Beyond Learning and Teaching in Preschool Free-Play Centers in Daliat el-Carmel-Isfiya

Abstract

This article describes a group of Druze preschool and kindergarten teachers from Northern Israel who participated in an in-service course in their community. The focus of the training experience was to improve the social climate of the classroom by implementing a life-world approach. Analysis of their reports shows that the children's meaningful learning, improved emotional coping with ordinary hardships, and mutual social support are a product of intervention that involves multiple, interrelated activity channels: staff collaboration, guided small group discussions, informal discussions, cooperation with parents and community agents, and free play. Each activity channel is associated with a compatible, dominant, learning modality and a predominant interpersonal process-free play, for example, is mainly associated with free inquiry and discourse among children, whereas group activity is also likely to be associated with learning guided by educators.

A scoping review of research on play‐based pedagogies in kindergarten education

“…Social‐emotional development refers to the development of social and emotional competencies, including cooperative skills (e.g. Andrews, ; Tal et al ., ), social interactive behaviours (e.g. Bodrova & Leong, ; Liu et al ., ), feelings of capability (Binder, ; Lim, ), social identity construction (Chafel, ; Vollrath, ), positive peer relationships (McNamee, ) and social literacy skills, defined by researchers as the creation and navigation of social rules during play (Ghafouri & Wien, ).…”

“…In one study, through enhancing the play environment, engaging in discussions with the children, and following the children's lead with respect to current interests and experiences in their lives, researchers working collaboratively with teachers were able to enhance the quantity and the quality of children's pretend play in a kindergarten classroom, with the teachers reporting more observed cooperation, more complex discussions and more mutual emotional support among the students after the changes were implemented. The richer pretend play was reported by the teachers to have improved the overall social climate of the classroom (Tal et al ., ). Kindergarten students were also found to engage in positive social interactions during free play at a computer station, including the exchange of information, helping each other solve problems and examining things from the perspectives of others.…”

“…Researchers focused on the role of play in developmental learning emphasise the overall development of the child, including social‐emotional development (e.g. Tal, Fares, Azmi & Waab, ), general cognitive development (e.g. Hansel, ) and self‐regulation (e.g.…”

“…Bodrova & Leong, ). Researchers focused on play and developmental learning in kindergarten propose that a focus on teaching discrete academic knowledge and skills in the classroom is too narrow, since other areas of development should also be given priority to encourage positive growth and well‐being (Tal et al ., ). Many researchers have highlighted concerns that an increased focus on academic standards are resulting in a decrease in playtime and a potential increase in direct instruction, a strategy that may not be developmentally appropriate or optimal for developmental learning (Bowdon, ; Miller, ; L. Wood, ).…”

Does Theory Translate into Practice? An Observational Study of Current Mathematics Pedagogies in Play-Based Kindergarten

“…Pedagogically, the purpose of play is to support children's learning. Including children's developmental learning, such as socio-emotional skills (Tal, Fares, Azmi, & Wabb, 2008) and academic learning, such as mathematics (Ginsburg, 2006). Within the academic domain of mathematics, play has been shown to support children's overall mathematical ideas, skills, and reasoning (Griffin 2004).…”