Free-play allows the students to conduct their own actions while being the protagonists of that moment (Fernández, 2014). This process is creative and ruleless, it benefits spontaneity, creativity, imagination as well as it frees the children from the pressure they may feel and it allows them to get on in an independent way (Caurcel, 2010). Therefore, free and spontaneous play is very essential for it promotes creativity and generates pleasure in the people who participate in it (Arnaiz, de Basterrechea y Carreño, 2011).
Spanish schools, at the beginning of the 20th century started to position themselves on a more transformative and whole view of childhood; this process wanted to leave behind the rote and intellectualist approach and focus the process of teaching and learning on the children, which also helped the value of the ludic activities to be recognised (Rico, 2007).
Although nowadays the importance of free-play is well known for its benefits, it still lacks opportunities for it to be appreciated. The concept of free-play that we explain in this document is not related to the reality that this process goes through in schools. In spite of the awareness of the teachers about the importance of free-playing they are still resistant to leave time for it in class. This usually happens because these teachers still have a more traditionalist view of playing. They may see it as a spare time activity with no correlation to education. Alternatively, the goal is to not see it as a waste of time but as something rich and productive within the educational process (Rico, 2007).
Certain reason as to why free-playing lacks rich and educational purposes are as followed: lack of pedagogical training the teachers have, the lack of support from the administrative team, the opinions of the families, the pressure of the curricular content and the ratio of students per classroom.
As we mentioned earlier, teachers do not count with a strong support from the administrative team of the school to add the free-playing to their programme, as well as they are not given enough and a specific time for this activity (Mañós, Balagué, Virgili y Montalá, 2019). Moreover, Malaguzzi (2011) tells us about the need of a timeless time, without any rushes, where every kid does as they please, experimenting, building relationships and knowledge. Children have different ways of interacting with people, different ways of expressing themselves and experimenting, so, this process needs to have its own time respecting every child’s right to have their rhythm.
Having finished seeing the reality of free-playing in schools, we can conclude there is no correlation between the traits of free-playing in reality and the concepts we went through in this paper. One of these concepts is that each individual has different way of participating, understanding, contemplating, playing and interpreting and these should be done in a free context. If we allow this process to happen, we will allow the kids to create their own map through the unconscious and the mental representations of the reality (consciousness) (Abad, 2008). In a similar way, children conceive playing as their own basic way to act. Even though they do it for pleasure, the main reason behind this activity is because the feel the need to do it (Arnaiz, de Basterrechea, Carreño, 2011).
For this process to be done correctly, adults, specifically teachers, must present materials in an organised way so that it can provoke a sense of transformation in the children. In this way, the kids will be able to make the places of play their own, physically and mentally. In free-play there should be place for disorganising, destruction, reuse of materials, etc. Teachers must see this process not as an error, but as a way of getting to know the children in a more global way while using the observation as a way of documenting (Abad, 2008).
Using a real-life example, there is a proposal of a teacher of a three years olds classroom that includes a crib, a bench and some fabric. This teacher got mad at the fact that the students did not go through the materials as she had planned but instead, they went in a completely different direction.
We have to take into account that playing is not a one-room activity, but it is recommendable to take place in other spaces outside of the classroom. A more natural surrounding is beneficial thus the free-play enables the students to enjoy, experimenting and learning in a more global way. An example can be school trips in the outside (Rico, 2007).
Once we have seen the evolution of the concepts of free-playing throughout the years and the ones that we have now in the school context, we can say that students are not getting everything they can from it. Schools tend to rely on publishing houses that offer them pseud-games that are far from giving the children the liberty of action that they deserve. The fact that they kids are told the “limits” that certain materials have also limits their learning. Moreover, as we mentioned earlier, the time for creating and experimenting is overlapped by the obligatory assignments that they have to do. as a result, playing has way less time than these previous activities (Hoyuelos, 2015). Playing is not wasting time, but limiting the possibilities of reaching a full growth.
References
Abad, J. (2008). El Placer y el Displacer en el Juego Espontáneo Infantil. Arteterapia- Papeles de arteterapia y educación artística para la inclusión social, 167-188.
Caurcel, M. J. (2010). Contextos de desarrollo y juego en la edad infantil. En A. Muñoz García, Psicología del desarrollo en la etapa de Educación Infantil (págs. 176-193). Madrid: Pirámide.
Fernández, L. (2014). El juego libre y espontáneo en educación infantil. Una experiencia práctica. Santander.
Hoyuelos, A. (2015). Cultura de la infancia y ámbitos de juego. En A. Hoyuelos, & M. A. Riera, Complejidad y relaciones en educación infantil (págs. 113-130). Barcelona: Rosa Sensat
Malaguzzi, L. (10 de Julio de 2011). Carta de los tres derechos. Recuperado el Octubre de 2020, de Educación Estética… Reggio Emilia: http://reggioemiliaeducacionestetica.blogspot.com/2011/07/carta-de-los-tres-derechos.html
Mañós, R. V., Balagué, À. G., Virgili, N. A., &Montalá, M. D. (2019). Percepción de los maestros sobre el derecho al juego libre en educación infantil y educación primaria. Estudio desarrollado en Barcelona (España). Bordón. Revista de Pedagogía, 71(4), 151-165.
Rico, A. P. (2007). Consideraciones pedagógicas sobre los valores y posibilidades educativas del juego en la España contemporánea (1876-1936). Historia de la Educación, 26.
Authorship
Laura Cabeza Badía y Cristina Rojo Santamaría, 2020.