play_based_learning - Early Childhood Australia

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework withLennieBarblett

Introduction Early Childhood Australia (ECA) acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the original inhabitants of Australia and recognises their culture as part of the cultural heritage of all Australians. • I respectfully acknowledge the past and present traditional owners of this land. • I acknowledge the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the society we have today where we all strive to provide the best education for all of our children.

Introduction The Early Years Learning Framework is part of the Council of Australian Government’s reform agenda for early childhood education and care, and is a key component of the Australian Government’s National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care.

EYLF National Vision Childhood is about: • Belonging (being connected to family, culture, community, place) • Being (to be, to seek, and make meaning of the world) • Becoming (shaping new understandings, identities, capacities and relationships).

Structure of the EYLF

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

What is play? Generally there are a number of agreed upon characteristics: • voluntary • pleasurable • symbolic • active • process oriented • intrinsically motivated. Play is a fundamental right of all children. (UNROC, 1989)

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

Why? Play-based learning • Why is it important that we pay attention to children’s play? • What do children learn through play?

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

EYLF and play • EYLF defines this as: ‘a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations.’ (EYLF, 2009,p46)

BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT ANYTHING GOES Research tells us that educators need to be knowledgeable, active and articulate about play.

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

Play, EYLF and outcomes • Children have a strong sense of identity. • Children are connected with and contribute to their world. • Children have a strong sense of wellbeing. • Children are confident and involved learners. • Children are effective communicators.

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

Role of the early childhood educator in play: • Intentionality—knowing how to value-add. • Quality adult-child interactions (shared sustained thinking). • Different roles of the adult in children’s play . * Participant * Stage manager

* Parallel player * Play Assistant

• Teaching to support play. • Challenging unfair or unjust play.

* Script writer

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

The role of the environment in play-based learning: • planning with children and families • Being, Belonging and Becoming reflected in the environment • aesthetics • empowerment and agency • communicability of spaces

• provocations • temporal environment • thinking about safety and risk.

Play based learning and the Early Years Learning Framework

References •

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). (2009). Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra, DEEWR.

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Dockett, S. & Fleer, M. (1999). Play and pedagogy in early childhood: Bending the rules. Marrackville, NSW: Harcourt Brace.

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Frost, J.L., Reifel, R.S. And Wortham, S.C. (2006) Play and child development. (Third edn). USA: Prentice Hall.

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Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B. (2004). The effective provision of pre-school education (EPPE) project: Findings from preschool to end of Key Stage 1. United Kingdom: Sure Start. Available at: www.surestart.gov.au or www.ioe.ac.uk/projects.

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Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Feeney, S., Moravick, E., Nolte, S. and Christensen, D. (2010). Who am I in the lives of children? An introduction to early childhood education (Seventh edn). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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United Nations (1989). The convention on the rights of the child. New York: UNICEF.

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Van Hoorn, J.L. (2007) Play at the centre of the curriculum (Fourth edn). USA: Pearson Merrill