What is "Play based learning?"

What is play-based learning?

The basis of play-based learning is the idea, promoted by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, that play is a vehicle for children making meaning.

However, it does not mean that adults allow children to just muck about and do whatever they want. Rather, it involves adults guiding, extending and evaluating the child’s play to engage them more deeply with the learning process. It is an approach that gives autonomy to the child who is able to engage with their play to learn about learning.

As researchers have noted, the play and the learning are indivisible and are an important part of the child’s engagement with the world.

Play-based learning is central as an approach that meets the needs of individual children while maximising adult interaction and meaningful observations. One criticism of the curriculum could be that it does not have enough emphasis on play.

But what does it look like? Play-based learning generally involves the construction and manipulation of various materials. Ideally, adults will provide a variety of materials, and provocations, while also providing “just in time” incidental teaching. We also need to be mindful of the importance of the adult in play, understand their role, and how this can positively impact deep learning for learning, or not.

For example, a craft box may be prepared and a child may decide to make a likeness of their imaginary friend. The teacher will have conversations with the children such as, “what are you making?”, or “how did you make this part?”, “what is your friend’s name?” and “what is your friend’s favourite colour?”. Through these conversations, incidental teaching is occurring. The true power in these interactions is the adults capability in terms of the kinds/quality of questions they ask.

The building of an imaginary friend object study could be extended to further develop learning through other activities. At the same time, the child is developing their creativity as well as their literacy and numeracy knowledge. The educator is required to take on many roles, and be flexible within those roles. In addition, the child’s work will contribute to the assessment of skills and knowledge.

What are the benefits?

Play-based learning has many benefits. Several researchers argue that it facilitates learning and development. It has been described as the work of children. Play-based learning has been said to promote children’s development of problem-solving abilities. It is also believed to assist children’s developing bodily and communicative skills.

Play-based learning is thought to develop emotional regulation and children’s self-control. It is inexpensive as scraps can be used to stimulate the children’s creativity. The benefits of play in terms of fostering a child’s brain development, especially in terms of memory, language, self-regulation, academic learning and flexibility, are well under rated in our current system.

What are the pitfalls?

Most academics seem to be in agreement that play-based learning is suitable only for the early years, and how you actually define play is much debated. A further disadvantage, related to the problems with definition, is that it is often not implemented in classroom settings.

There are practical challenges too, with teachers’ beliefs influencing the implementation of play-based learning. There is also limited understanding of what play means to young children and how it progresses in early childhood.