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Tag: Free play
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Free play III
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.
Categories
Free play II
Game, as Huizinga mentioned (1984), is a voluntary activity with spatial and temporal limits, based on a freely accepted rule and a goal. In it, feelings of joy, tension, as well as the awareness of experiencing something different from what is happening in life, are developed. This activity, quite the opposite of the fame it has received in education, is not a harmful occupation that should be reduced. Free play is fundamental to children’s development, therefore should not be the activity they have access when they have finished what the teacher considers academic because it does not allow them to carry out an activity that is very necessary for their growth. Besides, the game should not be used as a pseudo-game to work on curricular content because it loses its essence and denatures the activity (Hoyuelos, 2015). In this sense, it is necessary to be clear about the idea that the author explains that playing is uncertain, unpredictable activity and this is what makes it so fascinating. In these moments of free play children imagine what might happen, they feel differently, try things out, imagine, etc. Children use the game to go through paths that otherwise wouldn’t be possible (Hoyuelos, 2015).
Furthermore, through play, children put into practice their ability to see everything around them from a poetic perspective, even when the topics are as complicated as loneliness, abandonment, friendship, etc. On many occasions children use play as a tool to address all those topics not considered for children. However, we are not aware of the great capacity for understanding and poetic process, which is surprisingly natural, that children develop through play to deal with such topics that we consider inappropriate for their age. Another characteristic of this activity is that it is typical of childhood because adults can not play, we try to represent it in the best possible way, but we do not be part of the game as children do. We may, therefore, be constantly asking ourselves what the purpose of this is, as if it had to be an activity based on logic. This does not mean that the game is incoherent, on the contrary, those who are immersed in it are able to perceive and interpret its meaning (Hoyuelos, 2015)
On the other hand, at the moments of free play children will be influenced by their age and the materials provided. They may develop pre-symbolic or symbolic play, although the latter increases between the ages of two and five (Gallardo & Gallardo, 2018). Moreover, it is essential to bear in mind that different types of materials lead to different types of play.
References
Gallardo, P & Gallardo, J.A. (2018). Teorías sobre el juego y su importancia como recurso educativo para el desarrollo integral infantil. Revista Educativa Hekademos, 24.
Hoyuelos, A. (2015). Cultura de la infancia y ámbitos de juego. En Hoyuelo, A y Riera, M.A. Complejidad y relaciones en educación infantil. Barcelona: Rosa Sensat.
Huizinga, J. (1984). Homo Ludens. Madrid: Alianza.
Authorship
Sofía Cuevas Llorente y Lucía Martínez Gutiérrez, 2020.
Categories
Free play I
In the 31st Article of the Convention of the Rights of the Child it is established their right to have a spontaneous and free play. Moreover, Molina (2008) declares the transforming power that this kind of play has on the children, for it is through this type of activity that they represent their own reality. Since in Early Childhood Education our goal is the whole growth of the children, free-play must be seen and taken into account as a right and a need that helps that process. Therefore, it is essential to recognise the value of this moment while not forgetting the school context.
The teachers of Early Childhood Education consider free-play as an educational moment that favours the evolutive growth of the children. Hence, there is more implication from these professionals when observing and evaluating this moment as an educative activity. Nonetheless, in the school reality, the lack of help from the administrative team, the possible judgment of the families and the limit that the school hours impose are the main barriers that the professionals have to get over to be able to offer spaces and moments of meaningful and rewarding free-play to the children (Mañós, Balagué, Virgili, & Montalá, 2019).
From our own experience as teachers in the practicum, this moment, the free-play, was not taken as a valuable one. Instead, it was carried out in the spare time when the kids had finished their assignments. Form another point of view, the free-play acquires a strict concept as it is guided with a lot of rules imposed by the teachers. This changes its dynamic and it turns it into a guided activity where there is no place for the children’s experimentation and creativity. Therefore, their needs are not fulfilled.
Free-play, according to Cuba & Palpa (2015) and with our agreement as students of Education, are as follow: it is a natural and individual process given that the kids are the protagonists of their own actions; through the symbolic play children can create their own conceptual schemes; this must be an enjoyable and pleasant moment for the children; it must have a flexibility that allows the kids to do and undo everything as the want; finally, free-play is not a way through which the children obtain a goal, but it has meaning in itself. All these characteristics can and should be applicable to an Early Education classroom. Therefore, we believe that we must leave behind the concept that the free-play
is something the kids can do when there is nothing left to do, but a moment that has a meaning in itself.
And now, we will present to you a design of a free-play documentation that we can do in our classrooms of Early Childhood Education. This will be a guide about how to document this natural process in the school context.
First of all, our study subject will be our own Early Childhood Education classroom, specifically a classroom of three years olds. Our main goal is to do follow up of this group throughout the nine months of school period. The documentation will be done using a register notebook in which we will write down the visible behaviours that we may believe are more meaningful while free-playing.
The end of this process will be presented to the families of the children through an expositive panel, which will be exposed at the entrance of the classroom, and will be updated every month. In addition to this, we will use a PowerPoint presentation which will be shown to the families in every trimestral meeting. This format will allow us to add photos and videos that will guide the narration of the story that will be told. Each of these formats will answer to certain needs and different moments.
Given that free-play is more productive and enjoyable when presented with certain natural and spontaneous scenarios we will offer some that will be adequate to the kids and efficient when documenting. These proposals will be followed by these rules. First of all, free-play must have a time assigned within our classroom schedule. It is essential that this process of playing does not take place in the same classroom every single time, therefore the children can have the opportunity of experimenting in other places such as the playground, halls, other groups’ classrooms, library. This process will help the kids acquire a sense of continuity that will reinforce their sense of belonging to the school and to the group that they are in. It is also very important that the resources given to the kids (toys and other materials) are available and accessible to the children for them to make use of them.
As teachers, we try to interpret and explain the meanings behind the actions of the kids while the process of play occurs. From a more objective point of view, we will tell systematically, the actions that take place while playing. So, the information that we be shown in the panels, will be more objective. This means that, once every meaningful fact
(if possible) is written down in our notebook, they will be selected attending to the following questions: what did theydo? how did they do it? with what? with whom? When did it happen?
Nevertheless, with the trimestral meeting PowerPoint presentation we will be showing a more subjective perspective of the interpretations of the kids’ actions when they play. This presentation will answer to the next questions: why did they do it? why didn’t they do that? why does each child act in a different way to the same stimulus? what do they want to achieve? This way, we try to inform the families about the innate behaviour of childhood through free-playing and our pedagogical interpretation of it.
We will present the information, as we mentioned earlier, through an expositive panel and a PowerPoint presentation. The first one will be presented in an A3 paper. We will attach photos of the children playing with a brief descriptive text of what they are doing. These will be in a chronological order. Whereas the PowerPoint presentation will be more of a visual support to help the families follow the story that the teachers will be telling with it (photos and videos). This way of presenting the information will also help the families understand the meanings and representations that their children’s actions have when the interact in a natural environment such a free-play.
To sum up, we would like to point out the importance of documenting and making visible the daily practice of playing in school. Furthermore, we urge to rethink, reinterpret and reflect about what happens in school so we can make some changes and aim to a better and more productive, as well as enjoyable (for the children) future. Also, we aim to make the families aware of their kids’ actions in school since they do not act the same way in different contexts.
References
Cuba, M, N. L., & Palpa, M, E. (2015). La hora del juego libre en los sectores y el desarrollo de la creatividad en los niños de 5 años de las IEP de la localidad de Santa Clara.
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.
Molina, J. A. (2008). El Placer y el Displacer en el Juego Espontáneo Infantil/Pleasure and Displeasure in Children’s Spontaneous Play. Arteterapia, 3, 167-188.
Unicef. (2006). Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño.
Authorship
Alejandra Albo, Claudia Biancotti y Verónica Cuesta, 2020.