What happens when a new materials are introduced in a preschool? Materials that the teachers are very interested in as well as the children. In the preschool the magic word is play, we talk about play based learning, we talk... [ view full abstract ]
What happens when a new materials are introduced in a preschool? Materials that the teachers are very interested in as well as the children. In the preschool the magic word is play, we talk about play based learning, we talk about play that is directed by grownups and play that is directed by children and everything in between. In this paper I present a play based project in one preschool in Iceland were I for five months both participated in developing the material, played with children and followed and discussed the development with a teacher that worked with children.
Pedagogical documentation is based on systematic and critical gathering of data (Moran et al, 2007) and was used as a research tool. Pedagogical documentation has been developed as a tool to follow children´s learning and to give children voices as well as to make their learning and experiences visible, it has been developed as a tool for teachers and children to research together, to make meanings (Malaguzzi, 1988).
The data collected was mostly videos of the children´s play as well as photos, children’s drawings and almost weekly conversations between me and the teacher as we watched the videos and discussed the progress and directions of the play/project.”
The main findings show that the play and the language connected with the play developed rapidly. The children’s ideas and working knowledge connected to physic concepts such as force, acceleration, movement and direction developed especially with the group of children that became master builders. They developed their own concepts that fitted into the play. From the beginning there was also a gender difference in who played with the ramps and marbles. The findings support that an interest from the teachers supported the development of the play.
Keywords: documentation, learning, play, preschool
