Learning resources in the context of play. Promoting effective learning in early childhood

Emergent mathematical thinking in the context of play

“…For reasons of brevity, I summarise the early years curriculum in our Developmental Education approach in the following points (related to the principles laid out above, see also van Oers, 1999avan Oers, , b, 2001van Oers, , 2003van Oers, , 2004): ▪ children's learning is embedded in a play-based curriculum: in the context of manipulative or role play, some of the children's actions are articulated by the teacher and if possible imbued with mathematical meaning in the communication between teacher and child; with respect to didactics, the curriculum is fairly consistent with the starting points of realistic mathematics education (see for example, Goffree, 1993;Freudenthal, 1991); ▪ in the role-play activities, children imitate cultural practises (like supermarket, barbershop, travel agency, restaurant, etc. ), which form contexts for (mathematical) learning; ▪ learning is closely related to learning to communicate, i.e., to appropriating means for communication over specific objects in particular practises (e.g., in the context of the post office, children learn to communicate in culturally acceptable ways about money, stamps, prices, numbers, trading, etc.…”

“…With respect to their mathematical learning (measured by a Dutch standardised test for numerical achievement in young children), we could establish that children from our play-based curriculum systematically scored above the national norm for numerical abilities for those age ranges (in the last test in grade 4, the score was equal to the national norm-see van Oers, 2003), without having been trained on these operations in special lessons. We can plausibly assume that a play-based curriculum creates good conditions for early numerical learning.…”

Helping young children to become literate: the relevance of narrative competence for developmental education

“…Learning that is embedded in play activities is meaningful for the child and contributes optimally to the child's identity development. As I demonstrated elsewhere (van Oers, 2003a) play can be characterised by the format of its activity. One of the characteristics of this format is that it allows the player freedom to some extent in the choice of actions, goals, rules, and interpretations of the situation.…”

Los departamentos de orientación ante la exclusión social. Prácticas inclusivas / Guidance departments dealing with social exclusion. Inclusive practices.

“…Para ello, autores de renombre nacional e internacional en esta área como son, Escudero (2002), Van Oers (2003), San Andrés (2004, Nieto (2005), Ballart (2007), Ainscow, Crow, Dyson (2007), Adams (2008), Coffield y Edward (2008), Escudero y Bolívar (2008), entre otros, formaron parte de un amplio bagaje documental y orientativo hacia el análisis y posterior identificación de estrategias pedagógicas que, al tiempo que logran el desarrollo educativo del alumnado, favorecen su inclusión social.…”