Deborah J. Ranz-Smith’s research while affiliated with Mount St. Joseph University and other places

Teachers are asked to examine the potential opportunities for connecting themes of childhood play to the skills, habits of the mind, and principles of the disciplines. A comparative analysis of the explanations of first graders and the perceptions of their teachers, in separate focus groups, revealed a disparity in the significance of narrative play as found on the playground. Practitioners are challenged to uncover meaningful connections between play and school curricula.

Synthesizing research with practice in a meaningful manner continues to be a challenge, particularly in relation to securing the place of play in the school setting. The struggle for early childhood teacher educators in dealing with the realities of this research-to-practice dilemma requires constructive action. A theoretical framework that is embedded within Howard Gardner's (200716. Gardner , H. 2007. Five minds for the future, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. View all references) Five Minds for the Future is recommended, along with strategies for the practitioner in the field and implications for the teacher educator.

The value of play seems inherent to the understandings of early childhood, but teachers of young children in the elementary grades have rarely been studied as to their attitudes toward play (Wing, 1995). The research explored teacher perceptions of the role of play in learning and the implications for practice. The study involved 4 first-grade teachers from 2 diverse socioeconomic school settings. The pheno-menological work followed a qualitative format of interview with an analysis of related documents. Although the instructors held a common value for play in the development of young learners, they did not make a corresponding provisions for such in their classrooms with the exception of 1 participant. Varying perceptions of the definition and place of play resulted in differing levels of willingness to include child-initiated play that were spawned within the educational contexts. These perceptions led to the inductively realized outcome variables of instructional goals, student products, and classroom climate. Dewey's (1916) view of work and play, Bredekamp and Rosegrant's (1995) Continuum of Teacher Behaviors, and Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action provided frameworks for deductively understanding the teachers' instructional decisions.