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Unit Learning Objectives

Explores the characteristics and principles of teacher-led and child-led learning.
Analyze their practices as educators.
Practice shifting between teacher-led and child-led settings through role play.

Lesson 3.1: Teacher-led Vs Child-led Learning

Managing a learning environment sometimes is challenging. As educators and parents we usually shift between "A Very Structured" learning environment and "A Very Loose" one. Structured is defined as the teacher is the one leading the learning path, she is the sender and the child is the receiver no matter what state they are in. A well structured learning environment will feel very rigid with a lot of learning but min student engagement. On the other hand, sometimes we just follow the child lead and scaffold his curiosity to learn. A very loose learning environment may be will be looking as ciaos with little learning and high student engagement.

At the part of the course, we are not selecting which one is the optimum learning environment rather that identifying them so we can utilize each according to the learning objective. Below is a diagram defined by Project Zero at Harvard University advocating play for learning at Kindergarten level.

Swim Suit and Winter Coat!

It's the type of play where the teacher is very observant of the child interest. The place is rich with tools and resources that get the learner attention and accordingly initiate a play then the teach join and scaffold their learning through the play. An example for that is a child named Adam.

"Adam is a very active and kind boy, whatever topic you start discussion with him on, her starts sharing what he knows about that topic. One day, he went to school and was a little bit grumpy. The teacher asked him about his morning and his reply was that it's too cold and he doesn't like winter. Later on in the pretend play corner, the teacher found Adam pretending to be a swim suit and he asked his friend to be a winter coat. The teacher was observing the boys playing and each is bragging about what they can do in their weather. The teacher though it would be a good learning moment for the kids, she stepped in and started asking questions like, where can we go in the summer and what can we do in the winter. During the pretend play "the winter coat" and the "Swim suit" was the responders.

The role play took around 10 mins, but Adam loved winter afterwards and he was longing to go home to tell his mom that he is OK with the winter as long as they will play in the snow and drink hot coco afterwards. Reflecting on this scenario, the learning outcome of this role play is cognitive, social and emotional. Adam leaned new facts about seasons, he had good communication with his teacher and friend and he doesn't feel bad about winter any more. This is an example of a Classroom Rich in Child-Initiated Play.

The Jumping frog!

It's the type of play that start with the teacher introducing a concept and the child engage with that concept through activities and play. An example for that is a child named Noah:

"Noah was in the classroom today, his teacher prepared a story about (Frogs) habitat. She got a small water tank and a frog from the pet store to make the class engaging and fun. The teacher objective for the kids was to get them familiar with where the frogs live and some basic features of frogs like color and movement.

Noah and his friends in the class were not interested in the teacher's frog. When the crafts time started, the teacher found that the kids started to make head hats looks like frogs. The children colored it in green and started jumping across the classroom pretending to be frogs running out from the water tank.

The teacher returned back to her follow up notebook and she checked the learning objectives for today's class about frogs."

This is a real scenario about a teacher who structure a learning objective and she is flexible to shift around with tools and activities to help learners connect with the concepts. This is an example for a Playful Classroom with focused learning.

In your journal,

Which classroom model of the 4 have you tried earlier and which one would you prefer to try, Why?

Types of play

Through Different theories and classification of Play, I've collected the most common forms that are present in learning environments. Each form of play can be used for learning. Through this course our focus is on Socio-Dramatic play (Role play) where kids interact with others and start making connections about their understanding.

Socio-Dramatic play is considered the highest form of symbolic play, dramatic play involves the child representing an object with another object. an example for that are the stories of "The Jumping Frog!" and "Swim Suit and Winter Coat".

Exit ticket to Unit 4

Now let's try to design a game for learners and share it on your Journal.

In your upcoming class with your students go prepared to try either Classroom Rich in Child-Initiated Play or A Playful Classroom with focused learning and share your experience by replying these questions:

Which type of classroom model did you choose to try? and what form of play was included?
What learning outcome do you think you achieved?
describe the experience briefly in the form of a story "similar to "The Jumping Frog!" and "Swim Suit and Winter Coat" way
What can be done better next time?

After filling your Journal, Go to Unit 4.

References

Pedagogy of Play at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2019). Introduction to Playful Participatory Research and Advocating for Play. President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Extended Resources

If you would like to have extensive knowledge about using play for learning, you can check this course on UDEMY:

The Power of Play and its impact on early childhood learning