Title: | Children’s Perspectives of Play and Learning for Educational Practice |
Author: |
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Date: | 2015-11-25 |
Language: | English |
Scope: | 345-362 |
University/Institute: | Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland |
School: | Menntavísindasvið (HÍ) School of education (UI) |
Series: | Education Sciences;5(4) |
ISSN: | 2227-7102 |
DOI: | 10.3390/educsci5040345 |
Subject: | Leikur; Leikskólabörn; Kennsluaðferðir; Byrjendakennsla; Eigindlegar rannsóknir |
URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/631 |
Citation:Theobald, M.; Danby, S.; Einarsdóttir, J.; Bourne, J.; Jones, D.; Ross, S.; Knaggs, H.; Carter-Jones, C. Children’s Perspectives of Play and Learning for Educational Practice. Educ. Sci. 2015, 5, 345-362. doi:10.3390/educsci5040345
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Abstract: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 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.
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Rights:This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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