This portfolio will help to illustrate and address how the current influences of play affect the planning and provision of learning opportunities, an explanation of how observations can respond to meet childrens needs, an explanation of the key issues

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CACHE DCCE LEVEL 3 UNIT 7

        Play and Learning in children’s education

        Andrea Fernandes

     Candidate Pin: 09/621764                                                                                    Centre Number: 306.000

Contents – Unit 7

SECTION A – PLAY AND LEARNING

        Introduction          Page 3

        E2: Current Influences on play         Page 4

        E4: Examples of theoretical models of play         Page 7

        B1: Evaluation of current influences on play         Page 15

SECTION B – OBSERVATION

E5         Explanation of how observations inform planning         Page 19

C2        Analyse role of assessment in informing planning        Page 20

D2        Explanation of key issues in recording assessments         Page 21

SECTION C – PLANNING

E3        Current influences on planning and provision         Page 22

C1        Importance of planning and providing learning needs        Page 26

E7        Two plans for curriculum activities         Page 28

D1         How planned curriculum activities promote learning         Page 28

SECTION D – WORKING WITH OTHERS

E6         Examples of outside agencies outside the setting         Page 29

E8         Consulting parents when planning         

E11        References and bibliography         

E1        Evidence & Role of the practitioner        in appendices

A1        Reflective account on the role of the practitioner …………………    Page 30

Appendices

Appendix A         

Appendix B         

Appendix C        

Appendix D        

        Appendix E        

Appendix F         

Introduction to Unit 7 – Play and learning

Introduction         

Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional wellbeing of children and youth.  Play also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children.  

Despite the benefits derived from play for both children and parents or carers, time for play has noticeably been reduced for some children.  Play helps children to learn about the environment which surrounds them.  Play helps children to feel “in charge” and then further helps them to develop self esteem.  

This portfolio will help to illustrate and address how the current influences of play affect the planning and provision of learning opportunities, an explanation of how observations can respond to meet children’s needs, an explanation of the key issues in recording assessments …

“Life must be lived as play”. Plato, Greek philosopher, 427-347 BCE

E2 – Provide information about current influences on play

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage sets standards to enable early years providers (caring for children from birth to five) to reflect the rich and personalised experience that many parents give their children at home.

All providers have an important role to play in children’s early years experiences – including out of school childcare providers The EYFS is statutory for every provider who cares for children aged five years and under; this includes out of school providers who cater for young children.

The play based nature of the out of school setting supports the EYFS Framework, which is based on the principle that children learn through play. The setting also has a role in complementing wider learning opportunities for young children.

“Children’s play reflects their wide ranging and varied interests and preoccupations.  In their play children learn at their highest level.  Play with peers is important for children’s development”

The Early Years Foundation Stage: Themes and Commitments 4.1 Play and Exploration

Computers 

All schools now have computers, as do many homes and early years’ settings. More information is stored on computers and children begin to feel familiar with computers and feel and provide various software packages appropriate for all ages and challenges children to work out difficult questions. However, is a critical concern as children can become computer addicts and spend longer times on the computer which is mainly based indoors and do not provide children with regular exercise and is a sedentary activity.  

Housing 

 

 

On a basic level, children need to live somewhere that provides warmth and shelter and is clean and well ventilated.  Sadly, these basic requirements cannot be always be met because poor housing and poverty go hand in hand.  

Research suggests that poor housing can affect children’s physical development because repeated infections stunt a child’s growth.  Higher levels of colds, lung infections and asthma are associated with poor housing.  

Poorly designed housing is also likely to result in more accidents as stairwells, balconies and kitchens may not be child-friendly.  Overcrowding and a lack of space can also make a difference to a child’s ability to play safely.  

Media         

Media has been a significant part of our daily life, a vehicle for communicating to the public as well as a source of entertainment. Magazines, TV programs, radio, billboards, news, internet, cell phones are the forms of mass media which are considered to be part of our everyday routine. Also these days, the news and the media can strongly affect parent’s perceptions on how dangerous the world is for their children and can also trigger parents to adopt paranoid parenting methods. 

Unfortunately, statistics show that the media portrays the world as a much more dangerous and perilous place than it actually is. Although the media can often be a great source of helpful information, it does not always circulate information in a balanced way, and in all honesty it is not obligated to.  The media often over-focuses on topics due to an ulterior interest in what will bring in the money.  It is not an educational institution and it can not be relied upon for a balanced understanding of life nor of the dangers that face children and a family in every day life.

Most, if not all, parents worry excessively about their children.  However not all parents act out of fear, or base the rules of their homes on fear.  This type of approach can instill an insecurity and unnecessary fear in children. If parents were to measure up the facts in comparison to the hysteria that the media can often stir up, we will find that the world is actually a much safer place than we think.

“The communication media are the different technological processes that facilitate communication between (and are in the "middle" of) the sender of a message and the receiver of that message. The mass media include newspapers, magazines, radio, and films, CDs, internet, etc. The media communicate information to a large, sometimes global, audience. Near-constant exposure to media is a fundamental part of contemporary life but it is TV that draws our attention the most as one of the primary socializing agent of today's society.”

Lack of facilities

As well as adults’ fears about the safety of children, in some areas there are fewer places for children to play because play areas have been vandalised or even removed and the play areas that have been put in place have been re-designated and has proved not to be sufficiently challenging or interesting for children.  Another barrier towards play has shown that leisure facilities and sport facilities are not accessible due to a family’s income (cost) or in terms of transport which means children lose out.  

Societal expectations

Until recently children often played outside in their streets and around their homes. Nowadays, this is increasingly rare and unsafe with the result that some children are ‘play deprived’. Despite being materially better off than many earlier generations, young children in this city today generally do far less activities, which are essential to their physical and social development.

Parental/psychological reasons

Traditionally children used to spend most of their leisure time playing outdoors fairly unsupervised in streets and in the local area provisions like parks.  Yet nowadays, there is a far larger awareness and fear of child abuse.   Yet statistics point out that the mainstream of this abuse is from people children know rather than strangers.  However, in recent years there have been many abductions and murders which make parents feel paranoid which then in turn prevent their children from playing out of their sight, which in some cases has restricted the amount of time children are permitted to play outdoors.  

E4 – Include examples of different theoretical models of how children play and learn.  

Many theorists have provided different accounts, origins and the functions and patterns of play.  The attitudes of society and images of childhood and care have also influenced the care and activities provided for children through different eras of history. Early years’ theories on plays have been updated or changed but nonetheless have significant influences on different pioneers of play.  

Until the 1800s children were mainly regarded as small adults and no special provision created for them as babies were wrapped in close fitting garments to prevent too much movement and children had to work to contribute to their family income at a very young age.  Once various laws and legislation were passed children became a burden rather than a benefit.  

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 -1827)

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi developed his theories of education in response to his experiences as a pupil and teacher. He followed the ideas of Rousseau, in particular that education was gained from nature and attempted to bring up his own son using the style endorsed by Rousseau in Emile. He rejected the formal and severe education that he had received as a schoolboy. Instead, he argued that children should learn through experience and activity in order to educate themselves.  Pestalozzi viewed a child's education just like the blossoming of a flower and compared a child to a bud not yet opened believing that children had great potential to grow. He saw education as central to the improvement of social conditions. His aim was to educate the child as a whole, keeping the focus equal on hands (doing), heart (feeling) and head (thinking).

Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own”

 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

Frederich Froebel (1782 -1852)

Best known as the creator of the kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel started his career by studying Pestalozzi's work and methods. He went on to develop his own original educational methods, with play at the centre of his theory. Froebel believed that play was a spiritual activity for children. He valued the role of play in early childhood, taking the 'natural elements' of children's play and developing them into systematised activities.

These activities he named 'Occupations' and 'Gifts'. The Occupations involved playing with natural elements, such as sand, water and mud to help develop practical and manual skills and encourage creativity.

Gifts were a series of precisely-made blocks in shapes such as cubes, balls and cylinders to help children learn about structure.

He considered them to be a gift from God and an aid to the development of children, with the specific aims of teaching the child to use his or her environment to help demonstrate the connection between human life and nature., the more the child played with the gift, the more objects he would create, the more connections he would make, and the greater his own treasure of ideas would become.

Froebel promoted organised play as well as the study of the natural world in schools. Encouraging children to use their imaginations, he helped them to practice grown-up activities. For example, a child might make mud pies, putting their imagination into action at the same time as preparing for the adult activity of cooking

“Play is the highest level of child development . . . It gives . . . joy, freedom, contentment, inner and outer rest, peace with the world . . . The plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life.”

http://www.froebelweb.org/web7001.html

Maria Montessori

(1870-1952)

Maria Montessori was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in her native country, Italy. Montessori started her career looking at children's diseases and was involved in the education of 'defective' children at her Casa dei Bambini or Children's House in the slums of Rome in 1907. During this time she developed interesting and innovative theories on how children learn.

Montessori believed all activities were meaningful for children. She did not differentiate between work and play. She believed children learn by using their senses and that they learn everything from their surroundings.

She was the first educator to develop child-size furniture and real equipment, even designing the staircase in her school to be suitable for children's feet.

Montessori wanted children to learn at their own pace and encouraged children to choose their own activities. She wanted children to be responsible for their own learning and described her method as a reversal of roles of the adult and child. She saw the role of the teacher as someone to guide and observe and believed that children learnt best through experience and repetition.

Montessori set out her teaching methods in her book ' Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children's Houses'. She developed and patented what she called her didactic apparatus for use in her schools. A measure of her and their success is that Montessori teaching methods are still followed all over the world

“Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world” Maria Montessori

Rudolf Steiner

(1861 - 1925)

Rudolf Steiner was born in what is now known as Croatia. He believed that education should be designed to suit the changing needs of a child as they develop mentally, physically and emotionally. He believed that education should aim to help children fulfil their own potential and that children should not be urged towards fulfilling the goals of adults and society in general.

His approach to learning was rooted in his study of anthroposophy, a type of spiritual philosophy that he himself helped to develop.

His approach to education was systematic, some of the main points being: allowing children to focus on play, drawing and storytelling until the age of seven; allowing children to be taught by the same teacher for up to seven years at a time; treating children as individuals; allowing children to approach learning at their own pace; and encouraging learning for its own sake, not just as a tool to pass exams.

Accept the children with reverence, educate them with love, and send them forth in freedom.”  Rudolf Steiner

John Dewey

(1859 - 1952)

John Dewey’s theory of play is similar to Froebel’s in that he thought early childhood education should be child centred which means based on the children’s interests and that they learn best through play and real life experiences and that school life should grow out of home life and teachers/practitioners’ should know their children well and observe children to then plan a purposeful curriculum.  

Dewey also believed that experiences at school should only be educational only if they are based on the children’s interests and grow out of their existing knowledge and experience. Practitioners then have the role and responsibility to help the child/children develop new skills which adds to a child’s understanding and awareness of the world.  

Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”

Rachel McMillan & Margaret McMillan

(1859 - 1917)               (1860-1931)

                   

Margaret McMillan worked in Froebel tradition.  She believed in active learning through first hand experiences and emphasized feelings and relationships as well as physical aspects of movement and learning.    McMillan believed that play helped a child ‘whole person’ and was an integrating force in learning and development.  McMillan was a pioneer in early childhood education.  She believed in the nursery schools as an extension of home and as communities in themselves.  She emphasised the value of open air and as communities of themselves.  She introduced gardens for the families to play in and explore.  She believed in partnership with parents who developed with their children in the nursery school meals and medical services and stressed the importance of trained adults to work with children.  

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She was concerned for the health and well-being of working-class children, and she stressed the need for health care with proper nourishment, hygiene, exercise, and fresh air. Her nursery allowed free access to play areas and gardens and was not predicated upon a fixed time schedule. McMillan's methods, with her emphasis on fresh air, exercise, and nourishment, still influences some aspects of current English nursery practice” (Curtis, 1998)

Lev Vygotsky

(1896 - 1934)

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian teacher, psychologist and philosopher.  Vygotsky believed that the child’s social and cultural ...

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