Early Childhood Education Commons^™

The Importance Of Play In Early Childhood Education, Melissa Irvin

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This literature review stresses the importance of play for all early learners. The review begins by discussing the history of play and its impact on the evolution of family dynamics over time. Studies have shown that playing provides a safe and necessary way for young learners to be able to practice and experience a variety of life skills, including problem solving within a peer group while gaining and enhancing language skills. Through daily play, young children gain valuable life experiences through a variety of roles that will support growth and ultimately translate into adulthood. According to research, play is an …

"When Do We Play?": Administrator, Teacher, And Parent Perceptions Of Play In A Catholic Kindergarten Classroom, Aimée Eva Ramirez

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Educational reforms have created a climate of accountability and high academic pressure that has resulted in a pushing down of the curriculum into early childhood education. Once a prominent pedagogical feature, play is disappearing from kindergarten. The following is a doctoral dissertation that studied administrator, teacher, and parent perceptions of play and its role within the kindergarten curriculum at a Catholic elementary school in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Using a qualitative case study method, the study noted how play was utilized in transitional kindergarten and traditional kindergarten classrooms at the school site. Interviews, classroom observations, and document review of school …

Are We Doing Kindergarten All Wrong?, Karen Barsness

Empowering Research for Educators

Kindergarten within the American educational system little resembles the original ideals of its founder, Friedrich Froebel (Muelle, 2013). As our society embraces the “more is better” mantra, this ideal is seeping into our educational system, and most notably into our kindergarten classrooms. As academic kindergartens replace social-centered kindergartens, the teaching of mathematical and grammatical concepts has resulted in the loss of free play and exploration therefore changing the whole kindergarten landscape (Curwood, 2007). While the United States shifts to academic kindergartens, there is an equally notable shift in Finland that is revolutionizing kindergarten in its devotion to kindergartens’ original intentions: …

Play As A Social Justice Issue In Early Childhood Education, Britt Kroll

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Play is a vital part of the early childhood experience to develop in cognitive and social-emotional realms. Schools are taking away an important tool for children to process new information and build skills needed for lifelong problem-solving by allowing less time for play in early childhood classrooms. This research combines data gathered to show the unique benefits of play in both cognitive and social-emotional areas, as well as qualitative data collected in a play-based and a non-play-based classroom.

The research defends the importance of play-based learning in early childhood and equips teachers with rationale to use play as a tool …

Constructing A Sense Of Story: One Block At A Time, Joanne M. Robertson-Eletto, Smita Guha, Marina Marinelli

Graduate School of Education Publications and Research

This photo essay focuses upon the literacy practices of two groups of preschoolers as they built, illustrated, and dictated stories in response to their participation in a “Castle Project.” Data, including literacy artifacts, photodocumentation, sociodramatic play scenarios, and conversations are qualitatively analyzed, coded, and evaluated over a three month period. We use a narrative approach to describe the three- and four-year-olds’ talk, actions, and ideas, and the ways block play facilitated their sense of story and motivation to write. We suggest a reciprocity of thinking between the building and composing processes. Preschoolers’ story ideas, we deduce, were conceptualized and rehearsed …