Playful structure: a novel image of early years pedagogy for primary school classrooms |
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Authors: | Glenda Walsh Liz Sproule Carol McGuinness Karen Trew |
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Affiliation: | 1. Early Childhood Education, Stranmillis University College , Belfast, UK;2. Psychology, Queens University Belfast , Belfast, UK |
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Abstract: | Playful structure is a new pedagogic image representing a more balanced and integrated perspective on early years pedagogy, aiming to blend apparent dichotomies and contradictions and to sustain and evolve play-based practice beyond Year 1. Playful structure invites teachers and children to initiate and maintain a degree of playfulness in the child’s whole learning experience, even when the learning intentions demand a supportive structure. Thus, playfulness becomes characteristic of the interaction between adult and the child and not just characteristic of child-initiated versus adult-initiated activities, or of play-time versus task-time. The paper is based on intensive observations and interviews with teachers in Northern Ireland who participated in a play-based and informal curriculum. This paper explains how playful structure rests on complementary processes of infusion of structure into play-based activities and infusion of playfulness into more structured activities, illustrated by cameos. ‘Infusion’ suggests the subtle blending process that allows apparent dichotomies and contradictions to be resolved in practice. |
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Keywords: | play-based pedagogy early years primary teacher education |
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