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Education Scotland have been advocating a play based approach to teaching and learning for many years now. Below is a summary of each building the curriculum document, that give us a clear research based mandate for a play pedagogy approach. This highlights WHY play is important to children's development, achievement and overall wellbeing. We now have Realising the Ambition as our key national practice guidance for play pedagogy, however the background importance of these BtC documents remains.
Curriculum for Excellence rationale
Curriculum for Excellence rationale
"Children learn by doing, thinking, exploring, through quality interaction, intervention and relationships, founded on children’s interests and abilities across a variety of contexts. All combining to building the four capacities for each child.’ ‘Environments that offer differential play and challenge, staff who are well informed and able to challenge learning, child-centred and building on previous experiences, fun absolutely essential, children planning and evaluating their learning."
"Research indicates that developmentally appropriate practice is most conducive to effective learning. For example, it suggests that there is no long-term advantage to children when there is an over-emphasis on systematic teaching before 6 or 7 years of age. A key message is that approaches to fostering learning need to be flexible to take account of the needs of the child, and will change as children develop."
"Overall, however, a move like this from a pre-school setting to Primary 1 too often provides an abrupt transition for children which can prove damaging for some children’s confidence and progress. It is important to achieve a greater continuity of approach, together with a greater emphasis upon matching support and experiences to children’s differing needs. In practice this means reviewing the pattern of the Primary 1 day. It means:
> deciding when teaching is the most appropriate way of promoting learning for different groups of children
> considering the use of available resources including classroom assistants, parents and additional teaching staff to support active learning through play
> targeting staffing resources to help children to develop, contextualise and practise skills. making use of the capabilities of children to initiate their own learning and to work together
> using staffing resources to provide extended periods of learning through play for some children
> planning the careful development of literacy and numeracy skills supported by a strong and continuing emphasis on oral language and development."
Young children are partners in the learning process, actively participating in the planning, shaping and directing of their own learning"
Designing a framework for the pre-school stages and P1 :
> children are fully engaged in their learning, which is interactive, purposeful and defined within the outcomes and experiences
> the learning environment is relaxed and supportive with opportunity for observation, interaction and further exploration of interests and activities
> the learning environment is imaginatively resourced and stimulating, with opportunity for engagement in exploratory and spontaneous play
> imaginative use of space and resources creates opportunity for children to work independently or collaboratively
Children and young people will benefit from opportunities to build and apply their skills in more practical contexts. In the early years, active learning is an appropriate way for children to develop skills and knowledge and a positive attitude to learning. Active learning is learning which engages and challenges children’s thinking using real and imaginary situations. It takes full advantage of the opportunities for learning presented by:
> spontaneous play
> planned, purposeful play
> investigating and exploring
> events and life experiences
> focused learning and teaching
Active learning should continue beyond the early years.
These practical approaches to learning must not be seen as a ‘bolt-on’ or alternative form of provision but part of an integrated experience. Experiences must be relevant and meaningful for all young people, providing them with opportunities to develop a wide range of skills across the curriculum.
For learners to demonstrate that their progress is secure and that they have achieved a level, they will need opportunities to show that they:
> have achieved a breadth of learning across the experiences and outcomes for an aspect of the curriculum
> can respond to the level of challenge set out in the experiences and outcomes and are moving forward to more challenging learning in some aspects
> can apply what they have learned in new and unfamiliar situations
High quality interactions between learners and staff lie at the heart of assessment as part of learning and teaching. These interactions should promote thinking and demonstrate learning and development.
Learners need timely, accurate feedback about what they have learned and about how well and how much they have learned.
How better to provide high quality interaction and timely feedback than through play!?
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