Pedagogical Perspectives - Play and Environments - Literature review Example

Running head: Running head: Pedagogical perspectives2: Play and Environments Critically analysis of contemporary theories and constructs of play and how they inform contemporary early childhood teaching practice. Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Introduction Early childhood education practice has over time championed the implementation of play-based programmes that were aimed at extending the development of every child in terms of social, emotional, language, physical and cognitive perspectives. Thus, it has been viewed as the most natural and appropriate medium for learning due to provision of a learning environment where the child development needs can be met with ease. Play has been reserved to the early grades and is about to be replaced with real learning. However, it has been noted to be productive and meaningful context for learning and development. Most contemporary curriculum and policy documents that are related to preschool promote play as crucial pillar of learning and development among children. Play has been recognized as a behavior, a process and an approach to task. Due to its inherent freedom and choice, play has become a fundamental ingredient for the healthy development of children. Together with other classroom activities, play avails a platform and a means for active, purposeful and engaged learning (Van Hoorn, 2007). Childhood has over time been regarded as social construction whereas the children as social actors with agency with a potential to influence their life. In the early childhood education, social and cultural diversity shape the lives of children and their respective families. As a cultural invention, it provided children with access to fundamental cultural experiences in way that risk-free and also gives them room to explore new combinations of actions (Bruner, 1976). Brief overview of two contemporary theories of play and compare and contrast the approaches these play theories provided Early philosophers pointed out that the spontaneous urge to play was as a result of evolution or biological functioning. Pre-exercise theory put forward by Gross (1901) suggest that play behavior existed as a means to exercise key skills vital to adult survival. Relaxation theory (Patrick, 1916) postulates that we are driven to play since it involved minimal cognitive demands. Furthermore the periods of play provided time for relaxation and storage of energy for more vital and cognitive activity. Developmental theories put forward by theorists such as Piaget, Donaldson and Bowlby. It denotes that development depend on contexts and is as a result of combination of genetic and environmental phenomenon. Children are able to learn via their exploration and play with concrete materials. Development led to learning and play. Development theories are able to recognize consistency and variability in child development. Teachers are able to facilitate learning through planning of a rich environment with routine and play-based experiences suitable for the development of children. Piaget’s conceptualization has been central to the theory of play and pedagogy. He theorized the origin of knowledge (Piaget, 1959) and made a major focus on the active nature of the learning of children. The ages and stages of cognitive development were positioned in early childhood education has distinct sequences in the development and learning towards that teachers could teach (Stott & Bowman, 1996). Piaget’s developmental theory laid much emphasis on individual children and their respective independent learning unlike other contemporary orientation that focus on the context of modelled, shared or independent activities within a community of learners (Farquhar & Fleer, 2007). Alternatively, when educators work from a developmental perspective then the learning outcomes associated with defined activities will not be made explicit to children. Adults were destined to create the right environment for learning and allowed the children to solve problem and learn through their own active discovery (MacNaughton, 2003) Socio-cultural theories put forward by theorists such as Vygotsky, Malaguzzi, Rogoff and Fleet. They postulated that relationships and participation are vital to learning. Children are able to develop and learn in various ways that are socially and culturally accepted. It has been believed that children are active agents and contributors in varied groups they participate in. Teachers are advised to take into account the contexts for the lives of children in their expectations, resources and materials. Vygotsky (1966) postulated a dialectical view of play whereby the psychological functioning and external activity mutually constituted one another. He further argued against an intellectualization of the concept of play but rather suggested that the cognitive dimension of play could not be separated from the affective dimensions of play (Gaskins & Miller, 2008). Play destined for optimal development reflects the current social and cognitive abilities of the children. Analysis what is play and its cultural influences According to Sheridan (1977), play could be defined as the eager engagement in either pleasurable or mental effort with a view to obtain emotional satisfaction. However, play mean different things to varied people at different times (Howard, 2009). Activities that could occur on the floor and outside the classroom were likely to be termed as play. Play could be a process, a behavior or an approach to a task. It has been recognized that children are able to move in and out of play depending on their needs, wishes and other factors within the immediate environment. The involvement of other people and the availability of materials could influence on the children’s play. Indeed, play serves an important developmental function. As children play they learn and develop as individuals and at the same time as members of the wider community (Department for Culture, Media and Sports, 2000). Playful approach among children increases participation and progress in their ability to use drawing as a technique for mean making and communication (McInnes, 2010). Indeed, children demonstrated high levels of self-regulation and meta-regulation (Whitebread, 2010). Children are able to learn about their immediate world through play. Cultural context inflect and influence the way children play. These ways reflect what is valued by a distinct culture. Indeed play has been recognized to be a fundamental media whereby children are able to learn who they are as individuals and how they are expected to interact with varied people in several setting in which they will engage (Vygotsky,1978). Cultural tools encompass all activities, interactions and understandings that will contribute to the behavior of children that are appropriate and acceptable in the society. Play has been described as vital to the delivery of early learning programs for children by Council of Australian Governments (COAG) productivity agenda working group for Education, Skills, Training and Early Childhood Development (COAG). The policy provided a platform for both teachers and children to engage in meaningful learning. The content of the play and the way it is carried out help to understand the children’s peer cultures and they way they organize themselves in social activities and relationships. Play is a valued process that gives opportunity to children to learn. Indeed it has huge significance on the children’s development and learning such as their imagination. Indeed it is a socio-cultural-historical construct. How these theories and ideas about play inform early childhood practice today The dialectical approach by Vygotsky (1966) provided a vital alternative reading of play that went beyond the dualism of a natural developmental view or purely intentional educational play pedagogy. Everyday concepts and scientific concepts are dialectically related to one another since everyday concepts lay important foundations for learning school-based concepts. The developed everyday concepts are utilized for living. With this, children are able to think differently in everyday life due to their conceptual understanding. The socio-cultural theories were able to reflect the understanding of the cultural and socially constructed nature of learning. The Piaget’s theory of play saw play emerges as a marker of an appropriate early childhood educational environment and principal way to acquire skills and knowledge. Children were made self-directed learners able to work within a resource-rich environment (Raban, 2005). Teachers were able to match the child’s development level to the curriculum content and also introducing much complex materials and concepts when children were able to master them. As a developmental theory, it has been responsible for shaping varied policy initiatives and practices that are related to early childhood education. Moreover, with these theories and ideas, teachers are permitted to be more responsive especially to children’s life worlds and able to utilize a pedagogic focus such as socialization, care and citizenship dimensions of children’s lifelong learning journeys. Indeed, they create a foundation where new theoretical ideas could be explored and examined in practice. With the Vygotskian perspective, the play opportunities ought to be appropriate and challenging and thus involvement of adults in play need to careful so that it benefits the social and intellectual development of children. Teachers’ support to children’s play Teachers are able to support the children’s play with sufficient access to pedagogical strategies and skills that are able to decipher and support the children’s deep-seated interests. For instance, teachers should capitalize on the strengths and cultures of the children with a view to develop skills and knowledge that is able to support and structure play forthwith. As educators, there is need to help children read and write effectively and have knowledge and problem solving techniques that could make sense to the entire world. Educators must be in a position to read the children’s play context and thus able to generate contextual intersubjectivity and determine a more motivating activity to conceptually engage children to explore distinct scientific concept. Teachers support early childhood settings continuously evolving the use of cultural tools and influencing the culture of children’s homes through their assessment practices. Consequently, being experienced tool-users and meaning makers, teachers are able to contribute to learning by relating well with their respective children and availing play opportunities. These interactions aid to interpret our cultural heritage that supports the children’s particular funds of knowledge. Educators need to choose effective programmes of play for learning in the early childhood setting that can respond to the children’s funds of knowledge. This will be achieved through the selection of real world activities of children’s homes and communities thus creating linkage of varied facets of lives of children (Gonzalez, 2005). Moreover, they need to develop their knowledge so that they can share some with their children at an appropriate time, ways and at levels where children are ready to engage them. Conclusion Early childhood education practice has over time championed the implementation of play-based programmes that were aimed at extending the development of every child in terms of social, emotional, language, physical and cognitive perspectives. Development theories are able to recognize consistency and variability in child development. Teachers are able to facilitate learning through planning of a rich environment with routine and play-based experiences suitable for the development of children. Piaget’s developmental theory laid much emphasis on individual children and their respective independent learning unlike other contemporary orientation that focus on the context of modelled, shared or independent activities within a community of learners. The socio-cultural theories were able to reflect the understanding of the cultural and socially constructed nature of learning. With this, children are able to think differently in everyday life due to their conceptual understanding. Teachers are able to support the children’s play with sufficient access to pedagogical strategies and skills that are able to decipher and support the children’s deep-seated interests Thus, able to understand their roles as leaders in the early childhood practice due to their constant interaction with each other and with children together with their families. Thus play has been positioned as a fundamental tool that can support the authentic learning whereby every child can be engaged as a co-constructor in and of his own culture. With play, a child is able to develop his/her identity, curiosity and able to learn. References Ailwood, J. (2003). Governing early childhood education through play: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 4(3): 286–99 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Productivity Agenda Working Group-Education, Skills, Training and Early Childhood Development (2008). A National quality framework for early childhood education and care: a discussion paper .Canberra: COAG. Farquhar, S. and Fleer, M. (2007). Developmental colonization of early childhood education in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia, in L. Keesing-Styles and H. Hedges (eds) Theorizing Early Childhood Practice: Emerging Dialogues. New South Wales: Pademelon Press, pp. 27–49 Fleer, M. and Raban, B. (2007). Constructing cultural-historical tools for supporting young children’s concept formation in early literacy and numeracy, Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, 27(2): 103–18 Gaskins, S. (2007). The cultural relativity of Vygotsky’s theory of play, paper presented at the Invited Symposium on Play and Culture, Inter-national Society of Cultural Activity Research, July, Seville, Spain Gibbons, A. (2007). The politics of processes and products in education: An early childhood meta-narrative in crisis? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39(3): 300–11 González, N., Moll, L.C. and Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities and Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. MacNaughton, G. (2003).Shaping Early Childhood: Learners, Curriculum and Contexts. Maidenhead: Open University Press Piaget, J. (1959). The Language and Thought of the Child, 3rd edn. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Piaget, J. (1962). Play, dreams and imitations in childhood, New York: Norton Raban, B., Waniganayake, M., Nolan, A., Brown, R., Deans, J. and Ure, C.(2005).Empowering practitioners to critically examine their current practice, Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, 2(2): 1–16 Sheridan, M. S, (2011). Play in early childhood: from birth to six years, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Sheridan, S. and Pramling-Samuelsson, I. (2001). Children’s conceptions of participation and influence in preschool: a perspective of pedagogical quality, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 2(2): 169–94 Sylva, K., Bruner, J. and Genova, P. (1976). The role of play in the problem-solving of children 3–5 years old, in J. Bruner, A. Jolly and K. Sylva (eds) Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin Vygotsky, L. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child, Soviet Psychology, 5: 6–18 Vygotsky, L. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child, in: J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly & K. Sylva (eds). Play: its role in development and evolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Walsh, D.J. (2005). Developmental theory and early childhood education necessary but not sufficient, in N. J. Yelland (ed.), Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education .Maidenhead: Open University Press, pp. 40–8 Read More

Piaget’s conceptualization has been central to the theory of play and pedagogy. He theorized the origin of knowledge (Piaget, 1959) and made a major focus on the active nature of the learning of children. The ages and stages of cognitive development were positioned in early childhood education has distinct sequences in the development and learning towards that teachers could teach (Stott & Bowman, 1996). Piaget’s developmental theory laid much emphasis on individual children and their respective independent learning unlike other contemporary orientation that focus on the context of modelled, shared or independent activities within a community of learners (Farquhar & Fleer, 2007).

Alternatively, when educators work from a developmental perspective then the learning outcomes associated with defined activities will not be made explicit to children. Adults were destined to create the right environment for learning and allowed the children to solve problem and learn through their own active discovery (MacNaughton, 2003) Socio-cultural theories put forward by theorists such as Vygotsky, Malaguzzi, Rogoff and Fleet. They postulated that relationships and participation are vital to learning.

Children are able to develop and learn in various ways that are socially and culturally accepted. It has been believed that children are active agents and contributors in varied groups they participate in. Teachers are advised to take into account the contexts for the lives of children in their expectations, resources and materials. Vygotsky (1966) postulated a dialectical view of play whereby the psychological functioning and external activity mutually constituted one another. He further argued against an intellectualization of the concept of play but rather suggested that the cognitive dimension of play could not be separated from the affective dimensions of play (Gaskins & Miller, 2008).

Play destined for optimal development reflects the current social and cognitive abilities of the children. Analysis what is play and its cultural influences According to Sheridan (1977), play could be defined as the eager engagement in either pleasurable or mental effort with a view to obtain emotional satisfaction. However, play mean different things to varied people at different times (Howard, 2009). Activities that could occur on the floor and outside the classroom were likely to be termed as play.

Play could be a process, a behavior or an approach to a task. It has been recognized that children are able to move in and out of play depending on their needs, wishes and other factors within the immediate environment. The involvement of other people and the availability of materials could influence on the children’s play. Indeed, play serves an important developmental function. As children play they learn and develop as individuals and at the same time as members of the wider community (Department for Culture, Media and Sports, 2000).

Playful approach among children increases participation and progress in their ability to use drawing as a technique for mean making and communication (McInnes, 2010). Indeed, children demonstrated high levels of self-regulation and meta-regulation (Whitebread, 2010). Children are able to learn about their immediate world through play. Cultural context inflect and influence the way children play. These ways reflect what is valued by a distinct culture. Indeed play has been recognized to be a fundamental media whereby children are able to learn who they are as individuals and how they are expected to interact with varied people in several setting in which they will engage (Vygotsky,1978).

Cultural tools encompass all activities, interactions and understandings that will contribute to the behavior of children that are appropriate and acceptable in the society. Play has been described as vital to the delivery of early learning programs for children by Council of Australian Governments (COAG) productivity agenda working group for Education, Skills, Training and Early Childhood Development (COAG).

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