How an educational experiment creates motivating conditions for children to role-play a child-initiated PlayWorld

ABSTRACT

Government guidelines are demanding greater educational outcomes and intentional teaching in Australian preschools. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study of how children incorporate concepts into child-initiated play. A cohort of 18 children (aged 3.0–5.8, mean age of 4.8) were digitally observed over seven weeks (153.3 hours' digital video observations). It was found that rather than formalising preschooling to increase cognitive outcomes, the leading activity of the preschool child to play can be preserved when children experience a PlayWorld where curriculum concepts act in service of the children’s play.

KEYWORDS:

• PlayWorlds
• cultural-historical
• learning
• play
• preschool

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funded by the Australian Research Council [DP140101131; FL180100161] with assistance from Dr Sue March, Dr Yijun Hao, Hasnat Jahan, Carolina Lorentz Beltra and the teachers.

Notes on contributors

Marilyn Fleer

Marilyn Fleer is Laureate Professor and the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University, Australia. She was awarded the 2018 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council and was a former President of the International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR). Additionally, she holds the positions of an honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, and a second professor position in the KINDKNOW Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and has been bestowed the title of Honorary Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. She was presented with the 2019 Ashley Goldsworthy Award for Outstanding leadership in university-business collaboration.