CPP2

Curriculum and Program

Planning for Preschoolers

September 8

Minodora Grigorescu

Mothercraft College

Agenda

• What is play? History and importance of

play as related to CPP: Pedagogy of Play:

short overview and contributions of:

• John Dewey

• Jean Piaget: Piaget’s Cognitive

Developmental Theory as related to play

• Erikson

• Vygotsky

• Freud

• Montessori

• ELECT Principle #5

• Pedagogy

Start by reflecting about yourself

• How important was play in your

childhood?

• What are your best memories of play?

• Do you agree with the idea that play is

disappearing from children’s lives?

• What are some suggestions to ‘revive’

play?

Ted talk and play with Stuart

Brown

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHwXlcHcTHc

History and Importance of Play as related to CPP

Pedagogy of Play: overview and contributions of:

• John Dewey

• Jean Piaget

• Erikson

• Vygotsky

• Freud

• Montessori

• ELECT

PLAY?

Some Thoughts on Play

• Plato (429-347 B.C.), “you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

• Fröbel (founder of the concept of kindergarten), “play is the highest development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in the child’s soul…. children’s play is not mere sport. It is full of meaning and import.”

Froebel: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-froeb.htm

John Dewey (1859-1952)

"Education is not preparation

for life: Education is life

itself."

Before John Dewey

From: http://deweyprogressiveeducation.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

John Dewey and Play • “Pioneer of play” – Dewey recognized the power

of everyday experiences for young children

• Believed child's own instincts, activities, and interests should be the starting point of education

• Founded the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago in 1896 - greatly influenced American education

• Inspired by early European educators such as Pestalozzi (emphasized that children learn by doing), and Fröebel (recognized the value of play in children's development)

John Dewey and Play cont’d

• Dewey classroom: children were allowed to move freely in and out of the classroom to explore their surroundings

• Learning important skills (e.g. problem solving, language, and math concepts) through active exploration

• Education for Dewey = truly child-centered

• Teachers were trained to observe children's interests and help them follow through on those interests.

• Teachers and children - "learners together."

Images from Dewey’s Lab School, courtesy of: http://deweyprogressiveeducation.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Images from Dewey’s Lab School, courtesy of: http://deweyprogressiveeducation.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Geography room: sandbox, posters on wall, hands on activities

PT: Dewey tossed out external discipline

• introduced free and directed play

• ideas evolved from the child’s play

• children learn through experience

• concrete experience through use of manipulative materials

• wanted children to be continuously motivated to be excited about learning

• play allows children to explore society and nature

John Dewey and Play cont’d

What is John Dewey’s Relevance to Play? "When we look at early childhood classrooms today, we see children

building language skills as they share snacks with classmates,

learning important science concepts as they water and care for plants, and developing math skills as they cook up a special

treat for lunch. All these commonplace preschool activities stem from the ideas of a forward-

thinking and most uncommon man." - John Dewey

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) “Play is the

answer to the

question – How

does anything

new ever come

about?”

Piaget

Children build cognitive structures (ie. mental “maps,”

schemes) to understand and respond to their

environment

Piaget believed that cognitive development in children

depends on 4 factors:

• Biological maturation

• Experience with the physical environment

• Experience with the social environment

• Equilibration: biological drive for an optimal state of

equilibrium between your cognitive structures and your

environment (Duncan, 1995) (more to follow)

Piaget and Play cont’d

PT: Piaget changed the view of how a child learns

• Piaget believed a teacher not just transmitter of knowledge. The teacher was also an essential observer and guide to helping children build their own knowledge

• Children’s play: a tool for enhancing intellectual growth and for consolidating newly learned behaviours

• i.e. Through play, children organize their experiences in the world and are more able to adapt to their environments

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory → Play

Piaget assigned developmental stages of play that corresponded to his stages of cognitive development in children:

• Sensorimotor Play Stage (birth – 2 years): Practice or Functional Play

• Pre-operational Play Stage (2 – 4 years): Symbolic Play (Productive Play)

• Pre-operational Play Stage (4 – 7 years): Symbolic Play (Reproductive Play)

• Concrete Operational Play stage (7 – 12 years): Games-with-Rules Play

Pre-operational Play Stage (2 – 4 years): Symbolic Play

(Productive Play)

• Around 2 years old, children learn to use symbols or an object to represent another object (e.g. block as phone)

• At this stage, children generally use play materials to satisfy their own purposes (thus, productive play) rather than conforming to any external standards imposed on by adults (e.g. containers hold toys, but I’d rather dump out the toys!)

• Over time, children’s play outcomes become increasingly recognizable to adults (e.g. dress/undress a doll, fill/dump sand pail)

• As children start to construct things (e.g. block towers), their play outcomes and products become more lifelike, more recognizable reproductions of objects in real life

Pre-operational Play Stage (4 - 7 years): Symbolic Play

(Reproductive Play) • Reproductive play – more advanced form of symbolic

play

• At this developmental age, children can represent remembered events, images, and actions using different media (e.g. camping: see it in their art, in pretend play)

• This type of play increasingly represents what children understand or want to understand about their environment and experiences

• Near the end of this stage, children become increasingly skilled at using a range of media (e.g. art, drama, music, language to represent the real world and their experiences)

Erikson (1902 – 1994) "It's a long haul bringing up our children to be good; you

have to keep doing that — bring them up — and that means bringing things up with them: Asking, telling, sounding them out, sounding off yourself — finding,

through experience, your own words, your own way of putting them together. You have to learn where you

stand, and make sure your kids learn [where you stand], understand why, and soon, you hope, they'll be

standing there beside you, with you."

“The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love and play."

Erikson and Play • Created the Psychosocial development

theory with 8 stages of development

• Erikson believed every human must go through stages to reach his/her full development, from birth to death.

• Each stage = "psychosocial crisis”

• Crisis must be resolved at each stage before you progress to the next stage

• Stage 3. Learning Initiative vs. Guilt directly relates to play (Child Development)

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

3. Learning Initiative Versus Guilt:

• Takes place in the ‘play age’(preschool years, 3 – 5 yrs)

• During the preschool years, children begin to assert their power and control over the world by directing play and other social interactions

• Children begin to copy significant adults and take initiative in creating play situations

• They now must learn to achieve a balance between eagerness for more adventure and more responsibility, and learning to control impulses and childish fantasies

• Their mental capacity may encourage ambitions beyond their abilities

• The most significant relationship is with the basic family

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development cont’d

Positive outcome: If parents are encouraging, with

consistent guidance, children will learn to accept without

guilt, that certain things are not allowed, but also won’t

feel shame when using their imagination and engaging in

make-believe role plays. Children who are successful at

this stage feel capable and able to lead others.

Negative outcome: If not, children may develop a sense

of guilt and may come to believe that it is wrong to be

independent. Those who fail to acquire these skills are

left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt and lack of initiative.

Vygotsky and Play

• Underlines the importance of play

• Language seen as a tool for learning

• Learning from peers

FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

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FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD FREUD

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) “Might we not say that

every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, re-arranges the things of his world in a

new way which pleases him?”

Freud and Play • PT: Play was important for a child’s emotional

well-being

• Through play, a child accomplished his/her first great cultural and psychological achievement: self-expression

• Freud noticed how much and how well children express their thoughts and feelings through play

• Sometimes the child might not be aware of (or overwhelmed by) those feelings, if they weren’t dealt with by acting them out in play fantasy

Freud and Play cont’d Thus, Freud: • Play = cathartic: help children release negative

feelings caused by traumatic events and substitute them with more positive ones; resolving inner anxieties within the unconscious

• Repetitive play is especially important for this resolution to happen

e.g. child repeatedly ‘hits’ a doll and then comforts it

– Freud would view this child as working through and resolving negative feelings from being punished by a parent

Freud and Play cont’d

PT: there is value to children’s play because it allows children to express themselves, to role play, to rehearse new experiences, and fantasize about unknown worlds which strengthens their emotional well-being.

Maria Montessori (1870 -1952) “The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to

say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.”

“It is not enough for the teacher to love the child. She must first love and understand

the universe. She must prepare herself, and truly

work at it.”

Montessori and Play • Montessori - medical doctor

• Contribution: scientific methods of observation, experimentation and research to the study of children, their development and education

• Montessori observed children from different cultures at different stages in their development and identified 'the universal characteristics of childhood‘ (common in all children): – From birth to 6 years, children have ‘absorbent’ minds

– All children want to learn. They enjoy active learning where they are involved as much as possible.

– All children pass through ‘sensitive’ periods (a period of time where a child can easily acquire certain abilities)

– All children learn through play/work (ie. by doing).

– All children want to be independent

– All children pass through several stages of development

Montessori and Play cont’d For Montessori, the key components of play:

• Play is voluntary, enjoyable, purposeful, and spontaneous

• Creativity is expanded using problem solving skills, social skills, language skills and physical skills

• Helps expand new ideas

• Helps the child to adapt socially

• Helps to prevent emotional problems

PT: Play is work for the child.

Thus, toys would by their ‘tools’

Montessori and Play cont’d Through toys, children learn about their world,

themselves, and others. Toys teach children to:

– Figure out how things work

– Learn new ideas

– Build muscle control and strength

– Use their imagination

– Solve problems

– Learn to cooperate with others

Note: What happens in play should

come from the child’s own imagination

and experiences.

The right to play

• Article 31 of the United Nations

Convention on the Rights of the Child

(CRC) recognizes the right of the child to

engage in play and the provision of

appropriate and equal opportunities for

play.

Through play, children develop

competencies in all domains and sub-

domains

Cognitive: math,

science, art, music and

drama

Language

Social-Emotional:

social, emotional and moral

Physical: Gross motor,

fine motor and sensory

Children in Canada report

• http://rightsofchildren.ca/wp-

content/uploads/Key-Points-about-the-

CCRC-Alternative-Report.pdf

ELECT and PLAY

Principle #5: “Play is a means

to early learning that

capitalizes on children’s

natural curiosity and

exuberance”

ELECT and PLAY PT (cont’d):

• Bennett, 2004; Nabuco & Sylva,1996:

If preschool years focus on formal

instruction of isolated skills (e.g. letters,

numbers, sounds), children’s literacy,

numeracy, and inquiry skills may be

reduced (inability to generalize and

transfer skills?)

Pedagogy • The word comes from the Greek παιδαγωγέω

(paidagōgeō); in which παῖς (país, genitive

παιδός, paidos) means "child" and άγω (ágō)

means "lead"; so it literally means "to lead the

child". In Ancient Greece, παιδαγωγός was

(usually) a slave who supervised the instruction of

his master’s son (girls were not publicly taught).

This involved taking him to school (διδασκαλεῖον)

or a gym (γυμναστήριον), looking after him and

carrying his equipment (e.g. music instruments). • * source Dictionary

Cont’

• Pedagogy also refers to strategies of

instruction, style, methodology, setting and

reaching goals, linked to child

development and child psychology in

regards to how children learn

• Great pedagogs: John Dewey, Johann

Pestalozzi, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori,

Lev Vygotsky, ...

Martin Luther(1483- 1546)

• Martin Luther (1524) encourages parents

to send their children to school, sends a

letter to all mayors and priests to open

schools in their cities and villages

Great reformers

• John Locke ( 1633-1704)- modern

psychology, learning about individuals

• Amos Comenius (1592-1671)- theolog and

pedagog

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712- 1778)-

continued Comenius’ work, revolutions

pedagogy

• Henric Pestalozzi (1746- 1827)- the father

of pedagogy

Paradigms in education

Positivist

Interpretivist

Critical

Decostructivist

21st century and education

• Life skills

• Use of technology

• Observation based

• Following children’s interest

• Research based approach

• Innovative and practical

Take into consideration

• Abilities, readiness

• Learning styles

• Interests, motivation, multiple intelligence

• Plan with a group of children in mind

• Be process oriented

• Choose your groups wisely

How to integrate pedagogy • Structure: concepts, skills, tactics,

strategies, organizers

• Purpose: to engage students at different

levels to achieve learning through

divergent, critical and creative thinking

• Examples: individual, small group and

large group work

• Argument: to engage students effectively

and affectively active participation * Barrie Bennet and Carol Rolheiser, 2008

Active Healthy Kids Canada

2014

• http://dvqdas9jty7g6.cloudfront.net/reportc

ard2014/AHKC_2014_ReportCard_Short_

ENG.pdf

Resources for you!!!!

Active play • http://www.excellence-

earlychildhood.ca/documents/Parenting_2

011-04.pdf

• http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/ite

m/can_we_play

What do we take home? • Please think about a major change you

intend to make based on the information

provided

• http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/

bruceperry/curiosity.htm

• http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/

bruceperry/niche.htm

Slide developed in collaboration with Francine Fox from Boreal College

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/ch

ildcare/ResearchBriefs.pdf

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/pe

dagogy.html

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/ch

ildcare/oelf/

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/ch

ildcare/excerpts.html

http://www.college-

ece.ca/en/Public/Pages/professio

nalstandards.aspx

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/child

care/OntarioEarlyYear.pdf

References

• Bertrand J., Bernhard J., et all,(2006), Early Learning for

Every Child Today- A framework for Ontario early

childhood settings

• Think Feel Act

• How does learning happen?

Retrieved on June 22, 2014 from:

• http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/oelf/

Harvard videos, retrieved on June 26 from:

• http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/

videos

Thank you!

Compiled and presented by:

Minodora Grigorescu, MEd, RECE

Faculty, Coordinator of Curriculum Development

Mothercraft College

646 St. Clair Ave. W

416 483 0644 x 206

minodora@mothercraft.org