Pre-service Kindergarten Teachers’ Conceptions of Play, Science, Mathematics, and Education

Abstract

It is widely known that mathematics and science are among the subjects that present the most learning difficulties for students. Another well-supported finding is that playing is one of the most important ways in which small children learn. In this context, a subject matter was newly developed in the final year of a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education, at the University of Granada (Spain), with the aim of applying play to the teaching of science and mathematics to children. The idea is to take advantage of the beneficial aspects of playing for the learning process, in order to improve science and mathematics education from early childhood. A study using both quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted to examine the pre-service teachers’ conceptions of play, science, mathematics, and education. An open-ended questionnaire with four parts was used. The first and second parts were related to play and its social and educational implications, while the third part dealt with scientific and mathematical thinking. The last part concerned the relationships among play, science, mathematics, and education. After a qualitative analysis, on average, 17 emerging categories were found in each query and 18% of them was provided by each student teacher. The quantitative analysis of the data reveals that 79% of pre-service teachers referred to learning when asked about play, and also 71% alluded to social interactions among the children and the learning opportunities, concerning the social and educational implications of playing. For the student teachers, to interpret reality through abstractions (35%) and to experiment (29%) are the main characteristics of mathematics and science, respectively, and 29% emphasized daily-life aspects, too. The most relevant aspect (56%) regarding the relationships among play, science, mathematics, and education was that playing could develop scientific and mathematical thinking.