During my teacher training in college over 20 years ago, it was drilled into our heads that play was the most effective method of learning for young children. Because there is so much research behind it, I have a hard time believing that any college program would be teaching anything other than play being the gold standard. Why, then, do so many preschool programs fail children when it comes to providing opportunities for rich, engaging, and in-depth play? I have a few ideas, but first, here are some real-world examples of teachers who need a little guidance to get back on the path to play-based learning.
“Their parents aren’t paying for them to just come and play”
This interaction happened with a teacher who’d had only 3 students show up for school that day. 45 minutes into class she poked her head into my room to vent about how hard it was to keep 3 students busy. “Their parents aren’t paying for them to just come and play” she said, after telling me that she had already gotten through all of the activities in that day’s lesson plan and didn’t know what else to have them do but play.
How I responded:
She was quite taken aback when I said “Actually, that’s exactly what they should be paying for them to do”. It’s our jobs as the experts in education to provide children with a learning environment that is developmentally appropriate, and it is our job to educate parents on what that looks like. During the preschool years, it looks like play. If parents don’t understand why they should be paying for their children to come to school to play, then we’re failing to communicate with them about what is most developmentally appropriate for their children.
“He refuses to do his work, so I just make him sit at the table while the other kids play”
This teacher had the routine of providing 20 minutes of direct instruction, followed by 10 minutes of play (YIKES!). Her student were seated at tables and the expectation was that they would complete each of the academic activities she provided before being allowed to engage with the toys. One of her students had become increasingly agitated during the work period until he eventually refused to do the work. Her response was to make him sit at his table and watch the other kids play as his punishment. Her perspective was that he was capable of doing the work, so his refusal to do so was based in purely in defiance.
How I responded:
I gently pointed out that she had created a power struggle for herself. Rather than providing her student with an abundance of the thing he needed most (play), she was using it as a bargaining chip and finding that she still wasn’t winning the battle. We discussed what this boy’s interests were (building and architecture) and I encouraged to her embed the skills she wanted him to practice into play. At the time, he was particularly struggling with writing, so it was no wonder that sitting in front of a worksheet was the last thing he wanted to be doing. When she shifted gears and gave him a “field notebook” and pencil, he became quite eager to draw and, later, use invented spelling to make observations and plans for the things he could build with the block set at school.
“If you don’t have time to do everything, make sure you get the worksheets done first”
This comment was made during our beginning-of-the-year teacher meeting, when our director goes over expectations for the year. One of the teachers asked for clarification on how much of the lesson plan she was expected to complete each day–she felt that she didn’t have enough time in the day to get to it all. The response from our director was “If you don’t have time to do everything, make sure you get the worksheets done first”.
How I responded:
In the moment, I didn’t. There is a time and place to offer disagreement with an opinion, but calling out the director in front of all of her staff did not feel appropriate. I understood her perspective–she wants to be able to send home “proof” to the parents that their children are learning something at school–but I strongly disagreed with her method. At the beginning of every school year, I inform my parents that research strongly favors play as the most effective way for young children to learn, therefore they will be seeing significantly less paper schoolwork coming home from my class than they may have seen if they attended our school the year before . The progress they will see in their children will manifest itself in far more relevant ways than a worksheet with the letter ‘A’ traced 20 times.
“Sometimes I let my kids play, but most of the time we are too busy learning”
This one made me chuckle because it felt like the epitome of a teacher who had completely forgotten about the benefits of play.
How I responded:
My response here was simple: “I always let my kids play because I love to see them busy learning”.
So, how do teachers get to the point that they’ve all but forgotten play?
I think there are several factors at play. First, I know that in my area, there is a strong demand from parents (because they aren’t experts in education and don’t know any better) for academic preschools. Their intentions are good–they want their kids to have a strong foundation to start kindergarten with–but they don’t understand what executing that looks like. Directors fall into the trap of designing their program based around what parents seem to be looking for, rather than designing developmentally appropriate programs and then educating parents on why it is the very best choice for their child.
Second, the demands placed on children in the early elementary years have increased tremendously in the decades since I was beginning school. The information children are expected to know when they enter kindergarten (which is a whole different post) has put pressure on preschool teachers to speed up the learning process and replace play with rote learning of letters and numbers. When my two youngest children started kindergarten, a questionnaire I filled out asked if they had attended preschool, and if so, where? Preschool directors know that their reputation is on the line if half the kids in a kindergarten class had previously attended their preschool, and none of them know all of their letter names and sounds. There is definitely competition in the preschool realm to produce the “smartest” kids.
Third, play-based learning isn’t as simple as just setting out a bunch of toys. Being able to embed learning across all domains into play takes practice. It’s a skill that doesn’t always come easy to every teacher. Access to digital resources has shot through the roof in recent years and it can be so much easier to hop onto Teachers Pay Teachers to find a cute printable to teach a particular concept, sit kids at tables, and instruct them on how to work through the worksheet or activity. Unfortunately, the time and effort saved on the teacher’s part ends up costing the student valuable learning.
Many teachers are also uncomfortable with being an observer. Their expectation of being a teacher is that they would be…well, teaching. Sitting back and letting kids learn through their own discovery may feel a little counterintuitive at first, but learning to become an effective observer something every educator should have on their list of skills to master.
While these are the most common reasons I my area, I’m sure there are numerous other reasons why teachers find themselves far from the play-based learning environment. Those of us who know better need to be willing to stand up for and defend play-based learning, especially among our colleagues that may have shifted into a different way of thinking. What are some ways you’ve advocated for more play in your schools?