EDU40002 Play and Environment Essay Sample

EDU40002 Play and Environment

Essay Structure

Introduction: Introduce the topic and discussion points and should be no more than 10% of the total word count. (200 words)

Body: Outline the two different readings and identify the different philosophical and theoretical perspectives on the play they explore. You will then consider how the different philosophies/ theories offer different interpretations and approaches to play and in turn influence how a pedagogical approach and a learning environment will emerge from this.

Consider how the different theories have influenced the concept of play. Also consider the differing roles of the child, the teacher, the materials and the place/space. Use examples to illustrate these differences. (1,400 words)

Conclusion: Summarise the discussion and then make a final statement about your response. The conclusion should not be any more than 10% of the overall word count. (200 words)

Draw on the traditional play reading, one contemporary reading and the unit learning material to support your discussion. When you use evidence from the literature to support your arguments, cite it according to APA 7th edition style referencing conventions.

Please note: All readings and activities provided in Weeks 1–7 of the unit are designed to support this assignment. You should also use 1.5 spacing, size 12 font and APA 7th edition referencing.

Solution

Introduction

Post-human pedagogies are considered as the possibilities and educational practices for being with learning throughout the shared ways of obtaining knowledge. It refers to the way by which living beings rebuild the world by significantly impacting each other.Child learning pedagogy is about learning, teaching and development of social and cultural values which are underpinned by a strong practical and theoretical base. Reconfiguring childhood is to consider what it means to share life with others. Post-human ecological communities which are the decentered of humans in a “collective approach” are found to be invisible in the traditional developmental and critical lessons of childhood development. In this study, the post-human pedagogies of childhood nature are being analysed. Early childhood education helps in positioning the child at the centre of their own learning process and with a high degree of child-led and child-initiated experiences(Arnott, 2020).

Fig 1: Ecological Pedagogies for children
(Source: Malone et al., 2020)

Post-human pedagogy provides promising and interesting new approaches for moving towards real social transformation through the learning process. Deconstructing the child nature-culture binaries with the help of posthuman theories has gained significant attention from childhood authors. The information for management assignment expert gathered regarding posthuman education tends to blur differences between living and nonliving, human and non-human. These man-made divisions in child learning and education have led to debates. Childhood educators are required to open up in more spaces for conducting more generous opportunities regarding “interconnectedness” as an initial step towards attentive post-human politics(Malone et al., 2020). The aim of analysing post-human pedagogies is to shake the dominant position and dualistic thinking of humanism.

Discussion

Philosophical Perspectives

Educators identify children as ready and capable on the basis of primary and kindergarten entry assessments of children's social and emotional behaviour(Allee-Herndon & Roberts, 2021).In Western countries, there is a significant resurgence in education due to the redefining function of nature in the lives of children. Nature as a resource for improving the lives of children is connected directly to the continuing health issues for children who are growing up in desk-bound lifestyles.

Maintaining contact with the natural environment has helped to reduce the signs of attention deficit disorders in children and has helped in reducing anxiety levels among distressed children. Having access to natural spaces with natural views which helps in enhancing “peace”, “self-control” and “self-discipline”. Childhood potential has become a “utopian dream” where all children are required to feel safer and will provide more freedom to children who will be allowed to explore nature. Child nature reconnects depending on the socially shared belief that previous generations will have a closer and more intimidating relationship with the environment. Reconfiguring childhood in the Anthropocene is what it means to share life with other individuals. In England, Physical education is increasingly seen as subjects in which political agenda can be enacted and health and sports compete for spaces against educational aspirations(Stirrup, 2020). Posthuman ecological communities and the centre of humans in the “collective approach” are found to be invisible in critical traditional development and “socio-cultural” readings of childhood. There is a significant tradition of “play pedagogy” in early childhood learning and teachers have undertaken a passive role in the playing process of children.

Applying post-human pedagogy and engaging in concepts like sensorial knowledge, and encounters as “pedagogical principles” help to provide an opportunity to pay close attention and notice the everyday lives of children. It involves capturing the complexities and learning the potential ways of knowing and deepening the understanding regarding a particular topic. Post-human pedagogies are central for locating childhoods and children. It also helps to provide the opening for dismantling the “moralistic attitudes” and “aesthetic attitudes” to the natural environment and focusing on the protection of childhoods.

Fleer Traditional Play

According to Fleer,(2021), digital technologies have become one of the most significant saviors of the “post-COVID” world and they have sustained the previous modes of interactions in certain cases for creating possibilities to reimagine new ways to engage with the world. “Digital technologies” like social, cultural and personal artifacts tend to contribute to child learning ecologies and the use of digital technology is considered as the captivating power of the virtual. It is found that children have significantly gained a range of benefits by the use of technology like operational and technical skills which are required for an understanding of “subject-specific knowledge” in subjects like literature and mathematics. Play is not only a “physical interaction” but it is also an important part of daily activities for engaging in “social interactions” and interacting with “playful thoughts”. “Playfulness” is considered as a state of mind which helps represent a way to escape from tension and pressure(Leather, Harper & Obee, 2021).

Fig 2: Conceptual play world
(Source: Fleer, 2021)

For example, the child is expected to see the various gadgets and ask a range of questions for knowing more about how the cameras will be able to record videos. Five steps are followed for creating an imaginary play situation in front of children. At first, a story is required to be selected and a complex plot will be needed to be prepared to engage with children, designing an imaginary play space to provide opportunity to children and planning inquiries on the basis of a story plot. It is necessary to use audio to highlight the transitionL points in the conceptual play in the world to enhance the learning process. Parents and educators are required to change the “practice traditions” that children are required to participate in for the change in the conceptual competencies the child will be required to acquire. “Playworld” refers to the “fictitious world” which children and adults procrastinate to share when they dramatise and interpret the theme in classes instead of “role-playing” where everyone is free to create their interpretations.

Fig 3: Learning with Video screenshot
(Source: Fleer, 2021)

For example, the child can be shown the “Google route map” from his/her house to the kindergarten. Certain landmarks, locations and directors were highlighted to get knowldge of how digital maps will work. It will make children wonder after seeing a map like this to mark the locations. The children will redraw the map and act as if they were telling the directions in accordance with the map.

Theoretical Perspectives

“Children's Place” encounters are not based on specific features of landscapes but on the opportunities of the materials in particular locations during the encounters with children. Children under their “biophysical” constructed existence tend to apply “aesthetic effective” openness to the material surroundings. They tend to show an attentiveness towards the “sensuous enchantment” by non-human forces and it opens to surprise and grants agency to non-human entities. A bunch of photographs can be brought in front of children to make the children respond. Sensorial encounters help in leading children to new possibilities for imaging the relationship which is recognised as ecological entanglement and knowing to feel. It is necessary to analyse everyday abstract representations. Decentering the human object and blurring boundaries for nagging through other relations help to build a sense of belonging as it helps to recognise the way of already being worldly with others and disrupt conceptions of humans as bounded and closed about other human beings. Children know the world by acting and moving through it as they exist in the dynamic relations systems with the surrounding environment. Teaching children with audio-visual helps them in memorising to a better extent and improves the learning process.

Theory of Play

“Play” is derived from the children's working oy of two fundamental features of their mode of development and experience which are accommodation and assimilation. It involves attempts for integrating new experiences with a limited number of cognitive skills which are available at each and every stage (csun, 2023). According to Froebel's play theory, child-led play is the important basis for the intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual development of the child and play is the most important expression of “human development” as it is the free expression of the child's soul. Play helps children construct an understanding of the world by directly experiencing it. Playful pedagogy is vital for learning as it provides children with the flexibility to find their own solutions for new and existing problems. It helps to engage children in meaningful learning activities, thereby encouraging autonomy and motivation.

Role of Child and Teacher

Contemporary early childhood focuses on the specific ways of using new technologies to support the early learning experiences of young children in schools and homes(Arnott & Yelland, 2020). Children have the responsibility of learning the world around them, learning new skills and developing an understanding of various subjects. They possess the role of growing emotionally, physically and socially as they tend to progress in the various stages of their child's learning process. Children tend to learn by listening, observing and exploring questions. Being motivated, interested and engaged is very important for children as it can help to understand why they are learning something. Child learners can attend classes and complete reading as described by their mentor and their first role is to be passive listeners. Learning through play is considered the most important way in which children can develop(Starting Blocks, 2019). Play-based learning helps in mental, social and cognitive development. It helps in improving physical and emotional health and developing self-confidence. In Sweden, preschool is considered the most vital step for children in their training to become democratic citizens(Hjelmér, 2020).

Role of Materials and Space

By playing with materials children tend to learn about their physical properties and what these materials will be able to do in the world and how they will be stacked or moved. The sensory and aesthetic properties of materials help transform the child's play and generate opportunities without further experimentation. It possesses the ability to encourage the emergent thinking process which helps children in producing new undertakings. Material for early childhood education involves art supplies and educational movies for visual and auditory learners and building blocks for kinetic learners. Touch screen technology like tablets and touch screen whiteboards can help in increasing the interactions and learning of all types of students. It helps to make the learning real and practical for children and for the child's total development.

Space plays an important role in child development as space design tends to provide opportunities for placing a child at the centre of learning. It involves the learning environment in which the teaching and learning occur. A well-designed learning space is vital for the learning environment as it will help promote collaboration, communication and interpersonal learning in students by encouraging organic discussions.

Conclusion

“Posthuman childhood studies” help us to think for children as they engage in their daily encounters as they will take the responsibility for producing new knowledge and modern ways of thinking with the “nonhuman world”. \ Schooling and education has become the opening for thinking differently and addressing the questions. If adults are not thinking and listening to children then inevitably children will lose the most and the evolution of social power and identity is dependent on two types of “epistemic practices” for making sense of their own experiences. “Boundaries” between nature and humans in “posthuman pedagogies” will no longer have a place in the shared knowledge of how the way of knowing will come into being. The school will be a mirror of entangled and ecological views where philosophy and biology no longer support the notions of independent organisation across environments. A sympathetic view of new knowledge of all things is considered to be relational, co-producing and taking responsibility for sharing the worldly combination which will be central to such reframing of the child's learning and development. “Posthuman pedagogies” are relational ontologies that tend to reject that humans are considered the only species who are capable of creating their own knowledge and information.

References

Allee-Herndon, K. A., & Roberts, S. K. (2021). The power of purposeful play in primary grades: Adjusting pedagogy for children’s needs and academic gains. Journal of Education, 201(1), 54-63. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022057420903272

Arnott, L. (2020). Children's negotiation tactics and socio-emotional self-regulation in child-led play experiences: the influence of the preschool pedagogic culture. In Young Children's Emotional Experiences (pp. 77-91). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429289439-7/children-negotiation-tactics-socio-emotional-self-regulation-child-led-play-experiences-influence-preschool-pedagogic-culture-lorna-arnott

Arnott, L., & Yelland, N. J. (2020). Multimodal lifeworlds: Pedagogies for play inquiries and explorations. Journal of Early Childhood Education Research, 9(1), 124-146. https://journal.fi/jecer/article/view/114126
csun, (2023) THEORIES OF PLAY. Www.csun.edu. Retrieved January 3, 2024, from http://www.csun.edu/~sb4310/theoriesplay.

Fleer, M. (2021). Conceptual playworlds: The role of imagination in play and learning. Early Years, 41(4), 353-364. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09575146.2018.1549024

Hjelmér, C. (2020). Free play, free choices?–Influence and construction of gender in preschools in different local contexts. Education Inquiry, 11(2), 144-158. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20004508.2020.1724585

Leather, M., Harper, N., & Obee, P. (2021). A pedagogy of play: Reasons to be playful in postsecondary education. Journal of Experiential Education, 44(3), 208-226. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1053825920959684

Malone, K., Tesar, M., Arndt, S., Malone, K., Tesar, M., & Arndt, S. (2020). Posthuman Pedagogies in Childhood Nature. Theorising Posthuman Childhood Studies, 103-142.https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-8175-5_5

Starting Blocks, (2019) The importance of play in children’s learning and development. (2019, June 13). Www.startingblocks.gov.au. https://www.startingblocks.gov.au/other-resources/factsheets/the-importance-of-play-in-children-s-learning-and-development#:~:text=Learning%20through%20play%20 is%20 one

Stirrup, J. (2020). Performance pedagogy at play: Pupils perspectives on primary PE. Sport, Education and Society, 25(1), 14-26. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13573322.2018.1554562