Spring 2006

Wellbeing and connectedness

Playtime is the right time

Early childhood educators appreciate the value of a play/project based program of learning. Kathy Walker believes in spreading the word, and the practice, into primary classrooms around the country.

Education is at an interesting time. We know more about children’s development, learning styles, personality, the link between learning and family input, brain research and general development of children than we ever have.

As educators, we are always seeking ways to increase levels of engagement and meaningful learning for children. Across Australia, a number of curriculum frameworks have broadened to reflect not only expectations of specific skills in literacy and numeracy, for example, but to highlight the importance of thinking, creativity, meaningful conversation and dialogue with others, and to enhance skills of lifelong learning.

These changes in curriculum frameworks provide opportunities for teachers and schools to reflect upon the nature of teaching and learning strategies. We are being encouraged to ensure that children are actively engaged in meaningful and relevant experiences that provide opportunities for them to see the link between their learning and the skills they will need to take with them into the future.

Over the years, we have seen a range of innovative strategies being introduced to learning environments. Yet, we are faced with the tensions and challenges of a society that uses the language of benchmarks, outcomes, standards and testing. These are far more closely linked to accountability at a bureaucratic level than to what we actually know about children’s development and learning.

Despite some of these tensions, it is an exciting time in early years education. Two Victorian schools have received top education awards for implementing a play/project based curriculum in the early years of school. This curriculum and philosophy has been embraced by early childhood teachers for over a century. It is now being re-embraced by many teachers in schools, most often in the early years, but in some schools right through to year six.

Teachers and schools are returning to the pedagogical tool of children’s play and projects to actively engage children in their learning. They are integrating opportunities for children’s interests and investigations to link directly to literacy and numeracy and other areas of learning in order to promote meaningful and exciting learning environments for children.

Learning through the medium of play has been examined and researched for many decades.

Play used as a teaching and learning tool is not ‘free play’, nor is it just allowing children to play when the real work is finished, or using play to help children settle in. Play is always purposeful, linked to learning objectives—the major strategy for teaching and learning. This approach is rigorous and directly connected to learning.

The play/project based approach is based upon the developmental curriculum, sometimes referred to as ‘developmentally appropriate practice’ (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). It has its foundations in the developmental perspective that recognises that, in relation to their learning and development, children are influenced both biologically and by the experiences they are exposed to in their environments.

Nothing magical or mysterious occurs inside children’s brains or to their learning style over the January holidays as they leave their early childhood program behind and commence the next step of their learning journey. The children who left the early childhood program are the same children who enter the school classroom six weeks later. They need to learn in the same way as during their early childhood years.

The play/project based approach is not an ‘add-on’ for an already crowded curriculum. It seeks to use elements of children’s interests alongside practical, hands-on learning experiences that quickly engage children in the learning process.

The approach highlights key elements of children’s development, learning and their social environments and seeks to scaffold learning through making explicit links and opportunities for children to find their learning and skills useful and sustainable over time. Expectations for children’s learning are still set; however, the rate of acquisition, the way in which these learnings are achieved and the range of strategies for teaching within the play/project based approach are the key issues.

Some key aspects of the play/project based approach are:

• encouraging creative rather than cloned artwork
• constructing knowledge, understandings and skills
• employing hands-on learning rather than lots of worksheets
• placing children’s interests at the heart of planning rather than creating scope and sequence charts with topics or units of inquiry that are predetermined by teachers
• using objectives for learning and development as the starting point for planning
• integrating learning through the range of experiences provided each day
• providing clinic groups and instruction sessions for literacy and numeracy rather than discrete blocks.

Across Australia, many schools are now embracing this approach and shaping the key principles of the play/project based curriculum into their own local communities. Professional development sessions, reading and mentoring with others are the key strategies used to help teachers through the implementation phase.

This exciting and dynamic approach places the child at the centre of the curriculum and provides a rich range of learning opportunities that are truly reflective of children’s age, stage and interests. Play/project based classrooms provide a learning environment that is a rich invitation to children to explore, investigate, experiment and discover that learning is fun, productive and achievable for all.

Reference

Bredekamp, S & Copple, C (eds) (1997). Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, Rev. ed., The National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington DC.

Walker, K (2005). What’s the Hurry? Reclaiming childhood in an overscheduled world, Australian Scholarship Group, Melbourne.

Kathy Walker is an educational consultant who conducts professional development in early childhood and primary education.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au