Play-based Kindergarten Research Articles

Feasibility and Acceptability of an Active Playful Learning Intervention for Kindergarten Teachers Using Instructional Coaching

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study investigated the feasibility and acceptability of a coaching intervention to enhance kindergarten teachers’ ability to design and implement active playful learning experiences that are informed by evidence from the science of learning. The 6-month intervention was delivered through classroom-embedded coaching and workshops focused on guided play, a category of active playful learning that balances student agency with teacher facilitation as students pursue clearly defined lesson goals. Instruction continued to align with local standards and was designed to be meaningful and engaging to students. The quality of the coaching experience, teachers’ perceptions of the intervention and playful learning, and teacher-reported student outcomes are reported from 30 classrooms. Overall, teachers’ qualitative and quantitative results indicate that they adopted favorable views on the implementation and outcomes of play-based learning, suggesting the feasibility of guided play as an active playful learning pedagogical approach. Practice or Policy: The study details the development and implementation of a state-wide research-practice-policy partnership to increase active playful learning across New Hampshire in response to a state mandate. The results highlight guided play as an evidence-informed playful learning pedagogy, and instructional coaching as an effective delivery mechanism, to enable teachers to satisfy the state-wide mandate for play-based kindergarten.

‘My Most Tricky Pickle!’ Balancing Reading Instruction in Play-Based Kindergarten: Educator Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Needs

Many kindergarten educators grapple with how best to teach reading in play-based kindergarten classrooms. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to ascertain the instructional strengths and needs of kindergarten educators as they teach reading in play-based programs. Fifteen kindergarten teachers participated in an online questionnaire and focus group conversations that explored their concepts of self-efficacy and professional content knowledge to gain an understanding of the tensions these educators expressed, and to compare and confirm these with existing literature. Educators felt quite confident that they were effectively weaving foundational reading skills with learning opportunities into authentic experiences throughout the day. They indicated that balancing competing priorities within their programs was a challenge, and that supporting multilinguals and deepening their understanding of how to effectively build oral language and phonological awareness in their students were areas where they wanted to build their professional content knowledge.

Kindergarten teachers’ facilitation of social and emotional learning in classroom play contexts

ABSTRACT Play occupies a critical role in the kindergarten classroom, and the expansion of formal play-based learning programmes have brought connections between play and learning to the forefront. With respect to social and emotional learning (SEL), child-directed play has been viewed as critical, while teacher direction has been framed as a potential disruption to this learning. However, teachers facilitate different types of play in kindergarten with varying degrees of assistance, yet few studies have looked at the ways teachers target children’s SEL across different play configurations. The current study gathered observational data in 20 play-based kindergarten classrooms. Video data were coded according to the type of play (child-directed or teacher-facilitated), SEL competency, and type of teacher promotion. Across both types of play, teachers focused primarily on supporting children’s relationship skills and self-management skills in an incidental way, while other competencies not practiced spontaneously in play largely went overlooked. Skills were targeted most often during teacher-facilitated play, underscoring the importance of this context for children’s SEL. Overall, these findings illustrate positive examples of teacher promotion of SEL in play, while underscoring the need for more intentional targeting of broader competencies to promote all areas of children’s SEL in a developmentally appropriate manner.

Teacher perspectives and approaches toward promoting inclusion in play-based learning for children with developmental disabilities

As school authorities strive toward inclusive models of education for children with neurodevelopmental delay and disability (NDD), many kindergarten curricula have mandated pedagogy centered on learning through play. Children with NDD tend to experience greater social isolation and lower rates of social play engagement compared to typically developing peers. Consequently, issues related to social participation and inclusion may be particularly salient in play-based kindergarten classrooms. The current qualitative study explored how eight kindergarten teachers in Ontario, Canada conceptualized and promoted inclusion in play for children with NDD. Classroom observation and teacher interviews were conducted with a focus on the teacher’s role in play. Teachers endorsed the use of several indirect (i.e., environmental) strategies to promote social participation, alongside proactive teacher support in play. Teachers who shared multiple aspects of an interventionist viewpoint toward disability, and identified the social benefits of inclusion in play for children with NDD, tended to provide more proactive support to all children in play. Teachers also provided reactive support in play to address emerging social conflict. Implications for fostering the meaningful inclusion of children with NDD in play-based learning are discussed.

Inclusive Play-Based Learning: Approaches from Enacting Kindergarten Teachers.

Policies related to the inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms have led to questions regarding how teachers can help cultivate inclusive learning communities where all children are supported and valued. In play-based kindergarten programs, teachers are tasked with ensuring goals for children’s learning and development are cultivated in play. However, debates persist regarding the optimal role of the teacher in play and how to meaningfully support the play of children with disabilities. The current multiple case study explored the perspectives and approaches of three kindergarten teachers who highly valued, and strived to enable, participation and inclusion in play-based learning, referred to here as enactors. A minimum of three hours of observation were conducted in each classroom in the fall, and semi-structured teacher interviews were conducted in the fall and spring of the school year. Enactors shared some common themes related to implementing play-based learning to promote inclusion, including a balance of child agency and teacher guidance, involvement that is child-centred and flexible, and the importance of supporting social interactions in play. These views informed both common and unique practices observed in play, including one-on-one conversations, supporting small groups, becoming an active play partner, and collaboratively addressing problems that arose in play. These results illustrate ways enactors gave meaning to the concept of inclusion through their play practices, providing salient examples of play alongside teachers’ craft knowledge to help support inclusive play-based learning practices going forward.

Supporting children's self-regulation development in play-based kindergarten classrooms

Connections between play and young children's developing self-regulation have been emphasized in both research and practice. However, our knowledge of how to scaffold children's play to develop regulation in practice is limited. The current study examined strategies utilized by teachers to support self-regulation in play contexts. Observational and interview data were collected in 11 kindergarten classrooms in Canada. Results show two differing approaches to the role of play in self-regulation development. One focused on nurturing emotional aspects of self-regulation through free play. The other focused on a holistic definition of self-regulation nurtured in both free and teacher-guided play. Results underscore teachers’ diverse approaches towards promoting self-regulation and provide practice-based examples for supporting multiple facets of self-regulation development in play.

Operationalization of self-regulation in the early years: comparing policy with theoretical underpinnings

Research has consistently demonstrated that self-regulation is essential for the development and preservation of health and well-being in the early years and across the lifespan. Based on the emerging literature on the important role of self-regulation in promoting healthy child development, policymakers have made efforts to include self-regulation skills in practice and policy documents worldwide. Despite efforts to include self-regulation skills in early years curriculum documents, there is limited understanding by teachers, scholars, and policymakers of what self-regulation is and how best to support it in the day-to-day classroom. This limited understanding is perpetuated by a lack of a unified definition of self-regulation. Thus, it becomes important to examine these efforts in a critical way. In Ontario, where the research was completed, a revised play-based full-day kindergarten program was introduced in 2016. In this research we use a qualitative document analysis approach to compare the conceptualization of self-regulation in Ontario’s revised play-based kindergarten program with theory-driven models of self-regulation from empirical research. Analysis was iterative, and themes emerged based upon a coding scheme developed by the research team. Results suggest that co-regulation has a powerful influence on student learning. In addition, the policy document de-emphasizes behavioral regulation and expands cognitive regulation to include more than inhibitory control. Lastly, the kindergarten program discusses metacognition in relation to the use of language to articulate one’s thinking with little attention to goal-directed behaviors. In this paper, explicit recommendations for policymakers and practitioners are provided to ensure that emerging conceptualizations of self-regulation are promoted in early years curricula. Further, empirical evidence is needed to support why it is necessary to understand emerging conceptualizations of self-regulation and outline implications for current early years curricula.

Effects of an Early Literacy Intervention for Linguistically Diverse Children: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

Phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge underpin children’s early literacy acquisition. Promoting these foundational skills in kindergarten should therefore lead to a better response to formal literacy instruction once started. The present study evaluated a 12-week early literacy intervention for linguistically diverse children who are learning to read in German. The study was set in Luxembourg where kindergarten education is in Luxembourgish and children learn to read in German in Grade 1 of primary school. One hundred and eighty-nine children (mean age = 5;8 years) were assigned to an early literacy intervention in Luxembourgish or to a business as usual control group. Trained teachers delivered the intervention to entire classes, four times a week, during the last year of kindergarten. The early literacy program included direct instruction in phonological awareness and letter-knowledge, while promoting print and book awareness and literacy engagement. Children were assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and at a 9 months delayed follow-up using measures in Luxembourgish and in German. At the end of the intervention, children in the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on phonological awareness and letter-knowledge measures in Luxembourgish and the gains in phonological awareness were maintained at 9 months follow-up. The effects generalized to measures of phonological awareness, word-level reading comprehension and spelling in German (effect sizes d > 0.25), but not to German single word/pseudoword reading, at delayed follow-up. Intervention programs designed to support foundational literacy skills can be successfully implemented by regular teachers in a play-based kindergarten context. The findings suggest that early literacy intervention before school entry can produce educationally meaningful effects in linguistically diverse learners.

A professional development programme for implementing indigenous play-based pedagogy in kindergarten schools in Ghana

In this article we report on the development and implementation of a professional development programme for teachers of the kindergarten curriculum (4–5 year olds) in Ghana. Kindergarten teachers in Ghana have little experience and meagre training in implementing a play-based pedagogy as recommended in the national curriculum. An indigenous play-based kindergarten teacher development programme was developed and successfully used to improve participating teachers’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices during the first year of its implementation. Data collected through classroom observation, interviews, photographs, participating teachers’ reflective journals and an evaluation questionnaire revealed that this programme had a positive impact on classroom practices and learners’ active participation in learning. The essential components of the programme are described as a guide for professional teacher development for delivering indigenous play-based pedagogy (IPBP) in early childhood education.

A Model for Assessment in Play-Based Kindergarten Education

Kindergarten teachers face the challenge of integrating contemporary assessment practices with play-based pedagogy. The current study addresses this challenge by presenting a kindergarten assessment framework rooted in theory and current classroom practices, based on teacher interview and observational data collected in 20 kindergarten classrooms. Ten teachers subsequently participated in extended observations and video elicitation interviews. Results uncovered seven different assessment pathways by which teachers mobilized learning goals through play pedagogies and assessment. Based on these pathways, a comprehensive assessment framework was developed underscoring the cyclical relation between student learning goals, types of play, and assessment contexts and practices. This framework supports teachers’ negotiation and integration of assessment practices with play-based pedagogies to promote both academic and developmental learning goals.

The role of technology in supporting classroom assessment in play-based kindergarten

There has been a rapid increase in the integration of new technologies in early education. While research has examined how technology can benefit classroom instruction, few studies have looked specifically at how technology is used by early educators to enhance their classroom assessment practices. The current study examined educators’ approaches towards the integration of technology in assessment in 20 play-based kindergarten classrooms. The majority of educators described technology as improving the efficiency of their assessment practices, while a minority of educators described technology as meaningfully extending student learning in assessment. Implications of different uses of assessment technology are discussed.

Bidirectionality in self-regulation and academic skills in play-based early childhood education

Support for the idea that self-regulation and early academic skills co-develop in young children is accumulating. The majority of this research, however, is conducted in countries with a school readiness approach to early childhood education. We investigated bidirectional relations between self-regulation and mathematics, expressive vocabulary, and phonological awareness in children (N = 243, ages 6–7) making the transition from a play-based kindergarten context to a formal educational context in first grade in Norway. Cross-lagged panel models showed that there were bidirectional relations between self-regulation and mathematics, but not between self-regulation and expressive vocabulary or phonological awareness. Expressive vocabulary significantly predicted self-regulation, and self-regulation significantly predicted phonological awareness, although the latter association attenuated when controlling for vocabulary. Given these interrelations, intentionally targeting a combination of these skills in a playful manner may support children's transition from a play-based kindergarten context to a more formal learning environment in first grade.

Does Theory Translate into Practice? An Observational Study of Current Mathematics Pedagogies in Play-Based Kindergarten

There is rising concern in research and practice to improve early years mathematics education as initial mathematical mastery sets the foundation for future academic success. In response to these concerns, this study used observational data from 20 kindergarten classrooms to understand current pedagogies teachers use for mathematics. In particular, our study is situated in kindergarten classrooms that promote play as a dominant pedagogical approach as research and policies endorse play as an effective teaching strategy for early learners. However, research also suggests that teachers express challenges implementing novel pedagogies, such as play, and use various forms of instruction when teaching math. Results showed teachers used four mathematics pedagogies (free play, guided play, teacher-directed play, and direct instruction). The enactment of these pedagogies gave rise to three classroom pedagogical orientations: child-controlled, shared-control, or teacher-controlled math contexts, indicating that combinations of play and direct instruction pedagogies are used to teach math in kindergarten.

The Play-Literacy Interface in Full-day Kindergarten Classrooms

The increasing accountability framework in Kindergarten education has put pressure on teachers to ensure that students reach certain literacy milestones before proceeding to the subsequent grade. One result of this shift is a tension between an emphasis on academic learning and the use of developmentally appropriate practices, such as play. However, there is evidence that play can be an effective context for literacy development. This study investigated the enacted integration of literacy learning and play-based pedagogies. Semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers who taught using a play-based Kindergarten program revealed differences in their beliefs about the role of play for literacy learning. Two groups of teachers emerged from the data analysis. The play and development group. Consisted of five teachers who dichotomized play and learning while the integrated play and learning group consisted of seven teachers who combined play and learning. Teachers in the play and development group expressed the concept that play may not be the best approach for literacy learning and were less likely to integrate the two. Teachers in the integrated play and learning group believed play was important for children’s literacy learning and articulated a range of strategies for integration. Classroom observations of children’s play showed evidence of more literacy-play integration by students in the integrated play and learning group. Teachers in this group were also more likely to become involved in children’s play, which supported children’s literacy engagement during play. Although there were differences in play-literacy integration between the groups, all teachers expressed challenges associated with implementing a play-based learning program.

How effectively does the full-day, play-based kindergarten programme in Ontario promote self-regulation, literacy, and numeracy?

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) programme, which integrates play-based learning and team teaching, in promoting 32,027 kindergarteners’ self-regulation (SR), literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Outcome measures derived from teacher reports of students’ school readiness in the Early Development Instrument were analysed in separate hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for individual and school-level characteristics. Results revealed essentially no benefit for students participating in the FDELK programme when compared to peers in Half-Day Kindergarten (HDK) or Alternate-Day Kindergarten programmes. Being older, female, and in higher socio-economic status schools with a history of higher achievement predicted more positive SR, literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Findings suggest the FDELK programme requires improvement. Play-based learning programmes, such as the FDELK, might be enhanced by incorporating evidence-based guidelines and goals for play, reducing class sizes to more effectively scaffold learning, and revising curriculum expectations to include a greater focus on SR, literacy, and numeracy skills.

Assessment in play-based kindergarten classrooms: An empirical study of teacher perspectives and practices

ABSTRACTKindergarten education is changing. Current reforms have increased accountability structures requiring teachers to integrate assessments throughout their instruction to support academic learning while retaining developmentally appropriate pedagogies such as play-based learning. Despite these reforms, comparatively little research has been conducted on teachers' assessment practices within play-based instructional contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' approaches to assessment in play-based kindergarten education and specifically to examine how assessment practices differed based on teachers' conceptions of the purpose of play in student learning. Data were obtained from 77 Ontario kindergarten teachers via (a) an electronic survey, (b) in-depth interviews, and (c) classroom observations. Overall, data from this study suggest a misalignment in teachers' perspectives of the purpose of play and what teachers assess during periods of play.