Teacher Education and Play Pedagogy by Eleni Loizou & Jeffrey Trawick-Smith

Author:Eleni Loizou & Jeffrey Trawick-Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2022-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Teacher’s Role in Supporting Pretend and Digital Play

In an educational context even free play allows for adults to participate. However, certain conditions need to be satisfied. An adult must not limit children’s freedom or set the rules that contradict their needs as this might destroy the play. A teacher’s participation is aimed to develop and enrich play, as well as maintain children’s play interest (Hännikainen, Singer, & van Oers, 2013; van Oers, 2013). Moderating children’s play is a skill that can be taught.

On the basis of the observation of children play, Fleer (2015) formulated a few parameters of a teacher’s actions and position in relation to an imaginary situation. Among those is physical proximity, as it makes the involvement into the play and its maintenance more natural. A study conducted by Singer confirmed the importance of the prolonged physical proximity of a teacher with a child of 2 to 3 years, which increased the engagement of a child (Singer, Nederend, Penninx, Tajik, & Boom, 2014). Conversely, negative effect was shown in the situation when an adult is only walking around children with little contact with them. Fleer (2015) described many examples of a teacher not being able to correctly understand and interpret children’s play because of physical distance. In other words, the teacher’s intentions were separated from the children’s. Alternatively, a teacher’s involvement can consist of active observation, expanding current themes of the play and suggesting new ones (Pyle & Danniels, 2017). A teacher can also participate by discussing with children the imaginary situation within play. At last, a teacher can be fully involved in the play. Hännikainen and colleagues (2013) introduced the criteria for successful involvement of an adult into a children’s role play. First, the idea of play should be derived from the children, while the adult actively participates, discusses, and helps develop the play. An adult should play and live the role; he or she needs to be emotionally involved; an adult joins spontaneous dialogues while playing the character and acts as a play partner for children. Another criterion is that an adult supports dramatic tension of a narrative and helps build cohesive and engaging storyline. Lastly, an adult should maintain the dynamics of play and children’s involvement; when they are bored, an adult can introduce a new character or a plot twist (Hännikainen et al., 2013).

We suggest that the same principles can be applied to digital play guidance. Physical proximity to a child playing with a device makes a teacher more informed of the child’s actions and more available for communication. A teacher can participate by discussing with the children about their experiences and strategies in digital play. Also, the teacher can be fully involved in digital play as a second player.

Smirnova (2017) introduced and elaborated the concept of “play competence of a teacher” regarding pretend play. The supportive position of a teacher means that s/he encourages children’s initiative in play. The teacher both participates and organizes play. The degree and nature of the teacher’s involvement depends on the situation and children’s playing skills.

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