Looking back on the Longworth Education Learning through Play course the biggest thing I took was learning about the importance of children's ‘urges’ or schemas (patterns of repeated behaviour which allow children to explore and express developing ideas and thoughts through their play and exploration (flyingcolours.uk). Children may exhibit these urges through engaging in play such as construction, throwing, rotating objects, ordering, families, transformation (i.e. turning something into something else) and jumping. What I took out from the course was that all children have urges and as educators we need to facilitate these urges through play in the classroom.
A further important aspect I took out of the Longworth Education course was not being afraid of using the word ‘play’. Learning through play is a powerful learning process for the children and is our method of teaching. Play teaches children to develop their social, cognitive, mental and emotional skill sets through decision making, problem solving, creative thinking and sharing. Furthermore play helps to develop children's oral language through complex discussions with each other. There is real learning happening through play despite the perception that we might come across through the term ‘play’. We shouldn’t try to downplay it, we should embrace the term play. We need to look at play as a learning process not a privilege.
When children are playing it is essential that their play is self-chosen and self-directed, we want children to be intrinsically motivated. Play should be process driven, what students are making is the learning not the final product. One interesting point I took away from this course was for the children to have the ‘freedom to quit’. This was an interesting aspect that I hadn’t considered as important, but by allowing children to ‘quit’ this helps them to grow their intrinsic motivation. If they want to stay in the game they will explore all the possible avenues. However, if they quit, they have to deal with not going back into that game and finding an alternative. Another interesting point I picked up from this course was not interfering in children's discussions when they are sorting out a problem. It is important for them to sort it out themselves and not always run to the teacher.
Brain development is an important element that comes from play. By allowing children to be imaginative and involve themselves in fantasy and dramatic play this creates the highest level of thinking. Fantasy play stimulates and enhances children in their creative thinking. With creative thinking children are able to think outside the box. Along with creative thinking, children are also developing problem solving skills. Both sets of these skills are essential skills for the adult workforce.
As alluded to above, play should be an essential part of schooling. Five year old children are not coming to school ‘school-ready’. They are not ready to sit down in formal instruction as this is not developmentally appropriate at this age. Roughly 3-7 year olds are in the pre-cognitive stage of development. At this stage language development is important. They need to be involved in make believe play, open ended science questions, building with blocks etc. which will set them up for formal schooling at a later stage.
I have also learnt that it is ok to set back and just observe the children. We don’t have to be playing with them constantly and talking to them, but it is just as important to look back at what they are doing with their peers or by themselves and what skills they are using and developing.
Observations that I have already made in the classroom since the course includes the ‘ice-cream shop’. Children are ‘selling’ and making ice-creams from this shop. Already through playing this game they have demonstrated concepts relating to maths through giving and receiving money, right and wrong i.e. it is not right to steal money, problem solving i.e. how will we deal with the robbers who steal our money, oral language development through conversations with the setting up of the shop and creative thinking i.e. making ice-creams out of sticks because the rest of the ice-creams have been sold. This play has been fun and effective for the children and it is all intrinsically driven.
Questions that I now have from this course include the equipment. I would like to know how often we should be changing the play equipment around and how important student voice should be in this decision. I would also like to know, is it ok for students to be doing the same thing every day or should we be encouraging them to try out different play or extend them to other areas.
This course will and has already impacted my teaching. This course has taught me to observe children's urges and find ways that we can facilitate this in the classroom to support children in their play. Another important I note I took from this course is the language we are using surrounding play. Instead of using ‘play based learning’ we need to start saying ’learning through play’. Play is the major vehicle in the learning and this is what children are learning from. Play is the sole component to this learning area and not a contributing factor.
The next steps for my teaching will be to find more ‘random/small bits’ for the children to play with such as sand, shells etc. Play equipment doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be expensive. A further next step is to look into our classroom now and see what adjustments we can make to make it even better to support children with their play.
Resources
Longworth Education. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.longwortheducation.co.nz/single-post/2016/12/11/Play-The-Four-Letter-Word-in-Primary-School
The Best Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2018, from http://www.institute4learning.com/resources/articles/the-best-schools/
Engaging in fantasy play could benefit creative thinking in children. (2016, September 15). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160915085731.htm
http://www.flyingstart.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Schema.pdf
Play based learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.discoverytime.co.nz/play-based-learning/
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