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The importance of listening to children’s perspectives has been emphasised in a wide range of recent research, using a variety of strategies. This paper explores the use of drawing as a strategy to engage with young children around the topic of starting school. It describes the approaches we have used, examines the benefits and challenges we have encountered and discusses implications of using drawings as a strategy for engaging with young children (aged 4–6 years) in research.
This article is a theoretical discussion on the dimensions of learning in play and the dimensions of play in learning, using the playful interaction between children and teachers as a starting point. From an empirical study observations of two situations were chosen, one from a mealtime and one of children's play, both typical examples of playful interactions between teachers and children. The aim of the analysis was to detect and understand whether play and learning could be involved and how these dimensions might be expressed by children and teachers in the interactions. In research, as well as in the preschool practice, play and learning have been kept apart. Today the difference between these two concepts seems to be less well defined Joy, creativity, creation of meaning and children's possibilities to control and form goals are especially pointed out as dimensions that all seem possible and important in both play and learning. Play is pointed out as an important part of the learning process, and the teacher's responsibility for play and learning has been elucidated in new curricula. Our analysis of the observations shows that although both of the situations were different in character, dimensions of play and learning were found in each of them. In our first example the act of play and learning was to follow the child, while the second one deals more with an act of both words and actions, and focuses on children's interest in order to make them involved. Encouragement, imitation and communication become prominent in both of the situations, as well as joy, creativity, creation of meaning and children's possibilities to control and form goals. The study highlights the importance of the teachers when it comes to the development of a situation of interplay, and how this situation will appear to the children. Play and learning are dimensions that stimulate each other and could be seen as an indivisible entirety, which is a part of children's experiencing, and which helps them create an understanding of their surrounding world in a lifelong process.
Children's drawings are researched and theorized for many reasons and through a variety of methods. The results present a variety of ways in which children's drawing is understood. This paper challenges the time-honored order of things in producing knowledge of children's drawing by rejecting the belief that a theory of children's drawing must be extrapolated from a theory of drawings made by children. It argues that conditions apply to thinking about children's drawing as an entity in its own right that cannot be satisfied through explaining or understanding the drawings it produces and that the only satisfactory way to accommodate all the conditions pertinent to knowing children's drawing is to accept that it exists as social practice.
Results of a study focused on using a Day Care Center Toy and Interview Questionnaire to obtain information about preschool children's perceptions of their day care experiences are summarized. Fifty‐eight preschool children from a variety of day care centers were interviewed about their liking for day care, selected problem situations, day care activities, and behaviors of their teachers. These children were able to express their thoughts and feelings about day care with the Day Care Center Toy and Interview Questionnaire through role playing, manipulation of objects, and verbal expression of concerns. Interscorer agreement in evaluating the interview data ranged from 92% to 100%. The Day Care Center Toy and Interview Questionnaire shows promise as a means of aiding early childhood educators in obtaining information about preschool children's perceptions of their day care experiences.
The ancient dispute over the appropriate role of work versus play in the lives of the young rests on assumptions of children's original nature. Those committed to an innate goodness position have been strong advocates of freedom and play; while those distrusting children's natural instincts have pressed for social control and disciplined work. This paper scans the historical antagonism and contemporary views on the function of play. It suggests that a rapprochement can be struck if we consider play and work on an overlapping continuum rather than as polar opposites. At the center of the continuum—play/work—children take pleasure in activities that they have initiated, but those activities are purposeful and culturally sanctioned. When the home takes responsibility for cultural transmission, play/work is an ideal target for early educational inputs. The ideal must be modified, however, as responsibility for social acculturation shifts toward day care programs.
Using qualitative methods of participant observation and in-depth interviewing, this research explored kindergarten and first and second grade children's perceptions of classroom activities. Young children perceived classroom activities in terms of what they considered to be work and what they considered to be play. Children identified many messages they received from the classroom context, their peers, and their teachers that contributed to their distinctions. Distinguishing elements included the obligatory nature of activities, the cognitive and physical effort required, the involvement and evaluation of the teacher, and the fun children experienced while engaged in activities. Children saw some activities as “in-between” work and play. A work-play continuum is presented that incorporates children's characterizations.