The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Learning

[Music] Welcome to Talking Teaching, a podcast brought to you by the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Education. In this podcast, we explore the latest in educational research and its translation into classrooms and into schools. I'm Dr Sophie Special. Today, we specifically focus on the role of play, an intentionality in learning. Joining me are Dr Sarah Young, Senior Lecturer here at the Faculty of Education and a researcher at Reach. Our other guest today is Nicole Pillsworth, the Executive Manager of Early Learning at Gary Victoria. Nicole is also the Chair of the Early Childhood Australian Victorian Committee. Welcome Nicole. Welcome Sarah. Thank you Sophie. Thank you. Okay, let's start here, Sarah. We'd love to know a little bit more about Reach and what is happening in that centre. We're involved in the Edge Study, which is looking at the rollout of three-year-old kinder in Victoria. Also, I'm involved in a much smaller study of intergenerational play and learning, which is working in a service that has co-located aged care residents and early childhood educational service. Central to the intergenerational programme that they've developed is play-based learning. So, it's just that it's a different cohort. It's children and the residents of the aged care service. So, they do lots of playful activities together and things that the early childhood educators and teachers have planned and also things that the aged care residents engage in. So, the children go up and join the aged care residents for bingo. So, it's very new and very focused on play, playful learning and playful interactions. I want to talk a lot more about play. Can you help us understand exactly what that is and what that looks like in the context of early childhood? Nicole? Sure. As you said, Sophie, it's incredibly complex and there are lots of different perspectives about what plays and what play isn't, who should be involved in children's play and whether it is something that is led by children for children and what the role of the adult is in that, whether it be a parent, a teacher, an educator, but fundamentally play-based learning when we think about it through the context of learning builds on children's natural curiosities. Children integrate their emotions, their thinking and motivation which assists with their brain function and their brain development through that play. And the teacher and educators role in that play is about enriching that through the interactions that those adults have with children in their play. It's not about leading the play, but at times it is about provoking children's thinking through those playful interactions. Would you like to add anything on to that as well, Sarah? Just that it's not negotiable in early childhood. It's not like other educational where play maybe happens outside of the classroom. It is the core of early childhood education, plays at the centre. If we're talking from birth to five to six that the children are in early childhood education, it happens from birth. Young children play with object place where they are, their feet on the ground, the people they interact with, how and they get a reaction when they do things. Playing with the sound of their voice, it's very sensory. And then as children get older, the imagination starts to be really central to that play. And this fantasy or we call pretend play, dramatic play occurs where children take on roles. You know, the room is no longer a room, we're now on the moon. They develop these amazing narratives and stories or within, indoor or outdoor at the setting. So it's central to what they're doing. So for us to notice, to be close, and I think to co-play with children, to actually be a co-player, this type of play, this pretend and fantasy play, this is where creativity starts to emerge. Children are creating something that didn't exist before. And for teachers to, as Nicole said, enrich that and enter that with children, but to truly listen and respond. There's a great piece of work that Angela Pyle and Erica Daniels had and we can link to it. And they talk about you don't want adults in play hijacking the play. Like Nicole was talking about it's about the child's motivation. So how do we enter that in a creative space in true collaboration rather than hijacking? So what does it look like for the teacher? Nicole? If I think about some of the settings that I'm working with through Gary and in my previous experience as a teacher, I think it's really knowing the children that are in your program. So knowing where and when it is appropriate to enter or observe and stand back and watch what's happening next. I think teachers and educators also play a really important role in provoking children's thinking and inviting different types of play in early childhood settings through the learning environments that they establish. So thinking very carefully about how they set up a space and what materials are available to children to use in their play. And for anyone that's watched children truly immersed in play, things take on a whole range of different purposes and intentions through children's play. So those materials don't necessarily have to have a closed ended purpose. They can be natural resources or open ended materials that children can make into whatever they choose to make into. So that balance of being really exploratory yet teaches as an expert what's that line of intentionality then? We talked about that, didn't we Nicole? It's that the intentionality building on what Nicole said is knowing when to step in and when to step out. But when you step in to be part of it to really have that dialogue with children because when you step in to children's play you are seeing their imagination embodied. So you are learning so much about the way they think, the way they're enact because they're embodying their imagination right in front of you. Looking at how they're negotiating in play, looking at their self-regulation, language, or seeing so much of their learning and how can you, as Nicole said, enrich that when you're in there and how do you know when actually I don't need to be here? I can step out, observe because you would never be in children's play all the time. It's not appropriate. You wouldn't have the hours in a day but knowing when to add to enrich the play and knowing when I can step out and observe or all of the other incredibly busy things that teachers need to do. Nicole, you're involved in different boards and part of gallery. You get to work with early childhood educators all the time as part of your role. What does it look like for you and what does success look like in your space for you? Great question. I think it looks very different on any given day. I think there is however fundamentally for successful educators and teachers, it is an enthusiasm that they bring to the play. They play a very active role whether or not it's intentionally engaging with children in play or observing children and noticing what next for children or co-researching with children about where to take their play next. It's about thinking about deliberate extension of vocabulary or introducing new concepts to children that they might not yet be familiar with. I think fundamentally it's a respect for the process of play. So adults and children will be engaging in this really dynamic interaction but that is very focused process. So it's not there's not an end product that is the important thing but it's the actual process and the interaction and engagement that happens during that process that is so fundamental. I think one thing that we've been talking a lot about in our play and pedagogy within Gowrie is this idea of inclusiveness. We recognise that play is an inclusive pedagogy that meets children where they're at regardless of their background whether they're coming into the environment with English as an additional language whether they're pre-verbal I think it really provides opportunities for all children to engage and it's incredibly rewarding to see children engaging with each other where they can't share they don't share a language they may never have had an experience that's the same before but they come together in this shared space of play and curiosity and intention in where they're going to take their play next. So these interactions really matter can you give us an example of what you've seen and this happening in an early childhood setting? Yeah sure actually I was at one of our services just yesterday and this particular service has a very strong connection with their local parkland that's adjacent to the service and there was a group of children out in the park and there's a creek that runs through this park and there was a small group of three and four year olds that were navigating the stepping stones across the creek from one side to the other and they were in the fantasy world as Sarah described before thinking about how to escape a dragon on one side of the creek and get to safety but within that interaction there was lots of negotiating there was lots of self-talk and encouragement provided to each other around how they were going to safely cross the creek. There were two teachers in the vicinity one who was asking very open-ended questions of those children about what they needed to think of in terms of being safe but also entering into that fantasy world about how they were going what they needed to do to be safe from the dragon as well as not falling the creek and it was just this really dynamic vibrant probably 10 or 15 minutes of interaction children between children and the adults kind of being the scaffold or the support for that interaction until the children got to the other side of the creek and ran off and continued on with the play and it became far more child-led at that point as well. Sounds wonderful how do the teachers go and plan for that were to next so that they're taking on that rich diverse the the negotiation those interactions the positivity to the next day how do they do that? Well certainly I think one of the key roles is that collaborative way that teachers and educators work together so often there's a dialogue at the end of that day or in the quiet and moments of that day to reflect on what was noticed where individual children within the group might be in terms of what goals they're working towards with those individual children and then the planning of where to next could be very in sort of repetition so we there's a big focus on sort of providing similar or the same opportunities for those children again to really master particular skills and ways of thinking but also adapting that learning into different situations as well so it might be through a ritual around meals or transitions that they can then introduce those same concepts at a later date too and some of that is documented through the children's learning and program documentation but a lot of that is sort of in the moment spontaneous adaptation of the program that is then captured after the fact. Sarah so a challenge in that the time spent with the children and then the time spent documenting this evidence of practice is that one of the challenges that early childhood teachers face. I think it is a challenge and I think key to being a teacher and educator in early childhood is knowing the children individually and knowing them as a group too and documenting for you know where to next as Nicole said that example that Nicole said there may be something that came up there you can't document everything because what is the purpose of it what are you going to do with it hopefully you want to let it inform your practice that informative inform where to go next inform your practice and inform your understanding of the group of children you're with so you're not going to document everything but what are the moments that you can take from that is all that could take us somewhere else there could be a concept that's there is all we could explore that through art later we could explore that through science a bit later I know other children that are really engaged in this idea so it's you know it's highly complex being an early childhood educator it's highly complex and you watch skilled educators do it it's a joy to watch when teachers and educators do it but the challenges having too much documentation I think we've got to think who's it for who what are we doing it for what is our purpose what is our intentionality with this and is it going to be useful for our practice to actually support children and families and this is so important for all of us as educators to consider what are we documenting what are we testing what are we assessing what are we looking at what are we planning for how does gallery Victoria and the other organisations that you work with Nicole how do they influence what's happening in the Victorian setting and can you tell us a little bit more about those things that you're a part of sure I think sort of further to what Sarah was saying I think the critical piece from my perspective is that teachers and educators are actually present with children so they have authentic knowledge of children that they then use to document children's learning I think often there is this misconception that we need to be constantly documenting and therefore that takes us away from interactions with children so something that we've really focused strongly on a gallery over the last five or so years is this notion of back and forth interactions between adults and children and in my former role before I started with Gary I actually worked at the University of Melbourne in a research project that focused on an intervention through a professional learning program that looked at the impact on children's learning outcomes and educator and teacher confidence when there is a shared focus on adult child interactions so some of the key findings of that research were around the levels of confidence and therefore teacher efficacy in terms of what that meant with their interactions with children and we started to see the impact on children's academic and social outcomes when there was really deliberate intentional interactions across the child's day because I think something that's unique to early childhood is when we think about pedagogy when we think about curriculum it is from the moment that the children arrive in the morning and for some children they can be in an early childhood service for 10 or 11 hours a day sometimes longer and the learning spreads across the whole day so it might be through meal times it might be through transitions there might be really focused times where children engaging in outdoor play or they're moving between indoors and outdoor learning environments the learning is still there and it's thinking about well what is the role of the adult in those spaces through that lens of intentionality and I think when we think more about the active role that adults play in children's learning in early childhood it makes it easier for us in a lot of ways to think about what's important because it's very easy to get caught up with all of the other things like any teaching role but fundamentally it's about how we engage with children and how we notice what children are learning. What is happening in this setting right now that you're happy or you do say it's a challenge? I think fundamental to it is this notion that children are citizens and as citizens they have rights and responsibilities within their world so there is an opportunity for children to be involved in decisions that impact them. I think in the current policy setting there's opportunities as you say so for all children to engage in education and care settings that suit their learning needs and I think that's one of the challenges is around how when children are learning in groups how do we meet the needs or how do we understand the needs of all children in those settings at any given time and as Sarah said the complexity of teaching can't be underestimated in terms of the way that teachers and educators work with children with their families to understand what those rights look like and how they are then embodied within the program. Because with those important interactions taking place prior to school and those children who have not had that opportunity there's obviously quite big gaps in the way that children are starting school. That's right and that's really the foundation of a lot of the policy reform is making sure that all children can access some form of education and care in those years prior to school whether it be in a formal centre-based setting or in other settings that are appropriate for particular children in particular communities and I think the exciting thing when I think about early childhood is how the teachers and educators also work with children's families to advocate for the importance of play in children's lives as well. What's the importance of the collaboration between the early childhood setting as well as the home and the family for the child? That is vital. That link is vital. Early childhood teachers and educators are highly skilled at having, as Nicole said before, the acknowledging the families of the first teachers and gaining an understanding, a holistic understanding of the children through their families and that builds the picture for an early childhood teachers and educators to then really understand where the child is at and to teach from where the child is at. So in an inclusive way to who the children are, who their families are and that the families do not just stop at the door that they're out the community, the family is part of the early childhood service and vice versa. So supporting individual families for what their needs are, what do they need to support their family but is that for their children too? So what are you both most excited about when we look at talking about early childhood more, really raising that self-efficacy of early childhood educators being so important in the lives of children and families? I think for me it's about elevating the importance of play-based learning. I think over my experience in the early childhood sector there's been different times where the notion of play is contested in some spaces but I think if we're promoting the importance of learning for young children and we have so much research now that shows us just the impact of learning environments for children, I think where children are spending more time in those spaces with a range of different adults, be it family or professionals that we can elevate the importance of play-based learning and what it is in an effective setting and into the early years of school and the impact that can have on children's learning beyond this time of early childhood. Sarah, I'd love to know a little bit more about edge and the impact that that has in the diversity of early childhood settings across Victoria and how that translates into different settings across Victoria. Yes, we're still collecting the data in edge led by Professor Trisha Edie and what's really important about edge is that we are in a range of services across Victoria trying to understand the impact of two years of kindergarten for children. So we are in very diverse services in rural, regional and metro. So trying to paint a picture of what are the differences, what are the similarities and what are the so what are the enablers for this to occur but what are the challenges, what are the barriers that are in place at the moment and that's really important to look at Victoria as a whole. What does that mean for the organisations that you're involved with in the Colm? I think Gary Victoria, in particular, is in a unique position in the sense that we deliver early childhood services across metropolitan Melbourne but we also have a range of coaches and consultants that work with services across Victoria in different contexts, really rural communities, regional communities, but there is this kind of core level of consistency about we know what's important and we always come back to what the evidence says is important and that guides the work not only of our teachers and educators but also those coaches and consultants that are working with other services across Victoria. So reach and those organisations are really important to the Victorian organisations to therefore impact. Absolutely and we really value our connections with research partners like the Reach Centre. We often will engage with them to understand what contemporary research evidence is telling us in relation to children's learning. And for our listeners we will share some of this important research, important thought leadership in this area on our website, on the Talking Teaching website so that we can keep exploring these important topics. As we come to the end of this really important conversation and if you were giving a message to our early childhood teachers what would each of you say? Certainly from my perspective and I guess I also draw on a very long career in the sector having started as a teacher. What I've noticed that is so important for teachers and educators wherever they are in their career is this notion of going slow and when we slow our practice down we really notice what's important for children and their learning and also for our own learning as teachers and educators because that's so important for us to see ourselves as learners alongside children as well. But I think if we can remember what's important and why we do what we do with young children and their families that helps us focus on the really important pieces. Sarah, I'm what about for you? For me too, starting off as a teacher and a long time ago and building on what Nicole says I think that idea about change and teachers and educators, directors of managers of service, we are in a process of reform in Victoria with the role that of three-year-old kindergarten and four-year-old kindergarten that increasing. This is a huge moment in time to as was said before to elevate early childhood education but also the teams that need to be in play for teachers learning to occur. For a teacher to develop practice, change, challenge there needs to be a really strong team wrapped around that teacher. A teacher doesn't teach on their own so that idea of teams, collaborative teams, supportive teams really strong early childhood leadership I think is vital because the service is as good as that leadership and the team that they support and work with and of course with children and families. So I would say is to embrace that change but also acknowledging that we've had a lot of change in early childhood so it's not always easy and there's sometimes that tension that can occur is actually a good place to start. So long as you have a supportive team that is willing to grow with all of the people within that time. And with the role out of three and four-year-old kinder, being so significant and so impactful, what do you see as future possibilities? I think for someone that's worked in the sector for a long time, I think the possibility that early childhood education is recognised for the important role that it plays in a child's life and I think often that gets downplayed or has done in the past but I think this is an opportunity to really elevate the impact that high quality early childhood programs can have not just on the children that engage in those programs but also for the workforce that work within those programs as well. Yeah, let's really hope that society really starts to absolutely embrace early years and early childhood educators and those settings as being so important. Final thoughts from you Sarah? I think that to elevate the role of play and how important plays in society, children just don't play at home or play in early childhood, they play on the streets as they're walking in the space between home and early childhood, home and the supermarket in the supermarket. So for us in early childhood to really articulate why it is so important and what are they learning in that in the play space? So I think it's an exciting time for play. Thank you both for being here and sharing your insights today. We will share the links online so that you can all access and learn more from today's important discussion. You can subscribe on all podcast platforms. Thank you to our entire podcast team. Talking teaching would like to acknowledge the Cool and Nations. True owners, caretakers and custodians of the land from which we produce and broadcast. We pay respect to elders past and present of the Cool and Nation and extend that respect to other Indigenous Australians listening. We also acknowledge the place of Indigenous knowledges at the university and in education. This episode was recorded at the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Education in August 2024.