Not All Play-Based Classrooms are Created Equally
As we work around the country, supporting teachers to implement evidence-based teaching practices within play-based classrooms, we observe a consistently wide variety of understanding and teaching. At one end of the continuum, we have those opposed to children playing at school, or those who see play as the activity children do when learning has concluded. At the other end, we have those passionate free-play advocates, who support the ideal that if children are just left alone to play, learning will occur as a spontaneous by-product of the play process. And somewhere in the middle we find truly effective, inspiring and exciting learning spaces in whichteachers are intentionally teaching the curriculum through play, gently guiding and respecting children's desire to self-direct and self-inquire about things that interest them.
While both ends of the teaching continuum can cite evidence and research to support their claims, it is important to consider the context in which both types exist. Those advocates of the didactic, top-down instructional approach are correct. There are some things children learn best when 'instructed', rather than left to discover for themselves. And those advocates of free-play are also correct. Children learn and develop many new skills when left to explore and discover without adult interference. Advocates for free-play slam the industrial model of schooling, citing the death of creativity, curiosity, innovation and initiative as victims of the traditional instructional model. Advocates of teacher-led instructional methods forecast failing achievement levels of students, particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
An effective play-based classroom environment is more than setting up a space for children to play in. It achieves a combination of a variety of teaching strategies, including moments of direct instruction and moments of child-led play. But for the most part, skillful teachers achieve a balance of adult and child-guided learning experiences. For teachers to observe the wide and valuable benefits play provides our children, significant support is required to understand the complexity of teaching skills and strategies needed in an effective play-based classroom. This support should be sustained and ongoing, because, as with children's learning, there are many highs and lows as teachers work through their own learning pits.
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