Essay Sample on Education: Play as a Framework for Learning Early Childhood Education

Play is mostly seen as an entertainment or relaxation tool but rarely is it seen as an instrument for learning. According to Friedman (2011), some think the play is not academic beneficial or constructive to a child. However, that cannot be any further from the truth because the play has been proven to be a useful learning instrument for children. Play learning is a pedagogical approach where learning is achieved through play. The model involves exploration, experimentation, discovery and problem solving using playful techniques. Playing has been used as an essential part of early childhood learning in the New Zealand curriculum. The system relies on the pedagogical foundation of Te Whariki which encompasses gender and ethnicity, diversity of ability and learning needs, family structure and values, socioeconomic status and religion (Ministry of Education, 2017). The model helps children develop key competencies, knowledge and values. Therefore, play is a framework for learning in early childhood education in New Zealand because it helps with the realization of the New Zealand curriculum vision, which is to create confidence, connected, actively involved lifelong partners with teachers providing an enabling environment by removing barriers and taking on the leadership role of Kaiako.

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The Vision of New Zealand’s Curriculum

Te Whariki is built around New Zealand’s idea of the ideal child. The nation aspired to produce children who grew up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit (Duhn, 2006). According to Duhn (2006), New Zealand’s conception of an ideal child was one who was secure in their sense of belonging and knowledge of the fact that they make a valued contribution to the society. That conception is what caused the adoption of Te Whariki. The model was conceived during a time of social, economic and political reforms in New Zealand. As a result, the system contains some subtle shades of political desires of a specific kind of future citizen.

Learning through play allowed the education system to extend Te Whariki to the early years of learning. According to Drew et al. (2013), the connection between play and problem solving is a crucial element in early childhood development. The core of problem-solving and inquiry-based learning is questioning the position that adults and children alike take when they want to learn something, they do not know yet. That causes the individual to be fully immersed and possess the self-drive to seek answers to their questions.

The policymakers in New Zealand believed that play learning could drive inquiry-based learning and problem-solving. Focusing attention, the taking of reasonable risks, testing hypotheses, using flexible thinking to find solutions, and perseverance are all items that are involved in problem-solving. Play provides young learners to use all these attributes in their quest for answers. Studies indicate that children’s learning process is optimized when they are actively involved in questioning and information gathering (Drew et al., 2013). Play learning provides them with that opportunity of being actively involved in learning hence enabling them to have a better memory of information gathered as compared to when the information is just given to them. That process, the New Zealanders believed would help them create their ideal version of a child and human being.

New Zealand chose play learning as the framework for its early childhood because play allows children to actively build knowledge using questioning and information gathering, together with hands-on experience and direct social interactions(Drew et al., 2013). Playing with materials, ideas, and other people provides them with an opportunity for active learning and knowledge acquisition. However, the role of play in childhood learning was not an invention of New Zealand’s policymakers. New Zealand used the theoretical perspectives of play to come up with their curriculum model.

New Zealand also wanted to make playing the primary method of children spending their time, rather than it only being one of the many ways in which they get to spend their time. On the one hand, Gaskins (2014) indicates that children in parts of the world where play is the primary means through which they spend their time have their cognitive, social and emotional developments influenced by their types of play. On the other hand, children from parts of the world where play is one of the many ways in which they spend their time have their development and learning are much less influenced by their type of play (Gaskins, 2014). Based on the form of early childhood education adopted by the country, they preferred the former, so that they can create what would be described as the ideal child.

Theoretical Perspectives of Play

Theoretical perspectives of play can be categorized into two main categories according to the time in which they were first proposed. Play theories that originated from the 19th century are known as classical theories, while the ones that originated after the 1920s are known as modern theories (Stagnitti, 2004). The classical theories had attempted to explain the existence and purpose of play, while the modern theories concentrated on the role of play in child development. Therefore, it was the modern theories that significantly contribute to providing the answer as to why play is an essential framework for learning and early childhood education in New Zealand.

Modern theories mainly associate play with exploration. According to Piaget’s theory of children’s cognitive development, development occurs when children observe, act on, interpret and imitate their world, and play serves as a context in which they can practice and develop such kind of processes (Drew et al., 2013). The theory attributes play to not only the process of learning but also cognitive development. For example, a child playing with LEGO bricks learns the skills of problem solving, inquiry, exploration and development of knowledge; all of which are cognitive skills. Play learning has been used by the New Zealand curriculum to help the children understand the world around them because they get to imitate the things they have observed around them as well as manipulate their environment and develop knowledge based on the results of their experiments.

While other forms of learning provide an almost similar experience as play learning, it is unique in that it is mainly voluntary. According to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, learning takes place when a child is challenged rather than frustrated (Drew et al., 2013). Vygotsky’s theory not only focuses on cognitive development, but it also went further to address the social implications of learning and development. One of Vygotsky’s most famous lines was that children operate above their average age while playing to the extent of seeming as if they are trying to jump above their level of normal behaviour (Bodrova & Leong, 2015). According to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, the play contains all the developmental tendencies in a condensed form. That makes play one of the most efficient systems for delivering academic skills and concepts to preschoolers in early childhood education.

Role of the Teacher in Implementing Play-Based Curriculum

Teachers play an essential role in implementing the play-based curriculum through the elimination of barriers according to the requirements of Te Whariki. Te Whariki offers an inclusive curriculum that involved teaching approaches as necessary and removing any barriers to participation and learning (Ministry of Education, 2017). The barriers can either be physical, social, conceptual or all of them. Physical barriers can involve the built environment, such as a wall preventing access to individual facilities. Social barriers can be in the form of practices which limit the child’s participation, such as the teacher always being unavailable for classroom sessions to monitor the children. Conceptual are based on the beliefs limiting what is considered appropriate. For example, the teacher preventing a child from using a particular toy because of specific religious beliefs is a conceptual barrier. All these are teacher’s roles in Te Whariki that are used in play-based learning. The curriculum expects the teacher to work together with the community members and other stakeholders to eliminate such barriers.

Also, a teacher’s role in implementing play-based learning changes from an instructor or educator to a school mate or classmate. Te Whariki gives teachers the unique role of Kaiako, whom despite retaining a leadership role, is still as much of a learner as they are a teacher (Ministry of Education, 2017). Tha Kaiako gets to exchange roles with the child pupil now and then so that they understand both teaching and learning dynamics. The unique role of the teacher in Te Whariki is ideal in play-based learning since infants learn through respectful, and reciprocal interactions with people places and things. The teachers’ role in such form of learning ensures that the learner always receives feedback for their actions and experiments. The learning process becomes some form of interaction between the learner and their Kaiako.

Conclusion

The cultural aspect played an important role in as much as the academic aspect in influencing New Zealand decision to use play as a framework for learning for early childhood education. The country’s Te Whariki was approved during a period of social, economic and political reforms. They wanted a system that could create what they termed as an ideal child—one who is competent and confident in their ability to communicate as well as contributing to society. The Te Whariki curriculum would have helped them achieve that goal, and play-based framework helped them extend it to early childhood education. The use of play-based learning can be supported using Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories. Those cognitive theories view play as a voluntary process that contributes to cognitive development, creative thought and problem-solving. In all these, the teachers are supposed to facilitate play-based curriculum implementation by removing learning barriers and taking on the role of both teacher and learner.

References

Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (2015). Vygotskian and Post-Vygotskian Views on Children’s Play. American Journal of Play, 7(3), 371-388. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1070266.pdf

Drew, W. F., Nell, M., & Bush, D. (2013). From Play to Practice-Connecting Teachers Play to Children’s Learning. National Association For The E. https://www.earlychildhoodwebinars.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Slides-3-per-page_From-Play-to-Practice_04_19_2018.pdf

Duhn, I. (2006). The making of global citizens: Traces of cosmopolitanism in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(3), 191-202. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.3.191

Friedman, L. (2011, September/October). What’s in a meaning? Defining play. Exchange Magazine. https://www.childcareexchange.com/article/whats-in-a-meaning-defining-play/5020196/

Gaskins, S. (2014). Children’s play as a cultural activity. The Sage handbook of play and learning in early childhood, 31-42.

Ministry of Education. (2017). Te whariki: He whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum.

Stagnitti, K. (2004). Understanding play: The implications for play assessment. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 51(1), 3-12. https://www.academia.edu/download/40624796/understanding_play_Stagnitti.pdf