RUNNING HEAD: PLAY-BASED LEARNING
Exploring Play Based Learning
Raenna Durda 001133670 University of Lethbridge
EXPLORING PLAY BASED LEARNING
Exploring Play-Based Learning Teachers of 21st century students are challenged everyday with preparing their students for their futures. This requires that instructors attempt to infuse their students with the desire to become lifelong learners and problem solvers in a world that is ever changing. One pedagogy that teachers are using to try to instill these skills and desires in their students is through playbased learning. This paper explores play and how it can enhance learning. Research about play and play-based learning suggests that play not only enhances student learning, but should be an essential part of Early Childhood Education. Support for Play Based Learning As previously mentioned, studies have shown that play helps shape the brain. This however is not the only advantage to using a play-based learning pedagogy in your classroom. Play has been shown to increase student engagement, create more authentic learning experiences, and give students a greater sense of agency. Game-Based Curriculum and Transformational Play is a study that looks at how student engagement and agency affect student learning. This article compared students studying a unit on persuasive writing skills. One group completed the unit using a novel, and were given assignments asking them to write to characters in the novel which the instructor would then take in and grade. Because the novel is already written, it is important to note that their writing will have no effect on the outcome on the novel; they only received a grade, and feedback, from their instructor. The second group of students interacted in a video game based on Frankenstein. Students were given the task to investigate the situation then choose a side (save the monster, or use him in experiments to find a cure for the plague). Once a side was chosen they had to use their newly acquired persuasive writing skills (gained through interacting with the characters in
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the game, and lectures) to convince the villagers to agree to join them in their cause. Their writing had a direct affect on the game (save the monster and the town becomes a ghost town but the monster becomes a happy farmer, or keep the monster and the town thrives and the monster is forever a tortured prisoner). In addition to affecting the game students also received feed back from the teacher in the form of letters from their mother within the game giving them advice and asking questions that would guide them in honing their skills. This study demonstrates that the presence of advocacy (students ability to affect the outcome) through game play in creased both their engagement, and their motivation for completing the assignments shifted from being extrinsic (for the novel group seeking good grades), to intrinsic (for the gaming group, wanting to gain the skills needed to affect the game, and their own lives). This study talks about three relationships students need to have to a text (in this case a video game) in order to have this advocacy, engagement, and intrinsic motivation: a learning environment [that provides] a curricular drama that positions content with legitimacy, person with intentionality, and context with consequentiality (519-520). In other words, students learn better when they can see the effects that their new skills and knowledge have on the world (in this case a virtual world). This sense of agency, not possible in a normal novel study, lends to the task at hand becoming more authentic, and students being able to link how they can use these skills in the real world. It is important to note that students were not simply left to just play the game on their own. They were allowed to help each other (as long as discussions were on topic), and recived feedback and instruction from their teacher as well. According to Carlsson-Paige this is especially important because play is essential for childrens academic success, and when teachers intervene to scaffold new learning, the benefits of play are especially potent (2008, np). Carlsson-Paige argues that it is important to offer children large blocks of time for free play, and
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then build upon the knowledge that students have gained on their own. She gives an example of two girls playing sisters and making a pizza. Their play leads to the teacher being able to develop the girls sorting skills, and eventually explodes into the creation of an entire restaurant that allows students to work on their early literacy and numeracy skills through play. Students create menus, fill orders, and in general have a blast while working on skills that they need to learn anyways. Carlsson-Paige also argues that play gives students time and contexts to work through difficult times and knowledge in their lives. It allows them to gain equilibrium and assimilate knew knowledge and feelings so that they can once again interact with their peers in a safe and comfortable manner. They take pieces of experience and transform them into something new, re-ordering things in terms that make sense to them and gaining mastery over the challenges theyve encountered. As they create their own scenarios and narratives, children come to understand and integrate what theyve experienced in life (2008, np). Henderson and Atencio (2007) argue that there are seven principles of learning: learning is fundamentally social... knowledge is integrated in the life of communities...learning is an act of participation...knowing depends on engagement in practice...engagement s inseparable from empowerment... failure to learn is the direct result of being excluded from participating... learning is a lifelong process and is a natural part of human life (2007, 245). They also argue that play best meets the needs of these principles, going back to the fact that play is most often done in collaboration with others, it gives students a sense of advocacy and chances for autonomy, and increases engagement. It is through play that children learn to act and think in the cognitive realm instead of the behavioral or external realm (246). It enhances childrens social and emotional development. Henderson & Atencio describe environments that support play-based learning as one that creates an atmosphere where learning is activity based, and the
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instructor shapes the environment to support growth. Activities are presented in a scaffold so that students know what questions they are seeking answers to in their play, and reflection is encouraged. it is not about what an individual learns but how that experience contributes to the prior experiences of the individual (247). In other words the focus is not always on the knowledge but on how the knowledge affects the student that will make an impact and help the student remember the new things they have learned. They go further to add that play should not be limited to the classroom, but that instructors should take advantage of the opportunities for play and play-based learning that many museums offer that are not possible in the everyday classroom experience. Stegelin (2005) argues that play is needed not only to promote life-long learning, engagement, agency, and autonomy in students, but also a desire to be and a joy in being healthy human beings. She cites the increase in obesity in recent years as a cause for concern, and that play, especially outdoor play, encourages children to lead healthier lives. She also cites research that play improves brain and cognitive development, and well as early literacy and social competence. She also points out the importance of environment in fostering play-based learning play behaviors are often preceded by exploration, so it is important that the environment encourages exploration (77). She also stresses that in order for play-based learning to occur conditions of safety and psychological security that are essential for the child to engage in relaxed, open-ended, and exploratory behaviors (Stegelin, 2005, 78) must be present. With all that being said, in order to implement play-based learning in ones classroom one must first understand play, and the roles learners take on during play.
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Types of Play Play in general is very hard to define. Its very nature seems to demand that it not be defined. Nonetheless attempts at a definition have been made. Brown (2010) defines play through its properties. He claims that the properties of play are: Apparently purposeless (done for its own sake)/Voluntary/ Inherent attraction/Freedom from time/Diminished consciousness of self/Improvisational potential/Continuation desire (Brown, 2010, 17). Play in humans and animals dont appear to have any value to survival. However, studies have shown that animals that play in the wild. In fact, bears that played the most were the ones that survived the best (Brown, 2010, 31). Furthermore, studies show that if they are well fed, safe, and rested, all mammals will play spontaneously (Brown, 2010, 42). Play it turns out is how animals, and human, prepare for socialization. They learn social cues, problem solving skills, and have chances to practice these skills. That being said there are many different types of play, and each focuses on different skills. Attunement Brown (2010) defines attunement as the type of play that occurs during a childs first few months of life. In this type of play parents and their children will have mock conversations, with the child making eye contact and taking turns with the parents exchanging facial expressions and sounds. Looking as brain scans during this time shows that parents and babys brains are in sync. Brown argues that this is the most basic form of play. It teaches children how to form healthy emotional attachments to the people around them, and helps to speed the development of the right side of the brain which is felt to be essential to later emotional regulatory activities, risk-taking decisions, and social judgments (Brown, 2010, 83).
EXPLORING PLAY BASED LEARNING
Body and Movement Play This play, Brown argues, infants start in the womb. The kick, the wiggle, they put things in their mouths, they throw things. Rather than being simply random movements, these behaviours promote exploration and learning... learning about self-movement creates a structure for an individuals knowledge of the world (Brown, 2010, 84). Therefore it is through play that babies learn, making play an intrinsic learning tool. If attunment is the most basic form of play, then movement is the foundation on which all play is built, since it is essential to all forms of play (Brown, 2010, 84). Object Play This type of play involves the manipulation of objects. It includes anything from putting together a puzzle, to crumpling paper to toss it into a basket. Object play with the hands creates a brain that is better suited for understanding and solving problems of all sorts (Brown, 2010, 86) Imaginative Play This is where children play pretend. They will make up stories, create imaginary worlds and people, pretend to be different people, and naturally and energetically move freely back and forth between reality and pretend (Brown, 2010, 86). This type of play helps children to develop their imagination, which in turn will help them with their planning skills. They will be able as adults to imagine the future. It also helps develop empathy, understanding, and trust of others, as well as personal coping skills (Brown, 2010, 87). It allows us to imagine how others feel, to place ourselves in their shoes.
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Social Play This type of play focuses on the interactions between people and can be broken down into three sub categories: friendship and belonging, rough-and-tumble play, and celebratory and ritual play. Friendship and belonging. Before children play with each other, they begin by playing beside each other. This eventually develops into more cooperative play. Children learn to work together, and compromise, by listening to each other and incorporating their ideas into the play activity. Kids hear other contributions and come to understand other points of view (Brown, 2010, 88). If they dont learn to listen to others they are soon left alone. Rough-and-tumble play. Rough-and-tumble play is often describes as play fighting. It is where children pretend to fight, both sides being on equal standing, and enjoying themselves. It is through rough-and-tumble play that children learn about physical boundaries. It is necessary for the development and maintenance of social awareness, cooperation, fairness, and altruism (Brown, 2010, 88). It has been linked to possibly teaching children how to control violent impulses. Celebratory and ritual play. This type of play is not initiated by children, but most often by adults. It could be a birthday party, a dance recital, a sports game. This type of play prepares children to create a reservoir of good memories and help them develop a taste for ritual play as adults (Brown, 2010, 91). This is important because serious adult rituals are often accompanied by celebratory play, like the reception after a wedding (Brown, 2010, 91). This provides adults with an official reason to let loose and play.
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Storytelling and Narrative Play Listening to stories is often how children learn about the world, and situations they do not have access to without a story to put the information into context. Stories are a way of putting disparate pieces of information into a unified context... the drama of stories enliven us and the narrative structure tells us something about how things are and how things should be (Brown, 2010, 92). Telling stories if often how children, and adults, get information across to their peers. It is the sense of timelessness, and pleasure often present in storytelling, and our desire to continue the story that makes it a type of play. Types of play Within the Classroom Setting Artistic or design play. Artistic play encourages students to focus on the process rather than the outcome of an activity. Rather than plan out where they wish to end up, students are encouraged to explore. Children are encouraged to not have a particular image in mind as they begin, but to enjoy the visual and tactile or kinaesthetic experience gained as they are working with the materials (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 32). Controlled imaginary play/social dramatic play. Children engaged in this type of play create imaginary friends, and play fluidly between imaginary worlds and reality. They pretend to be different people, working at different jobs, and take on various imaginary roles. This emphasizes the child as a social learner because it allows opportunities to work with others, to speak to them, and listen to their contributions... [and] leads to higher order thinking in children of all ages (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 34). Exploratory play. In this type of play the child takes on the role of the explorer or investigator and is allowed to discover information on their own before an instructor intervenes and builds upon the knowledge children have discovered for themselves. This could be as simple
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as playing with magnets to discover their properties. Children often use this type of play to learn cause and effect ((Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 34) Games play. This type of play, unlike free play, is centered on rules. Everyone involved must agree upon the rules before, during, and after game play. It is often competitive, and teaches children about fairness, and sportsmanship, improve their cognitive ability, as well as their physical, emotional, and behavioural health (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 35). Integrated play. This type of play is similar to project work. It requires that students to role play, research, build, and use many different types of play at once. Play using the whole school environment and beyond. By leaving the classroom students are introduced to new environments, and learn that play is not restricted to just one place. Classrooms are not always set up in such a way that they encourage students working and playing together. Furthermore, some types of games and play require more space than a classroom will allow. Different spaces such as a gymnasium or an outdoor field invite children to conduct more active/physical play that being in doors. Physical activity is good for childrens health but it also allows children to explore their physical boundaries, test their physical and mental abilities, use initiative, and take risks and engage challenges (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 38). Going to a museum could offer children a more authentic and interactive learning experience. Allowing children to see and experience life and history themselves rather than through a television screen or the words of a teacher. Replication play. This is a type of role play where students try on new roles that they have observed in the world around them. This type of play can make an assignment feel more authentic to students. For example rather than simply watching an instructor conduct an experiment, students take on the role of being the scientist. Or they pretend to be someone from a
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book they have been reading to explore the choices the character made and what they could have done differently (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 39-40). Small world play. This is where students manipulate small worlds. This could be in the form of little girls playing with dolls in a doll house or small town, or manipulating a diorama of a scene from history. It can be used to teach students the rules of the road, social interactions, or role play (allowing students to distance themselves from the situation and view it as an outsider). Role play. This allows students to take on the roles of other people, and practice social interaction. Students build trust with each other so that they can comfortably participate in role playing. Instructors can use role play to teach students about desirable behaviour in certain situations, or to have children consider the thoughts and feelings of others by putting themselves in other peoples shoes (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 41). Virtual play. This is play done on a computer or other virtual device. It can be done with video games where children explore virtual worlds, or programs like Paint, Logo, or Scratch where children can create virtual worlds. Types of Learner Roles in Play-Based Learning Child as Autonomous Learner Students need to take ownership of their learning in order to become lifelong learners. This means that instructors should allow for students to have some choice in how they learn, and when possible what they learn. In order to do this, instructors must help students develop the strategies and skills required to be independent learners. This may not be able to happen solely through play, but may require direct instruction followed by student practice in play. It is important that students learn to become independent, and part of building that independence is
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the instructor building an environment where students feel safe to explore and that they have some control over their learning experiences. Examples of allowing students autonomy in their learning include (but are not limited to): allowing children choose the form in which they present their work, allowing children to choose who they work with on play activities, allow children to choose their resources, and allow children to choose the location (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 1618). Alberta Kindergarten Program of Studies supports this role of learning in their Principle 6 Children construct and represent knowledge in a variety of ways (2008, 5). By allowing students to choose how they construct and represent their knowledge, teachers are recognizing this principle. Child as Creative Learner It is possible for children to be creative in all areas of the curriculum if we do not see creativity as just the province of unique and truly original. How a child makes connections between facts, knowledge and skills within subjects taught can show evidence of creativity (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 18). Briggs and Hansen cite a work by Trina Bruce describing four different layer of creativity that instructors can nurture in their students: 1. Original and worldshaking creativity 2. Recreating an idea in a different time and place 3. Specialists who create ideas which are important in their feild, who may not be famous, but who contribute in important ways 4. Everyday creativity that makes life worth living (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 18). Creativity is not limited to how students produce things, or what they produce, but also in how they think. One way to foster the child as a creative learner is to have them participate in activities that require them to reflect on their thought processes. Alberta Kindergarten Program of Studies supports this role of learning in their Principle 5 Children are unique and active contributors to their learning (2008, 5).
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Child as Investigator This is recognition that sometimes in order to fully understand and learn about a topic one must first discover the information on their own. This often places the child in the role of a scientist, out to discover information about the world around them first hand Later an instructor may expand on this learning, but the importance is placed on the child discovering as much as they can on their own (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 20-21). Child as Problem Solver Children are intuitively problem solvers (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 21). It is through play that children first develop their problem solving skills: how to win a game, how to put a puzzle together, how to resolve a dissagreement during play. Play provides a safe place for students to practice their problem solving skills, often doing so using creativity. Child as Reflective Learner Children may not reflect on what they have learned naturally, thus it is important that instructors encourage and provide time for students to reflect. Reflection provides the child with the opportunity to review and internalize what they have learned. It gives them a chance to analyze their play and their work and decide what went well and what would they do differently in the future. This is an important part of the learning process, because without reflection we run the risk of not recognizing or simply forgetting what we have learned through our play experience (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 22-23). Child as Social Learner Alberta Kindergarten Program of Studies supports this role of learning in their Principle 3 Children interact and learn in a variety of contexts (2008, 3) and Principle 4 Children are coconstructors of knowledge and partners in learning (2008, 4). Children do not learn in isolation.
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They bounce ideas off of their peers and instructors, and give eachother feedback. They build support groups, and often become more willing to take charge of their own learning. Collaboration between children can help them to develop their knowledge, language and social skills (Briggs & Hansen, 2010, 23). Conclusion Play should be an important part of any classroom, K-12 and beyond. It gives students a sense of agency, and can allow for greater autonomy, both of which lead to greater student engagement. Play-based learning can also lead to learning becoming more authentic, which often means that students understand why they are learning the information and how they can apply it in their lives outside of school. The different types of play each lends a hand to student learning in a different way, and can be used to enhance student learning on different types of topics.
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Bibliography Barab, S., Pettyjohn, P., Gresalfi, M., Volk, C., Solomou, M. (2012). Game-Based Curriculum and Transformational Play: Designing to Meaningfully Positioning Person, Content, and Context. Computers & Education, 58 (1), 518-533. Briggs, M., Hansen, A. (2010). Play-Based Learning in the Primary School. SAGE Publications Ltd. Brown, S. (2010). Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. New York: Penguin Group. Carlsson-Paige, N. (2008). Reclaiming Play: Helping Children Learn and Thrive in School. Retrieved from: http://www.nancycarlssonpaige.org/articles10.html Harris, P. (2007). Developing an Integrated Play-Based Pedagogy in Preservice Teacher Education: A Self-Study. Studying Teacher Education, 3(2), 135-154 Henderson, T. Atencio, D. J. (2007). Integration of Play, Learning, and Experience: What Museums Afford Young Visitors. Early Childhood EducationJournal, 35(3), 245-251. Souto-Manning, M., & Lee, K. (2005). "In the Beginning I Thought It Was All Play:" Parents' Perceptions of the Project Approach in a Second Grade Classroom. School Community Journal, 15(2), 7-20 Stegelin, D. A. (2005). Making the Case for Play Policy: Research-Based Reasons to Support PlayBased Environments. Young Children, 60(2), 76-85.
