For “Play” to be “Learning”

What do you think the “play” means for children? 

Doing what they want to do without restriction? Playing with toys without any directions? We call this type of play “free play”.

Let’s check the definition of play from Wikipedia.

Play is a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment.”

With this definition, “free play” will be the one and only form of play. Play, however, can be divided into many different types and come in many different forms. The number of people in play, interaction among people, place of play, actions in play, senses being used in play and many more can be used to classify play. 

Hmm. You don’t have to be overwhelmed though. Your children’s teachers are aware of these and it would be their job to observe children’s interest and growth and provide a variety of play opportunities encompassing all areas of development.

Then, what do you need to know about play as a parent?

Well, I want to talk about “play-based learning”. If you are a parent with young children in Ontario, I bet you have heard of this word before. Play-based learning is a foundational approach in early learning in Ontario and many daycares, child care centres and other educational places say that they provide the play-based learning curriculums or programs. But do you really know what it is and how it is supposed to look like in the classroom?

Among many different kinds of play, the “play” in the “play-based learning” specifically focuses on two types of play – unstructured play (aka free play)  and guided play. Ministry of Education encourages teachers to use a combined approach of these two. So, in most licensed child care centres, these two forms of play exist. Early Childhood Educators set up some activities that are intentionally planned for learning in different areas of development and children who are interested in them can try and play. Children who are not interested in the planned activities can just freely explore the classroom which is filled with tons of toys and materials that are also intentionally prepared and developmentally appropriate for each different age group. 

I personally believe that the play-based learning is a good approach. Children like the free play time than the sit-and-work time in general. I also like the fact that Ontario is putting more emphasis on teaching skills than teaching knowledge in the early years when they are talking about the play-based learning.

Okay, everything sounds good so far, right? We are following the right approach for educating young children that is proved to be effective from many researches and teachers are providing a promising play-based-learning environment. When it comes to the actual classroom in reality, however, things can get complicated with other responsibilities – like making sure that there are something, like artwork, to hang on the board for other people to see, guiding behaviours, preparing snack, maintaining clean classroom etc., and as a teacher in the classroom, I often face limitations and frustrations in implementing the play-based learning. What are we missing and what do we need?

This is a theory developed by a psychologist Lev Vygotsky – theory that I believe as an educator.

What is actually needed for play to be learning?

1. A teacher should be in the play with children and help connecting play to learning.

→ Small group setting

In the free play time, a variety of activities are set up in the classroom and children are scattered around, freely moving from one activity to the other . It is a nice setting because it gives children many choices. But to support each child to choose one’s own interest and to link the interest to the next level, teacher wants to have a chance to be attentive to each child. When the teacher can be actively engaged in the play and question, challenge and test things with children, the play can be extended to learning – going beyond the children’s current  level of development. 

The small group setting is especially important for younger children. For older children like kindergarteners, teacher can help students to collect their questions, choose a common goal and work together to find the answer for their questions, but for the young children who are still pretty self-centred – no blaming children, their brains are still in the early stage of development, it is hard to make them to work on a particular topic when they are not really interested in it. If we want every child to really benefit from the play-based learning, the small group setting  should be made.  

2. The relationship between a child and a teacher should be reciprocal/responsive in both ways for effective teaching. 

I am not just talking about a teacher being responsive to a child’s needs and behaviours. I am talking about whether a child is open and receptive to new ideas coming from the teacher or not. Yes, children are like sponges and they will quickly absorb things around them. But, when the new things are challenging and hard to understand, children tend to just turn away and find a familiar thing to play with. To bring the child’s attention back to the challenge, the teacher will take a role of facilitator, and the deeper/closer the relationship between teacher and child is the more responsive the child will be to that “facilitating work”. And that “deep and close relationship” doesn’t just come from occasional engagement. It comes from regular and consistent interaction and again, the small group setting is the most ideal form of classroom setting to develop this type of interaction. 

3. Uninterrupted play time is required for inquiry to happen. 

With the play-based learning, Ontario also encourages learning through inquiry. In the inquiry process, children ask questions, share their thoughts, investigate, reflect and become a better learner. But this process requires time. It is hard to expect inquiry to happen on a busy daily schedule. When we try to put a variety of activities in a day, encompassing all areas of development, in addition to the regular snack time, physical play time, quiet time, circle time, story time etc., think about how many transitions are there. Each transitioning from one activity to the other takes energy and time not only from teachers but also from children.

I also believe that thinking skills/concentration skills that will lead a child to inquiry process require practice. Although young children are naturally energetic and have a short attention span, teachers can help children develop focusing skills that are essential for inquiry by  making a simple schedule – minimizing transitions, providing a calm environment – not overstimulating, limiting distractions and allowing to continue on a task and encouraging and practicing mindfulness. 

I want to elaborate on providing a calm environment. I think the effort to give as many choices as possible to children in a limited space often causes an overstimulating and cluttered classroom. When there are too many things to do around, focusing on one task is definitely hard. I often see children constantly switching between activity A and activity B during the free play time. It is just too easy to move on with no time to stop and think about something. 

Although there are many more factors in making a play-based learning environment, I chose to talk about just these three points here, because they are the important factors and yet they are not being satisfied in many educational places.

The sad thing as a teacher is that we set up a wonderful learning area as a starting point, but we are not utilizing it to capacity and can’t finish the teaching process. Why can’t we make a classroom where teachers can be more active and stay close to the children so that they can really act as learning facilitators, and children can really benefit from the play-based learning?

I understand the limitations in reality, I know where they are coming from and I also want parents to know that, too. Because they are not always teachers’ faults and I have seen so many nice teachers who are passionate in teaching even in a hectic classroom. I just want that there are more options and choices for children and parents as well as teachers. I truly believe that daycare, child care centre, nursery school, preschool, they all have their own merits and where you will send your child before they start school is up to you; I suggest you think about the main needs for your child, your parenting style/philosophy and what you are expecting to get. But if your main interest and concern is on your child learning at her/his own pace and to the highest degree, check Everyday Funday programs, because Everyday Funday is a place I created with that in mind. At Everyday Funday, I want to fulfill my purpose as a teacher and help children spend their critical early years meaningfully.

Resources

Association of Teachers and Leturers. Retrieved August 10.2019, from https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/hfpgcollaborative.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/docs/docs_for_current_topics/PED16-ATL-playing-to-learn-2.pdf

Canadian Public Health Association. Children’s Unstructured Play. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from https://www.cpha.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/policy/positionstatements/play-positionstatement-e.pdf

College of Early Childhood Educators. Practice Note. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from https://www.college-ece.ca/en/Documents/Practice_Note_Play-Based_Learning.pdf

Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Play-based learning. Retrieved August 10. 2019, from http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/play-based-learning/according-experts/defining-play-based-learning

Government of Ontario. 1.2 Play-based learning in a culture of inquiry. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from https://www.ontario.ca/document/kindergarten-program-2016/play-based-learning-culture-inquiry

Ministry of Education. Ontario. Inquiry-Based Learning. Retrieved August 10, 2019, from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_InquiryBased.pdf

Wikipedia. Play (Activity). Retrieved August 10, 2019 , from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_(activity)