Assignment 3: Understand how a range of perspectives influence current approaches to play P6 M4 D2

1. Assignment 3: Understand how a range of perspectives influence current approaches to play P6 M4 D2 Hannah, aged 3, enjoys playing in the garden area of the nursery. With the wheelbarrow provided she transports bricks and pebbles. She also uses the wheelbarrow to transport some dolls and teddies around the nursery and give her friend Eric a ride. Hanna’s key worker, Sheema, notices that as the weeks progress Hannah begins to judge how much she can transport in the wheelbarrow without spilling the content. She also notices that Hannah is fascinated by the pattern the wheels make on the grass and sand. Sheema makes some brief notes of these observations to share at the next team meeting. By the end of this unit you should have a good understanding of why play is valued and how it supports children’s learning and development.

2. Hannah, aged 3 watering the garden

3. Definitions of play • Free flow play • Structured play • Play principles • How these views of what play is and the role of the adult within it can affect how much adult directed activity occurs

4. Free flow play v Structured play • In pairs, read and discuss the differences between free flow play and structured play. • Task: • Discuss the benefits for each types of play • Relate each type of play to any many examples as you can think of • Which type of play do you prefer? • Feedback session to the rest of the group

5. Play principles • How do these views of what play is and the role of the adult within it affect how much adult directed activity occurs? • Can you relate this to your own experiences?

6. Theoretical approaches to play • Piaget • Athey • Vygotsky • Bruner

7. JEAN PIAGET

8. Theoretical approaches to play: Jean Piaget (1896-1980) • Piaget is recognised for the way he influenced current understanding of how children learn. • Although some aspects of his work have been disputed, his theoretical approach is fundamental to a play-based curriculum. • Piaget felt that children should be ACTIVELY involved in their own learning and that they pass through four stages of development:

9. Piaget’s theoretical approaches to play • Sensori-motor (birth-2 years) • Pre-operational (2-7 years) • Concrete operational (7-11 years) • Formal operational (11-adulthood)

10. Theoretical approaches to play- Piaget • To Piaget, learning is an active process in which children draw on their own conclusions through exploring. • Can you think of any examples? • According to Piaget, children are lone scientists, empty vessels who need to be filled up with knowledge by adults

11. Theoretical approaches to play • When the parent reads to the child about dogs, the child constructs a schema about dogs. Later, the child sees a dog in the park; through the process of assimilation the child expands his/her understanding of what a dog is. When the dog barks, the child experiences disequilibria because the child's schema did not include barking. Then the child discovers the dog is furry, and it licks the child's hand. Again, the child experiences disequilibria. By adding the newly discovered information to the existing schema the child is actively constructing meaning. At this point the child seeks reinforcement from the parent. The parent affirms and reinforces the new information. Through assimilation of the new information the child returns to a state of equilibrium. • The process of accommodation occurs when the child sees a cat in the park. A new schema must be formed, because the cat has many traits of the dog, but because the cat meows and then climbs a tree the child begins to actively construct new meaning. Again the parent reinforces that this is a cat to resolve the child's disequilibria. A new schema about cats is then formed and the child returns to a state of equilibrium

12. Theoretical approaches to play • Piaget called these SCHEMAS. • Piaget believed that through schemas, children develop and adapt their experiences.

13. Piaget’s theoretical approaches to play • Piaget proposed a developmental system of ‘assimilation’ and ‘accommodation’ and ‘equilibration’. • The child is either assimilating a new experience, using an existing schema, taking it into thought without creating a new concept, for example you lick an ice cream and you also lick an ice lolly. Or • The child is a accommodating it, creating a new concept in thought, building a new schema, for example you cant pick up spaghetti with just a spoon, or a knife and fork, you have to learn a new action with the spoon and fork. • The child then moves into accommodation by a process of equilibration which means needing to balance all related schemas against one’s current picture of reality

14. Case study of Ahmed: Ahmed and the blue cup • Task: • Answer questions 1-4 concerning Ahmed and the blue cup (use the schematic play sheet to help you) • Feedback session

15. Chris Athey (1990)

16. Theoretical approaches to play • Development of Piaget’s theory: • Despite general criticisms of Piaget’s theory has work on schemas has been developed in part by Chris Athey who applied schemas while observing children at play. • Athey describes the schemas on the handout you looked at previously. • An awareness of schematic play can be used to support and extend teaching and learning

17. Chris Athey (1990) • Schemas are patterns of behaviour linked to a broad theme • A schema describes a child’s way, often their favourite way, of exploring the world at a given time • Schemas include a combination of actions and ideas that shape a child’s current approach to learning

18. Chris Athey (1990) • Task: • Look for examples of schemas in action as shown in the play of children in your setting. You are looking for themes that persist, rather than one-off interests • Children do not thread all their play through their current schema, but much of their exploration will revolve around the theme

19. Chris Athey (1990) • Possible examples to look out for include the following:- • Rotation (a child’s interest in wheels and objects that roll). • Orientation (children are fascinated with how things or people may look from another angle). • Connection (How things are or could be joined together).

20. Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

21. Theoretical approaches to play: Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) • Vygotsky has great influence on play in the early years. • Like Piaget, Vygotsky suggests that children are active in their learning but placed more emphasis on the role of the adult in supporting children to develop their ideas and thinking than Piaget. • Vygotsky believed that children’s potential rather than ability should be assessed. • Vygotsky emphasised that children are capable of learning at various stages. He called this the “Zone of Proximal Development” (or “your know zone into your grow zone”).

22. Theoretical approaches to play: Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) • The ZPD is the distance between a child’s actual development and their full potential. • This potential is only reached if the child and the environment are guided by adults helping the child to progress by “scaffolding”.

23. Theoretical approaches to play: Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) • Scaffolding = the way in which adults help children to develop their knowledge and reasoning through guidance and support. • The adult assists the child through explanations, demonstrations, questions and corrections.

24. Theoretical approaches to play: Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) • Vygotsky and Early Years Practice today: Vygotsky’s influence today can be seen through a curriculum where the child is based at the centre. • The role of the adult is to enable the child to reach their full potential by planning activities in accordance with the child’s stage of development. • Even during adult-led activities, the adult acts as the guide and is there to support if necessary, in child-led play. • In their planning, adults organise resources and experiences that will enable children to develop their own ideas.

25. Jerome Bruner (1915 – date)

26. Jerome Bruner (1915 – date) • Bruner was influential in bringing some of Vygotsky’s ideas to the English speaking world in the 1960’s • Bruner further developed Vygotsky’s ideas for the concept of the spiral curriculum • Bruner described how children learn through discovery, with the direct help of adults and by returning again and again to the same materials or ideas

27. Jerome Bruner (1915 – date) • Bruner felt that young children learn most easily through the medium of their play • Familiar play materials remain of interest to the child as the months and years pass • Older children use the same materials in different ways • Can you think of any examples?

28. Jerome Bruner (1915 – date) • Babies like bricks to hold, look at and drop • Toddlers relish bricks as a simple build up and knock down resource • Three and four year olds use a good store of bricks as the construction material for building. But they also use bricks to create boundary lines essential for other games • Five and six year olds and older children may still enjoy building with bricks but they also may use them as the raw materials for counting, weighing and exploring ideas

29. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Frobel • The McMillan sisters • Montessori • Steiner

30. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction: Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)

31. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Montessori was the first woman to graduate from medical school , as a doctor, in Italy. • Her initial work was with children with specific learning needs. • Montessori’s work was innovative at a time when children’s learning was by ROTE. (a repetition of the facts spoken at the same time). • She encouraged children to organise their own activities and absorb information from their environment. • She believed in child-led education and learning through senses derived by constructive plan materials. • Montessori also believed in creativity in children’s play but felt that if children were encouraged to learn skills such as drawing then they would have the skills to develop their own ideas.

32. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Montessori did not place value on imaginative play but instead encouraged children to take place in real life activities such as sweeping and serving meals. • Montessori school have now adapted this philosophy through ‘practical life activities’ and provide children with versions of child size jugs and paintbrushes. • “Learning through participation”

33. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)

34. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Steiner educators believe that the crucial power of imitation allows children to become active members of their various communities. • To learn the languages of play and social intercourse, • To assimilate and reproduce the ways of being, of doing, of representing and expressing, that they see all around them.

35. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • According to the Steiner philosophy, between the ages of 3 and 5, children develop two new facilities: the imagination and the memory. • The Steiner educators provide an environment which can be transformed by the children. • They do not provide pre-structured play environments (post offices, launderettes or castles) or ready-made toys. The children arrive each morning into an open space, where they may use the screens, the blocks, the tables, the lengths of cloth, to create their own environments. • Similarly, there are few objects that represent the world outside the kindergarten: no toy telephones, or stylized play people. • Steinier dolls have no faces because they want the child to transform rather than the adults who pre-form.

36. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction Friedrich Froebel (1782- 1852)

37. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Froebel worked in Germany within the first half of the nineteenth century and built on the ideas and work of the Swiss educational reformer Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827). • Pestalozzi had stressed that children should start with the familiar and move on to new ideas. He also promoted the use of activities on which children worked together. • Developing on Pestalozzi’s ideas. Froebel created a new setting for children called ‘Kindergarden’ for children younger than the formal school age. • He believed that teachers should encourage children’s self expression through individual and group play.

38. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Children were to learn through freely chosen activities within a guided framework of what he called occupations and with the support of learning material called gifts. • Froebel described sixteen occupations that were intended to occupy and interest children. • Many occupations were art activities (drawing, pencil etc)or craft (paper folding, sewing) • Some activities required attention and physical dexterity (table laying, stick plaiting) • The gifts were a precisely made series of wooden blocks that used familiar basic shapes such as cube, ball, square etc.

39. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Froebel ‘s practice may not seem extraordinary now, but his ideas aroused great resistance at the time. • Eventually the authorities in Prussia accused Froebel of being subversive, an atheist and a socialist and closed all kingergarden’s. • Froebel’s approach is incorporated into what we now call ‘learning through play’. • It was not until the 1930s that the philosophy developed towards allowing children more free expression in their art and craft work. • Froebel’s ideas became dominant throughout Europe. The methods used for the early childhood education in many countries were significantly shaped by his approach.

40. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction The McMillan sisters Margaret (1860–1931) and Rachel (1859-1917)

41. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Margaret McMillian pioneered the idea of a nursery environment in which the outdoors was important more than indoors. • She was influenced by the ideas of Edouard Seguin just like Montaessori. • She was very concerned about the wellbeing of children who lived in poverty. Margaret made a direct link from the home-based learning of privileged children to the details of a positive nursery environment for the less privileged children. • Margaret had many concerns about the diet, lack of fresh air and lively physical exercise that blighted the chances of poor children. • Rachel McMillian had a lot of experience in what we now call a health visitor.

42. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • Together Margaret and Rachel McMillian set up an outdoor camp to improve the health of girls aged 6-14 years old from slum areas in south London. • Margaret then set up the Open Air Nursery School and named it after her sister. This open-air nursery allowed children to move freely between the inside and the extensive garden. It was set on many levels, in which children played and worked, being equipped with real tools. • The aim being that children were enabled to learn in the outdoor environment, benefiting from air and physical activity.

43. Philosophical approaches to play and how they have influenced approaches to outdoors play and adult interaction • The children were expected to choose their own acitivites. As well as gardening projects, there were also nursery animals, scientific equipment and dressing-up clothes. • Prototypes of the apparatus designed by Margaret McMillian were further developed by Paul and Marjorie Abbott and sold in their child-friendly shop. In which they used these to develop their own line of sturdy learning toys. • The Abbotts believed there was a correct toy for each separate stage of development and marketed their play equipment according to these learning objectives.

44. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • Reggio Emilia • HighScope • Forest Schools • New Zealand Te Whariki

45. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • Forest Schools

46. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • A Forest School is an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning. • The philosophy of Forest Schools is to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through positive outdoor experiences. • By participating in engaging, motivating and achievable tasks and activities in a woodland environment each participant has an opportunity to develop intrinsic motivation, sound emotional and social skills. These, through self awareness can be developed to reach personal potential. • Forest School programmes run throughout the year, for about 36 weeks, going to the woods in all weathers (except for high winds). Children use full sized tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become self motivated.

47. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • HighScope Approach

48. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • The High Scope Approach is an active learning approach which uses the adult-child interaction, the learning experience, daily routine and assessment as tools. • One of the fundamental structures in the daily routine of High Scope is the Plan-Do-Review cycle. This encourages children to consider what they would like to do, then plan how to do it, carry out their plans and then review afterwards what they had learned. • So for example, a child wanting to paint a picture would make a plan working out that they needed to put on an apron, choose their paper, brushes and paints. They would then get these things and carry out their plan. Afterwards they would be responsible for putting away the painting and paint, washing the brushes and their hands, hanging up their apron. • The review part would happen when an adult uses open questions to ask the child to tell them about what they did. • If children are given the opportunity to make plans, carry them out and review them in the day to day routines of life, they will be much more • able to become involved in bigger decisions that affect them. This obviously takes time, but the effort will be worthwhile if the child becomes engaged in the process of planning to meet their needs.

49. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • Reggio Emilia • Loris Malaguzzi established the Reggio Emilia approach after World War 2 in the town Reggio Emillia. • He believed children had rights rather than needs and could think for themselves with multiple forms of expression.

50. How other approaches to play have influenced approaches to observing, planning play and the use of the outdoors • The Reggio Emilia model promotes children as a competent learners with the ability and right to construct and direct their his/ her own learning. • It is based on the Vygotskian theory of learning through interaction, modelling and support from others, • The curriculum is based on day-to-day experiences, interests and enquiry which build theory. • The Reggio Emilia approach has creativity at the core of children’s learning, working with artists and promoting artistic experiences in studios and other creative learning environments. • Criticism of the Reggio Emilia approach has been the absence of the written curriculum. The lack of accountability to the wider society however it is argued that there is very detailed recording of the curriculum process, which opens their practice to criticism and scrutiny.