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GORDON ELDRIDGE: LESSONS IN LEARNING
How Playful Should an Early Childhood Classroom Be?
By Gordon Eldridge, TIE Columnist 03-Nov-14
Just how much “direction” or "guidance" to give students is one of the quintessential questions of our profession. What should be delivered through direct instruction? What should be learned through a process of inquiry? And just how structured, or guided, should that inquiry process be? There is certainly growing evidence that a clear learning purpose is an important starting place for effective learning. But what does this mean in the context of early childhood classrooms, where many would argue that play is one of the cornerstone pedagogies supporting learning? Some see the evidence supporting a clear learning purpose as an argument in support of more direct instruction in early childhood classrooms. In a more nuanced view, Deena Weisberg, Kathy Hirsh-Paske, and Roberta Golinkoff argue that one of the most effective ways to achieve specific learning goals with young learners is through “Guided Play.” In their recent article in Mind, Brain and Education, they review the research base and give some guidelines for what it means to use guided play as a pedagogy. What does the research say? • In a review of 164 studies, Alfieri, Brooks, Aldrich and Tenenbaum (2010) found that “assisted discovery approaches trump the kind of learning that emerges from more unassisted pedagogies” (Weisberg et al. p. 105). • In a study where preschoolers participated in interactive reading activities designed to support them in learning new vocabulary, one group received 30 minutes twice a week of a reading protocol. The other group received 20 minutes of the reading protocol and then 10 minutes in which they engaged in guided play related to the new vocabulary items. Despite equal time spent overall on the tasks, the group that had the 10 minutes of guided play significantly outperformed the other group (Han, Moore, Vukelich, and Bell, 2010). • The use of direct instruction when students are faced with a novel situation may limit the ways in which children approach the situation, and therefore the amount they can learn from it. Two groups of young children were given a new toy. One group was shown one of the toy’s hidden functions. With the second group, the instructor pretended she did not know anything about the toy and then accidentally discovered one of its hidden functions. The first group did less experimenting with the toy, spent more time on the function that had been demonstrated, and discovered fewer of the toy’s hidden functions (Bonawitz, Shafto, Gweon, Goodman, Spelke, and Schulz, 2011). • In general, the evidence seems to suggest that playful approaches that incorporate adult scaffolding are more likely to lead to academic learning outcomes with very young learners than either direct instruction (where the teacher explicitly tells students to do things) or free play (where there is little or no adult guidance). So what does “guided play” look like in practice? In general, when guiding play, adult scaffolding may include initiating the play situation, constraining the play context in a way that is more likely to achieve the learning goals, and maintaining a focus on these goals “even as the child guides his or her own discovery” (Weisberg et al. p. 105). In particular, this may include adopting strategies such as: • Preparing the environment • Co-playing together with the children • Commenting on children’s discoveries • Introducing new vocabulary in the context of play • Asking open-ended, probing questions • Drawing children’s attention to the consequences of actions they have taken • Exploring materials in ways children may not have thought of The authors suggest that the reason guided play is such a successful pedagogical approach is that it helps the child narrow down what they need to pay attention to, so that they can focus more on the elements relevant to the particular learning goal. At the same time, the play situation allows the child to be more actively involved and direct much of their own learning. The teacher can therefore build on the directions the children themselves are taking and guide and constrain the play in ways that help the children focus on the elements relevant to the learning goal. This reduces distractions which can hinder learning. The debate at the early childhood level often focuses around the extremes of direct instruction vs. free play. At other levels of schooling the same extremes can dominate debate in the form of direct instruction vs inquiry approaches. It is much more helpful to view these issues on a continuum and focus our energy on considering the level of guidance that is appropriate in a particular context, and the form that guidance should take to be most helpful. References Weisberg, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K. and Golinkoff, R. (2013) “Guided Play: Where Curricular Goals Meet a Playful Pedagogy” in Mind, Brain and Education, 7 2, pp. 104-112. Alfieri, L., Brooks, P., Aldrich, N. and Tenenbaum, H. (2010) “Does Discovery-Based Instruction Enhance Learning?” in Journal of Educational Psychology, 103, pp. 1-18. Bonawitz, E, Shafto, P., Gweon, H., Goodman, N., Spelke, E. and Schulz, L. (2011) “The Double-edged Sword of Pedagogy: Instruction Limits Spontaneous Exploration and Discovery” in Cognition, 120, pp. 322-330. Han, M., Moore, N., Vukelich, C. and Buell, M. (2010) “Does Play Make a Difference? Effects of Play Intervention on at-Risk Preschoolers’ Vocabulary Learning” in American Journal of Play, 3, pp. 82-105. From October 2013.
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Comments
11/05/2014 - Artways
Concise, useful article, not only for schools but for "home learning." In place of homework at the elementary school where I teach, parents are asked to support their children's individual interests by helping them find their passions, providing opportunities for structured and unstructured play, independent reading, etc. There are often blank looks when parents are first introduced to this description of home learning.
When guided play leaves the nursery room floor and students spend more hours in school, where do parents find the tools to build on their children's interests?
Your list under What "guided play" looks like in practice is a great place to start. I'd love to see these items described with examples in a subsequent article!
