Importance of children's play: the Croatian experience of future ECEC teachers

ABSTRACT

Play is an indispensable component of the human experience, and it is as old as humanity itself. Considering the academic perspective of early childhood education as the first step in education, the understanding of play is imposed as a challenge in the perception and analysis of play in the formal education of future ECEC teachers. In order to effectively apply development strategies and support to children's play, an online survey was conducted on a sample of 277 undergraduate students of Early Childhood Education Program in the Republic of Croatia. The research results indicate the possibility of further improving the understanding of children's play by providing support to future ECEC teachers in organizing practicums, projects, and outdoor lessons, in which students would experience examples of good practice and practice rooms in which they would simulate play situations and monitor and analyze them.

KEYWORDS:

• Competencies
• children’s development
• early childhood
• education
• play

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The paper was created as part of the institutional project ‘Play, Health and Technology in the World of the Young’, which was approved by the Faculty of Educational Sciences of Juraj Dobrila University in Pula.