'We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing.'
(George Bernard Shaw, 1856--1950)
This
week has had me thinking about play and the usefulness of play in social and academic
development. I tuned into the #Scoteduchat this week which hosted questions
around nursery primary transition but I think the thing that I was most take
with was the use of play.
Each
of these has led to me to thinking about how important play is in both social
and academic development but also about how parenting and interaction through
play is vital to childhood development and how this fits into the Scottish
Attainment Challenge. I had a quick search in Education Source – EBSCO (https://www.gtcs.org.uk/GTCS-login.aspx - log in page) and
found a paper by Kanhadilok & Watts (2014) about Adult
play-learning and I also had a
quick look at the Education Scotland website for more information on play and
came across the Play Strategy for Scotland: the vision.
I am
playful and I used play in my secondary classroom with the students, from the
more obvious games for learning but also in social interactions which were
playful. Playfulness as discussed by Kanhadilok & Watts (2014) as “the predisposition
to frame (or reframe) a situation in such a way as to provide oneself (and
possible others) with amusement, humour, and/or entertainment”. Playful
approaches to learning sit within constructivist theories of learning and can
prompt learning especially when learning is driven by curiosity and creativity.
Playfulness is a ‘mindset’ and is linked to the ‘pleasure principle’ so if it
becomes a chore then it stops being play.
I love
the idea of play as a medium for learning and watching children play, you can
see creativity and social skills in action. It is interesting though that the
research on childhood play is extensive according to Kanhadilok & Watts (2014)
“some 3000 psychological research papers focused on children's play”
in the last decade but at the same time “only around 40 have
addressed play in
adults”.
Children
love to learn, from the Play Strategy for Scotland: The vision (p15)
“Play allows children to experience and make sense of
their world, to challenge themselves, practise skills and manage their
emotions, interact with others or enjoy time alone”.
This
ties in with Dewey’s thinking around learning involving active discovery rather
than the passive remembering of facts and figures. Sugata Mitra famous
experiment Hole in the Wall (HIW) experiment
(1999) gave children free access to a computer embedded within a wall between
his office and an Indian slum at Kalkaji, Delhi. This and further experiments have shown that
children want to, and love to learn and are not afraid to making
mistakes. Some adult have a fear of being wrong and are shamed by being wrong,
children are far more like Edison;
“I have not failed,
I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”,
Article
31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “every child has
the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities
appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life
and the arts”. So not only is it a ‘right’ but we also tacitly know that play
is a ‘good’ thing and the benefits go beyond fun, into aspects of resilience,
creativity, problem solving and make significant contributions to children
‘well-being’, a key aspect of the GIRFEC agenda. Through play children
interpret their world and negotiate risk taking, challenge and manage
themselves and learn co-operative and collaboration, all of these skills are
being heralded by employers. Play remains important “throughout infancy,
childhood, the teenage years through adolescence, and beyond into adulthood and
at all ages, stages and abilities” (p13).
The
recent emphasis on outdoor learning has been a step forward and the use of
natural materials to support ‘academic learning’ is laudable. Early years
practitioners are crucial in developing children who are curious about the
world around them and using outdoor play experiences to support children’s
development. According to the Play Strategy for Scotland: the vision (p19) “the
greatest potential to develop free play in schools is outdoors, before and
after school, during break times and, through out-of-school care”, but how to
achieve this?
In the
current climate where the perception of risk to children playing outdoor is
often higher than the reality, this raises issues of children not having
opportunities to practice their skills, experiment and to challenge themselves
out with the ‘control’ of adults. The
Play Strategy for Scotland: the vision (p21) states that “children and young
people who play outdoors more often have better social networks, are more
confident and are more involved in their local communities than those who are
outside less often” and I agree with this, that children need to time to
develop skills through play and being independent which will support them as
they grow up.
Play
is not just for the little ones but through play in early years children can
start to develop neural pathways that support learning. It was fortuitous that
just as I am finishing writing this post that the EIS have put out a press
release commenting on Professor Siraj’s
Review of Early Learning and Childcare, Larry Flanagan is quoted to have said;
"It is welcome that the Scottish Government has
acknowledged the essential nature of teacher involvement in the nursery sector,
while restating its own commitment to ensuring that all children in nurseries
have access to a teacher."
So
play is important and should be nurtured as “play is the universal language of
childhood” and beyond, so who wants to go jump in some puddles!
References
Aubrey,
K. & Riley, A. (2016) Understanding and using educational theories: Sage
publishing
Kanhadilok, P. & Watts,M.(2014) Adult play-learning:
Observing informal family education at a science museum: Studies in the Education of
Adults, Vol. 46, Issue 1
Review
Of Early Learning & Childcare: EIS Comment
last
retrieved 15-12-04
PLAY
STRATEGY FOR SCOTLAND: OUR VISION: Scotland's
first national play strategy. (2013)
last
retrieved 15-12-04
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