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Feature of the month

2019-10-23

Hello everyone,  

As you know, the DRDC features our colleague’s work on a monthly basis. We would like to keep you all posted on our colleagues’ great work related to research. This month, we are featuring a paper published by Alfredo Bautista, Malikka Habib, Anthony Eng, & Rebecca Bull (2019). Purposeful play during learning center time: From curriculum to practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(5), 715–736. doi:10.1080/00220272.2019.1611928

This article explores the correspondence between the vision of play articulated in Singapore’s national kindergarten curriculum framework and the play-related pedagogies enacted by teachers on the ground, particularly during Learning Center Time (LCT). Influenced by neo-liberal ways of thinking, the curriculum states that purposeful play is a medium to achieve intended learning outcomes. The study is part of a longitudinal project where 108 Kindergarten 1 classrooms were videotaped during a full “typical day” (3-4 hours).

Originality: There is limited observational research focusing on what LCT looks like in preschool education settings, particularly in Asia, where the emphasis on play within formal education settings has been traditionally minor. In Singapore, where this study was conducted, the national curriculum framework argues that LCT is the ideal setting for children to engage in ‘purposeful play’, a perspective on play that lies midway between free and structured play (Pyle & Danniels, 2017). To the best of our knowledge, there is no published research focusing on what purposeful play looks in Singapore preschool education.

Rigor: While learning centers were set up in all classrooms, only 36 LCT episodes were identified. Certain learning center types (literacy, arts) were more common than others (numeracy, science), and time spent by teachers in the different centers varied widely. Children were allowed limited freedom of choice while playing in learning centers, and some were even required to complete assignments. While teachers tended to adopt facilitative roles, quality of instructional support provided to children was low.

 

Significance: We conclude that pedagogical practices during LCT in the observed classrooms do not adequately reflect the curriculum’s vision of purposeful play. This theory/practice gap might be due to curriculum expectations, teacher-related factors (beliefs, lack of preparation), and parental pressures. Implications, limitations, and lines for future research are discussed. While the body of literature on play is extensive, this study contributes its unique focus on purposeful play during LCT in preschool education, as well as its emphasis on the relationships between curriculum and pedagogy within the context of an Asian nation. The study is significant because of its breadth, as our team observed high number of classrooms (108 K1 classrooms) during a full teaching and learning day. An important contribution is the fine-grained coding schemes designed to achieve our research goals, which other researchers will be able to apply in subsequent studies focusing on LCT.

Want to know more?

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220272.2019.1611928