Gareth E. Miles

Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play

This paper presents research that examines the links between practitioners’ understanding of play and its relationship to learning, their pedagogic interactions with children and children’s own perceptions of their play. Previous research has shown a mismatch between practitioners’ understanding of play and their practice. This research identifies how differences in understanding of play, especially the role of the adult, by practitioners in two unrelated settings are associated with variation in pedagogic interactions emphasising choice and control. Furthermore, it is argued that these differences are reflected in differences in children’s use of the cue of adult presence as a defining feature of play and not-play activities.

The nature of adult–child interaction in the early years classroom: Implications for children's perceptions of play and subsequent learning behaviour

Within early childhood education, play is central to teaching and learning but it is considered difficult to define and traditionally definitions have been based on adult perceptions of the observable play act. However, play may be most beneficial when it is considered as an approach to a task, and based on a definition of play from the childs perspective. Previous studies have revealed that children define play using cues within their environment and one critical cue is adult presence: Children appear to be less likely to define and approach an activity as play if an adult is present. It is hypothesised that the way adults interact with children may have an effect on childrens use of this cue. This study examines adult–child interactions in early years classrooms to identify factors related to childrens use of this cue. Findings suggest that issues of control and choice communicated via open questions, and exchanges based on mutual understanding and shared control might be central to this. It is proposed that this style of adult–child interaction needs to be developed in order to co-construct a play-based curriculum to maximise playfulness and hence learning.

The consequences of virtual embodiment for the mental representation of proximity

There is evidence that knowledge about space will reflect the details of how that space is experienced and how people interact with it. In two experiments we demonstrate that memory for items is spatially structured after their locations were learnt in a desktop virtual environment (DVE). The structure was measured using interitem priming of recognition. By comparison in Experiment 2, after the same layout had been learnt using a map display, there was no evidence of spatial structuring in memory. It is concluded that the limited view of space afforded by navigation through an environment, as contrasted with the overview afforded by a map, explains the observed differences in the spatial structuring of interitem associations. Navigation through an environment leads to spatial structuring in memory whereas using a map does not.