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Theory of play based learning essay
Developmental theories in regards to play
Developmental theories in regards to play
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There are many different categories of play and children can be involved in more than one type at any time. While observing Owen, the following types could be noted:
• Creative play where children enjoy being creative and use their imaginations to make and do things
• Manipulative play where children manipulate objects and materials to practise and refine motor skills
• Pretend/make-believe/role play where children make up stories and scenarios by pretending with objects, actions and situations
Over the years, many theorists have tried to explain the principles by which children play. Reference can be made to their work to try to understand and assess Owen’s behaviour. One such theorist is Piaget who highlighted that children’s developmental stage influence the way they play and their understanding of rules.
At six, Owen is in the preoperational stage which spans two to seven years. According to Piaget, children in this stage engage in symbolic play since they are capable of dual representation - that is viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol. Besides, they can coordinate pretend schemes with those of peers without any assistance from the real world. This is why Owen was able to pretend that the lego was a spinning top, a car and later on, a tornado. All his imaginings were self-initiated and later on, when his friend joined in, both children played in a synchronised way.
Piaget also commented that about ages four to seven, game playing is egocentric; there is neither a strong sense of cooperation nor of competition. Children do not understand rules very well or they make them up as they go along. However, there are other theorists who have held diverging views. Vygotsky (1978), for instance, e...
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...of the sub groups. There was a tacit acceptance of the situation. His usual playmate was on another table, so he was going to play alone.
When the second boy joined in, Owen took on the role of the leader. Without any words, it was instinctively acknowledged that Owen will initiate the actions and his friend will follow. Owen was the one who set the boundaries for the play and this time verbally explaining to his friend how to spin, what to do next. Scenarios were developed one after the other spontaneously and the result was a well-coordinated activity. Vygotsky’s belief that the child is not a solitary discoverer of knowledge, but rather learns within social interactions that involve communicating could be seen reflected. Owen took on the mantle of the more knowledgeable peer and through his scaffolding, the second boy’s zone of proximal development was expanded.
Piaget believed that children in this stage experience two kinds of phenomena: pretend play and Egocentrism. Pretend play is the ability to perform mental operations using symbols. Egocentrism is the inability to perceive things from a different point of view. For example, a child covering his own eyes, because he believes that if he can’t see someone, then they can’t see him as well. When a child is seven to eleven years old, it is in the concrete operational stage. At this point, Piaget believed that children are able to grasp the concept of conservation. Conservation is the principle that mass and volume remain the same despite the change in forms of objects. For example, children at this age are mentally capable of pouring a liquid in different types of containers. Piaget also believed that at this age a child is capable of understanding different mathematical transformations. At the age of 12, children reach the Formal Operation stage, the final stage in Piaget’s stages of Cognitive Development. This is the
Early Childhood is marked by a time in children’s lives when they develop “a confident self-image, more effective control over their emotions, new social skills, the foundations of morality, and a clear sense of themselves as boy or girl” (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). According to Erik Erikson, early childhood is a period of “vigorous unfolding,” one where children have a sense of autonomy and a new sense of purposefulness or initiative (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011, pg. 45). Play is a means for children to learn about themselves and they begin to adopt the moral and gender-role standards of the society in which they live (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011). A negative outcome of early childhood is the guilt children feel as a result of excessive punishment and criticism by the adults in their lives (Berk, Kauffman & Landrum, 2011)....
Theorists help us to learn about play and help us progress in relation to approaches and future planning. Vygotsky believed that imaginative play and relationships are important in relation to a child’s learning, and his theory was called the social constructivist theory. He believed that through play a ‘zone of proximal development’ is created, in which a child’s learns at the height of their potential. He argued against Piaget’s theory. Piaget argued that children did not necessarily learn through play but play just showcases and applies what they have already learnt. Piaget’s theory stated that there was two aspects to play – sensory and movement play and imagination, pretend and symbolic play. The McMillian sisters theorised the idea that children would find it extremely difficult to learn, play and develop without good hygiene and good health. Froebel also had strong opinions on the role of play. He believed in the importance of symbolic play, and imaginative play - stating it was one of the best ways for
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
Due to the fact that, when she was eating the rice sitting on the dining table, but she suddenly got up from the table, started walking towards the living room, grabed her barbie dolls and started feeding them. Moreover, not only she was pretending to drink from the toy cup while playing with the kitchen set, but, also was pretending to talk on the toy phone as she saw her mother talking to someone on her cell phone. These are the example of make-believe play because according to book “Make-believe play increases in sophistication during the preschool years. Children pretend with less realistic toys [such as] in early pretending, toddlers use … toy telephone to talk into or a cup to drink from. Their earliest pretend acts usually imitate adualt 's actions” (Berk, 227). The theory that perfectly relates to these examples is Piaget 's theory because Berk in the book infer that “Make-believe play is … excellent example of the development of representation in early childhood. Piaget believed that through pretending, young children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational schemes” (Berk,
My choice of research was in the play behaviors of children as well as aggression. Breaking the topic down more, behavior relates to the psychology and the psyche of each individual. The definition of psychology is “science of mind and behavior” (Clavijo, 2013). After reading the article by Clavijo, I have realized that psychology can be defined in three ways such as the study of the mind, the study of behavior, and the study of the mind and behavior. In the text “The Developing Person” by Berger, behavior is learned through social learning. Children learn different behaviors through the observation of others, others being children and adults. Different people have affects on a child’s life that can affect their behavior. A child’s behavior is heavily influenced by their parents. A son may speak aggressively and without respect towards his mother because this is the way that his father speaks to her therefore he feels that is how to communicate with his mother (Berger, 200, 2012). Moving into play behaviors, children learn from other children in how to play. Most believe cognitive growth relies on child’s play time. Vygotsky and Piaget both believe that when children play it is beneficial, but according to Vygotsky, playing enables a child to think outside the box and create their own meaning from objects, using their imagination. Piaget believes that child benefit from playing together because children and sharing their knowledge and making it more concrete ideas and thoughts. There are four stages of plays, with the fourth stage being the highest most complicated play which consists of rules and guidelines for the game. The lowest level or play would be functional play being infants shaking rattles, clapping their hands, or blow...
Piaget stated that children function in a concrete world and therefore are unable to use language in an abstract way until about eleven years old. Consequently language does not afford young children the structure for appropriate self-expression. Piaget believed that children design symbols to communicate their wishes, ideas and emotions. This system of symbols characterises symbolic play (Piaget & Inhelder,
The stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The phase that applies to these children at the age of 4 years old is the preoperational stage, which covers approximately ages 2 to 7 years old. During this stage, “ preschool children use symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor discoveries,” (Berk, 2010) and the use of language. In this preoperational stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, and cannot mentally manipulate information . Piaget and Vygotsky had different ways to explain cognitive development. Piaget’s roots were in biology and the evolutionary adaptation of humans, and Vygotsky in theory that focus on how people transform their world rather than adapt to it (Vianna, 2006). Vygotsky focused on the importance on the psychosocial aspect of cognitive development. Piaget believed cognition was a result of the of the child 's maturity. Vygotsky felt that learning was only as strong and powerful as the environment surrounding the child. Piaget’s felt that one stage of devlopment must be completed prior to moving forward, whereas Vygotsky’s cognitive development perspective has little dependence on time, but more emphasize on social
Play is such an important part of the learning and growing, especially for children. Children engage in many different types of play, but the play I saw the most when I observe the children of my daycare is sociodramatic play. The book Understanding Dramatic Play by Judith Kase-Polisini defines sociodramatic play as “both players must tacitly or openly agree to act out the same drama” (Kase-Polisini 40). This shows that children play with each other and make their worlds together as equal creators. Children also work together without argument.
Children have a natural inclination to play, alongside a natural instinct to learn and to be curious and inventive, which are characteristics of the human race in general. This quote taken from Janet Moyles is a good starting point for this essay. It is well known that children love to play. If a child were to be left to his/her own devices they would happily play and create new worlds anywhere they were left. It has been well documented and researched that children learn excellently through play. However they are not always given the opportunity to do so, instead being told to, ‘finish your work and then you can go play’. Obviously this is not always the case, but the fact that it is a common practice shows that we do not all fully appreciate the importance of play to children’s learning. This essay will attempt to show how children learn through play, making reference to current theory and practice. I will also give examples from my own first-hand experience of how children learn and develop as people through play.
The children are put through different learning experiences and tasks, for the professionals to evaluate and observe their different development stages. All this helps to understand the children’s adult characteristics for future life as every child’s play experiences are crucial to their adult life.
The book, Exploring Your role in Early Childhood Education, defines play as, “any activity that is freely chosen, meaningful, active, enjoyable, and open-ended.”(pg. 140) Play has many positive characteristics such as freedom to explore and create. Suppose when a child enters his/her classroom and has various self-selection activities available, the child can become engaged in something of interest specifically to that individual child. The book also states, “Play is active and is natural process of mentally and actively doing something.”(pg. 140) When children can act out or explore experiences they are having hands on experience and learning by actually doing. Without knowing it, children are practicing body movements as well as mental processing though acting imaginary games out.
Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play. Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child. Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to facilitate healthy development of their minds, body, and creativity.
Jean Piaget’s influence on this developmental area allows us to better understand preoperational thought, egocentrism, and conservation. According to Piaget, preoperational thought is when a child is now able to understand symbolic play and have the ability to imagine something even if it is not physically there. Having these thoughts and abilities can encourage a child to use language to describe their play (Piaget, 1951). Another great example is using art to convey this growth. When a child draws, they are using their memories, mental representations of people, and things around them to put it down on paper! Being able to describe their surroundings is largely made possible by hearing people talk around them. Vygotsky believed children are able to build on cognitive structures by hearing social speech around them. Equally as important as social speech, is a child’s private speech. In early childhood, a child’s private speech will not only help them practice using the newly acquired language, but also learn to internalize dialog for mental activity (Vygotsky, 1962). A great way to improve upon these skills is to ask a child open ended questions to encourage them to use their words. Language will flourish and children will now have the ability to have conversations and tell stories about the things they imagine. While children are learning how to use their words during symbolic
By interacting with others in play settings, children learn social rules such as, taking turns, trade, cooperation, sharing, rules, and mixing with other. They discover scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their idea through social barriers. They know what they want to do and work conscientiously to do it. they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Also, support most children progress from an egocentric view of the world to an understanding of the importance of social skills and rules, they learn that games such as follows the Leader, baseball, and soccer cannot work without everyone obeying to the same set of rules. It teaches children life has rules (laws) that we all must follow to function effectively. Research shows that children who involve “(in complex forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language skills than non-players, better social skills, more empathy, more imagination, and more of the subtle capacity to know what others mean. They are less aggressive and show more self-control and higher levels of thinking”.