Investigating and learning from toddler play in a children’s museum

Abstract

Wales, UK. She has had a varied career as a speech and language therapist, early years teacher, lecturer and play therapist. She has worked for many years at the University of South Wales teaching and researching different aspects of play and has had the delight of supervising Marina-Eleni for her Masters dissertation which has formed the basis of this article. Marina-Eleni Elpidoforou, Play Instructor at Playgroup-Hellas, Therapeutic Play Consultant and seasonal Helper at Techniquest-Cardiff, has worked as a preschool teacher and a museum interpreter in a children's museum. She is a graduate of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens at the Faculty of Early Childhood Education and recently completed her Masters in Play and Therapeutic Play at the University of South Wales. She is currently working as play and therapeutic play instructor and preschool teacher.

What American children's museum mission statements say about Lifelong Competencies

“…Understanding why something is valued, rather than only what is valued, increases the likelihood for people to engage with it. While parents more often enter the children's museum with entertainment motivations than educational agendas (McInnes & Elpidoforou, 2018), viewing the visit more holistically might help them reframe their visit to align it more with the children's museum's mission, and, thus, experience greater benefits.…”

“…Creativity is supported by a plethora of new and diverse experiences, materials, opportunities, and people, and the freedom to explore them (Amabile, 1989; Golinkoff & Hirsh‐Pasek, 2016). The children's museum is a free‐choice environment that caregivers are motivated to visit because they are creative places (McInnes & Elpidoforou, 2018) and offer materials and settings that they cannot at home (Weiland, 2015). Additionally, evidence suggests that creativity is more often displayed outside of school than in school (Runco et al., 2017), and systematic review has pointed to the benefit of out‐of‐school environments, including museums, on creativity (Davies et al., 2012).…”

Young Children's Engagement with Objects in Science Museums: A Rapid Evidence Assessment of Research

“…23 further papers presented qualitative studies investigating how children and adults/peers construct learning together. Of these, 15 papers reported ethnographies and/or case studies of individual children or museum spaces (Anderson et al, 2002;Anderson et al, 2008;Carr et al, 2012;Carter, 2018;Degotardi et al, 2019;Della Croce et al, 2019;Dooley & Welch, 2014;Eckhoff, 2008;Faria et al, 2015;Letourneau et al, 2020;Lifschitz-Grant, 2018;McInnes & Elpidoforou, 2018;Piscitelli & Penfold, 2015;Rönkkö et al, 2016;Watson et al, 2002). Two papers reported action research with teachers and museum educators (Clarkin-Phillips et al, 2014.…”

Perspectives on Inclusion: Close Encounters of the Creative Kind

“…The idea of bringing education into public spaces such as art galleries is not new, in 1971 Illich argued that children and young people should be encouraged to access a range of learning opportunities within alternative sites to schools where diverse methods and pedagogies can be applied. This call has been taken up over the past few years by a range of education researchers working with different age groups (Briggs Kemeza 2019;McInnes and Elpidoforou 2016;McKeown et al 2016;Wewiora 2019) because of the benefits for learning: 'Art museum educators and teachers who participate in art museum/gallery visiting experiences with young children all play important roles in ensuring successful encounters with art and the multiple learning opportunities that can take place for children before, during, and after a visit' (Terreni 2015, 730).…”