Play-based Teaching And Learning

The greatest breakthrough in kindergarten curriculum reform in China is to recognize the important values of play to children and teachers in their learning and development and to establish the important role of in the kindergarten curriculum.However,the relationship between play and teaching as well as the relationship between play and learning in practice,is always confusing.This study aims to explore the relationship between play,teaching,and learning,and its internal logic,through studying three typical play practices in three kindergartens.Reviewing the literature on 'teaching through play' and 'learning through play',and after inspired by the on-site survey of kindergarten's play practices,this study identified three typical play activities from the kindergarten curriculum implementation in China,and they are free play,free exploratory play,and play-with-rules.Based on theories such as 'Constructivism','Zone of proximal development','Structuration theory' and the 'Emergent Curriculum',explores the'teaching' and 'learning'in the different types of play practices.This study identified the case study pathway and used methods such as interview,observation,and text analysis to collect the case study materials.The three sub-studies(free play,free exploratory play,and play-with-rules)were studying three separate cases of Anji County Kindergarten of Zhejiang Province,Zhijiang Zhonglu Kindergarten and Nanxi Kindergarten of Shanghai.The case study focused mainly on three fundamental issues:First,in the organization and implementation of different types of play activities,how do children study,and How to reflect the teaching of teachers.Second,what are the relationships between different types of play and the curriculum field,and how to achieve the balance of the curriculum field.Third,what are the professional competency requirements of different types of play for teachers,and how do teachers grasp.Our research found out that,First of all,from the perspective of children learning opportunities in the play,and all kinds of play are full of learning opportunities.Study mainly occurs in the exploration of understanding the characteristics of unfamiliar play materials,the self-challenge of being familiar with materials through repeated operation,and the trial-and-error of solving problems.The experience that children gain in the play covers all fields of course learning,and the value of study lies in the field integration and individual variation of experience gained.Secondly,from the play-based teacher teaching point of view,and all kinds of play have the opportunity of teaching.Teaching is mainly reflected in the penetration of teaching objectives in the process of creating play environment,and teaching is sensitive to the relationships between the experience that children gain in the play and the curriculum field,which is conductive to seeking for the appropriate opportunity to generate teaching.And teaching objectives can be achieved by helping children to sort out and enhance the experience.Thirdly,from the perspective of the professional requirements of the play for teachers,the common requirement of the three kinds of play for teachers is the observation and analysis and teaching judgment of children's play behavior,but different kinds of play have different observation requirements for teachers:the free play has relatively high requirements for teachers' random observation,and the free exploratory play and the play-with-rules mainly reflect teachers' purposeful observation.Three kinds of play have different requirements of the creation of play environment for teachers.The free play only needs to input materials in an open way,and the free exploratory play and the play-with-rules must be designed to different degrees of structure according to the teaching objectives.Finally,from the perspective of the actual effect of the teacher's combination of play and teaching,children experience aroused by the creation of play environment covers all course fields.However,teachers emphasize children experience in the curriculum fields at the expense of neglecting other things.In the case,most of the learning stories written by teachers involve the field of scientific cognition,and few of them involve emotions and learning quality.Teaching that is based on different kinds of play and generated by teachers also has its own emphasis.The results from the research shows that,play can promote better learning and development for children and teachers and they accompany each other to achieve their development.Therefore,the free play,free exploratory play,and play-with-rules constitute an important way for the kindergarten curriculum implementation,and they are important platforms for teachers' professional development in China.