Playward the way forward!
Sharmila Govande
I have often read articles and heard many educators promote play as crucial for the overall development of a child. (The February issue of Teacher Plus also carried an article on ‘The Adaptive advantage of Play’ wherein the author dwelt on the developmental and educational benefits of play.) Play as quoted by many is essential for physical, mental, emotional, and social development of children and keeping children away from play hampers their development. These articles also encourage the use of play in everyday classroom situations without giving much thought to the challenges teachers experience in bringing ‘play’ into lesson plans and using play as an effective medium to teach a particular concept.
Play for me, and most others, is a free-willed, pleasurable activity which may or may not be organized and structured. Play is beyond the bounds of any extrinsic goals other than enjoyment and fun and is spontaneous and voluntary and when something is fun, the noise levels are high and the atmosphere is filled with sounds of excitement. This understanding of play is one of the main reasons why many teachers like me face this dilemma of how to introduce ‘play’ as a medium of learning in our daily class sessions. Under pressure to keep up the discipline in the classroom and keep the noise levels down, we take the easy way out, separate play from the teaching-learning process and restrict play as an activity to be engaged in after completion of work or during a separate time slot. The difficulty also arises due to space and time constraints. Space constraints are not only limited by classroom area, but also in the kind of furniture used and the environment in the classroom. The writing board facing twin desks cover almost the entire classroom leaving little space for free movement. The time taken to arrange and rearrange the furniture before and after class is time consuming and cumbersome too. The problem of time and space can be sorted through careful prior planning. Some ways to resolve this are: using break time to arrange classrooms or conducting the session in a different room or timing the rearrangement and seeking children’s help to rearrange it during the first and last five minutes of class.
The other challenge is in the dichotomy we face. On the one hand, there is the common notion that children need teacher direction and on the other hand, research that points out that self-initiated, free willed play provides the best learning context. This dichotomy can be sorted out through a marriage between free play and teacher intervention making ‘play in classrooms’ goal directed, organized, and structured. Keeping attuned to Vygotsky’s theory that children cannot create their reality in isolation but in the social context of capable peers and adults, the teacher can organize and structure play activities to facilitate goal defined learning and thereby keep the focus on constructing knowledge together instead of mere giving and receiving of knowledge.
There is also the question of when to introduce a play activity and how the teacher can use play effectively to meet the learning objectives. My personal experience suggests that play activities work best while introducing a concept and during review. A game often heightens the curiosity levels and increases the excitement. For example, ‘house house’ can be used to initiate many concepts such as family, professions, community helpers, etc. Play used during review and revision helps the teacher assess ‘how much they know’ in a stress free and enjoyable way. For example: Provide the children with manipulatives on the concept being learnt (dolls and toys representing family life) and observe how they play with them freely and thereby review the mastery of certain skills and their understanding of concepts. This will make learning enjoyable and a fun experience vis a vis a stressful and high pressure encounter.
Keeping the goals in mind, the teacher has to create the right setting for play, choose manipulatives, pay attention to placement of furniture etc., and decide whether she wants to tell the kids what to play or give them a free hand in deciding what to do. Play can thus be directed by the teacher overtly or can be disguised as a free play session. For instance, the teacher can provide a set of manipulatives (toy house, dolls, kitchen set) and ask the children to play ‘house house’ (directed play) or using the same manipulatives the teacher can let the children play whatever they want (free play).
The teachers are also perplexed about using this medium as learning through play is not fixed and may vary from child to child. Teachers, who are governed by a fixed syllabus, find it difficult to standardize learning through play. A process of review and reflection comes handy here. For example: in a goal directed activity of ‘house house’ – children with nuclear families may not know about extended or joint families. Children living in a typical patriarchal family may not know that mothers too can have a career and can work outside the home. The teacher then needs to play a crucial role in guiding children in constructing a group summary of all the observations, experiences, questions, and insights of the children.
Using play as a medium of academic learning can thus be very challenging. However careful planning, preparation and facilitation can do wonders. Benefits can be seen not only in terms of learning levels but also in the class environment as the class becomes highly charged up with excitement and enthusiasm for learning. Hence a thumbs up for changing old practices and bringing ‘play’ into classrooms.
BOX 1: Play Activity
Play with patterns!!
Age group: 5 – 6 years
Objective: To teach the child to make patterns and complete the patterns
Skills: Concentration, sorting, making patterns
Materials: Pebbles in different colours
No. of sessions: 3
Procedure
- Session 1: (free play) Provide the children with a bag of pebbles. Give them space and time to play freely with the pebbles. The only instruction to be given – ‘play with these pebbles. Do whatever you want with them within the space allotted to your group.’
- Session 2: (play with specific instructions) Start with a simple pattern (a white pebble, a blue, again a white and then a blue). Ask the child to copy the pattern. Next change the pattern using different colours. Ask the child to recreate this one. Do this four
to five times. Next, instead of copying the pattern ask the children to add the next pebble. Gradually increase level of difficulty by increasing complexity of patterns. - Session 3: (Specific instructions yet freedom) Ask the children to explore and create their own patterns.
Facilitate the learning experience by asking questions related to their creation. What have the children made? Why have they chosen this particular pebble and pattern?
**It is important for the teachers to accept the children’s answers and appreciate them for their creation and the thinking behind their creation.
Variations: You can do the same activity using different objects and different types of patterns. You can do the same activity with younger children using big objects and using more repetitions.
Creative BIZZZZ!!!
Age group: 5 – 6 years
Objective: To give the children an opportunity to explore their own creativity
Skills: Creativity, patterns
Materials: Provide children with various objects such as twigs,
leaves, paper clips, plastic spoons, pebbles, straws, etc. (you can use any objects found in the routine environment of the child)
Procedure: Give the children all the materials and ask them to create something using those items. Give the child about 10-15 minutes to create and then ask the child to describe what s/he has made. If s/he is unable to make – give a few hints or make something along with the child.
Variations: As the child gets comfortable and is used to creating something, give him themes to work on. This helps him/her organize their thoughts and focus on a goal.
The author is an education and social development consultant residing in Pune. She can be reached at sharmilagovande@gmail.com.
