7 - Mini Module Assessment of Understanding

This activity gives you the opportunity to think about the knowledge you have gained by working thorugh this Mini Module 1. Once you have completed this section you will need to give your participants handbook to your line manager who will assess your progress and understanding. Think about why play is important for children?

Think about how play is happening in your classroom?

Think about how you are encouraging children and parents to have an

understanding about play in the wider communities?

Think back to the Pre-assessment Scenario - Could you respond to the parent now? What would you tell them now that might be different?

Please write your answers to the above questions in your participants handbook on pages 11 - 14

18

Additional Activity If you are working with other teachers completing this module – complete the following task: Practice with a partner to develop a role play that demonstrates how you would deal with the parent in the original scenario:

1 of you take the role of the parent

1 of you take the role of the teacher Discuss with each other how you feel.