Play in Contemporary Classrooms

Play is how children assimilate experience on their
way to learned knowledge - not how children learn
but way they practice their thinking

It is how students begin to create
symbols that reflect their thought

Inspired play as necessary and research
on the effects of play interventions

Stages of Play

Functional, symbolic, games with rules

Play is learning itself

Students forced to learn about world - makes it
an idea that is separated from any real experience or daily actions

Play is not just a stage; opens children's minds to their
society's world of ideas where they are supported to think
on higher levels

Different cultures will have different pay tools that connect
to larger cultural ideas

19th Century

First to create play-based curriculum
where children could naturally learn

Sparked the debate on direct teaching vs.
"natural" learning by play

German immigrants brought
Kindergarten to U.S.

Some states made K part
of public schooling

Two Views

Teacher guides play directly
with close supervision

Free play with Froebel's objects
and children choose what to do
based on interests

Late 19th/Early 20th Century

Stanley Hall

Play helps children be more civilized
Play identified with evolutionary stages

Children and play go through
developmental stages

Creating scientific basis for teaching

John Dewey made laboratory school
and disagreed with Hall

Saw play as a way that children build ideas by doing

Play actions serve purposes; learn social skills

Karl Groos saw play as practice for future life

informed work on development and education

Sigmund Freud saw play as coping mechanism as balance needs with social pressures

Called attention to children's emotions and play therapy for dealing with problems

Child-centered curriculum for
disadvantaged children

Implemented in U.S. after exhibition in 1915

Work activities designed to develop skills

Seen like play - repeated activities and used senses

Signaling Play

Communication between two or more,
especially language

Play with sounds of voices, rhyming, nonsense

Change themselves, type of activity and rules

May be a necessary foundation
for later literacy

What is said is untrue, but follow along to
participate in play

Social Setting

Children negotiate what roles, where to play
and who plays

Contributes to social status in classroom

Gives means for solidifying social groups
and group identities

Supported when teacher includes play
objects that prompt children to think how to act
within their cultures

Form own peer cultures - usually transmitted orally

Concerning because often challenges authority

Categories

Can be open ended - used in
many different creative ways

Playdough/blocks

Can be closed ended

Puzzles

Realistic

Look more like the object that
they are meant to represent

Controversial Materials

Toys that promote violence, stereotyping,
noneducational shows, and technology

War Play

Teaches children violence solves problems

Can meet emotional need that's
being explored

Toys based on TV shows

Not age appropriate
Encourages consumerism

Can create shared-play situation

Social Justice and Equity

Research on how play becomes context in which children
confront larger social issues

Poverty and wealth expressions

Sex role expectations and biases

Play is challenged

Academic pressure to show results
and play cannot concretely do so

Play put aside to devote more time
to instructional skills

Recess seen as threat of
taking precious academic time