Teaching to play performing a main role – effective method of pretend play facilitation in preschool-age children

Abstract

We compared the efficiency of teacher's direct and indirect intervention into pretend play. Three hundred sixty-eight kindergarten children and 92 qualified kindergarten teachers were involved in the study. In the control group, a teacher indirectly initiated a play, creating a playing corner adjusted to the theme of the pretend play and during three consecutive days indirectly managed pretend play unobtrusively intervening into the playing process in accordance with actual situation needs. In an experimental group, a teacher during the first day actively initiated pretend play and directly conducted its course performing the main role in accordance with the predefined scenario and during the next two consecutive days indirectly managed the playing process as in the control group. In the experimental group, a statistically significant prevalence of the cognitively complex indicators of the children's playing activity was found suggesting pretend-play demonstration to be an effective facilitation instrument.

Keywords:

• early childhood education
• teacher–child interaction
• mixed-aged classes
• a play activity indicator

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Notes on contributor

Vlasta Gmitrova is an inspector for preschool education at State School Inspection in Prešov, Slovakia. Previously, she worked as a teacher and director of kindergarten, and later as a professor of the Slovak Institution for Continuous Postgradual Education of Teachers, the Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Presov and a lecturer in the University of Presov. Her research focuses on the theoretical and practical questions of a children's play impact on learning process, centred on pretend play and a cognitive competence in preschool.