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Children's Conceptions of their Own Play

Gunni Karrby!

This paper describes how attempts were made to find out what mental processescharacterize children's activities in "free play" and structured learning situations inpreschool. In a research project, "Play and Learning," children were interviewed aboutwhat they did in both free play and structured learning. Comparisons are made of twodifferent educationalpreschool environments.

Ce travail decrit les tentavives d'identifier comment les processes mentaux caracterisentles activites de "jeux libres" des enfants d'age prescolaire et les situationsd'apprentissage structurees, Dans un projet de recherche "Jeu et Apprentissage", lesenfants ont ete interviewes Apropos de ee qu'ils ont fait ala foie en jeu libre et en jeustructure. Deux different environments educatits prescolaires sont compares.

Este trabajo describe las tentatives de identificaci6n de como los procesos mentalescaracterizan las actividas en "juegos libres" en los nines prescoilares y en las situacionesde aprendizaje estructuradas. En un studio "Juegos y Prendizaje" los ninos fueronentrevistados respecto a 10 que baeen a la vez en los juegos libres y estructurados. Secompararon dos ambientes prescolares educativos differentes.

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Most psychologists agree that play is thedominant mode of activity for preschoolchildren. Not all psychologists agree,however, that children learn by playing. Ac­cording to Piaget, play is an assimilative ac­tivity characteristic of the intuitive stage.

Learning, on the other hand, depends on ac­commodation - the basic process for cognitiveand logical growth leading to conceptualthinking.

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky and other Sovietpsychologists regarded play as a basic activity

IDepartment of Education and Educational Research, Gothenburg University, Sweden.

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in the socialization process. Through play,they maintained, cultural meanings and basicsocial norms are transmitted to the child. Playis unfulfilled wishes. Through play the childlearns to transform his or her motives andneeds into socially acceptable modes of deal­ing with reality. In this process, symbolicthinking and the development of language areimportant ingredients.

According to Froebel, the founder of thepreschool movement, play is the basis of thewhole development of the child. When scien­tific thinking began to influence educationalpractices, only three aspects of the child'sdevelopment were considered: the cognitive,social, and emotional. Play was consideredinsignificant and was only used as a diagnostictool for the purpose of finding repressed im­pulses, hidden conflicts or developmentallyweak areas.

During the last ten years or so play hasbeen rediscovered. Now play is regarded as animportant activity for the child's psychologicaldevelopment as well as a basis for experiencesleading to learning by exploration, to problemsolving, creativity and art expression.

In our study, play is viewed from a con­structivistic perspective. In play activitychildren construct their views of the world. Insocial interaction with peers, the child con­structs social strategies such as coping andnegotiating in order to understand the normsand values of its society and culture. Inter­esting studies on this have been carried out inItaly and by William Corsaro in the U.S.A.Other research shows that play activity ratherthan the training of particular skills leads tohigher achievement in school. HowardGardner at Harvard University has developed a

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theory of multiple intelligences. He suggeststhat the development of the different intel­ligences is connected with explorative play ac­tivity. He is now experimenting with a pre­school program where all the different intel­ligences are stimulated by various activities.He finds that playing is a common workingstyle in areas of both strengths andweaknesses.

Play is one of the most common ac­tivities in preschool. In an earlier study of 115full-time and part-time preschools in Sweden,it was found that about 10 per cent of all ac­tivities were classified as fantasy play accord­ing to the same categories used in the OxfordPreschool Project This percentage was almostthe same as in the British study. It was alsofound that fantasy play was related to dialogueconversation and small group organization. Inpreschools where children had more pretendplay there were also more planned activities.

Pretend play thus seems to be related tothe communication pattern, group organizationand goal directed activity in preschool.

Observing pretend play may be an unreli­able way of studying what goes on in thechild's mind during playas mental processeshave to be interpreted by the observer. In­trigued by the question about the role of playin the learning process we asked ourselves thefollowing questions: ''How do children ex­perience play compared to structured learningactivities?" "Are there any qualitative dif­ferences as to complexity and goal orientationbetween play and other kinds of activity in theearly years?"

In the Oxford study, teacher structuredactivities were by observation judged to bemore complex, goal oriented and challenging

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that self-initiated activity. In the presentstudy, we interviewed children after observingthem both in free play and in structured situa­tions. Fifteen 5- and 6-year-olds (in Swedenschool starts at 7) were asked to relate whatthey had been doing, about their own inten­tions, if they were aware of their teacher's in­tention, what they meant by learning, whatthey learned and if play was connected tolearning. As we already had observed theiractivities, we wanted them to tell about andnot what they had been doing - thus trying toget a metacognitive perspective.

From our earlier results we had ahypothesis that different kinds of educationalenvironments might have an influence on thechildren's conceptions of play and learning.Thus we chose two kinds of preschools, bothfull time (day care centres). In the ''Rose,''play fantasy and language were emphasized inboth planned and free activities. In the "Tuft,"the preschool program was inspired by HenryPluckrose. Educational activities weredirected towards learning specific areas ofknowledge planned by the teacher. In theTuft, the setting was more structured and thechildren were not as free to choose what theyliked to do as in the Rose. In both preschoolsthe teachers were very involved and profes­sionally competent.

What is play and what is learning in earlychildhood? And can they be separated? Anumber of definitions of play have beenpresented. In Swedish the word learning isalso used for teaching. In our study thechildren were supposed to define what theymeant by play and learning (to learn). Wefound it most important to find out how thechildren conceived their activities in the two

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kinds of educational settings. Their ex­periences, thoughts, and definitions were thefocus of our study.

ResultsGenerally, the children were able to

recount, describe, and explain in a richer waywhat had happened during free play thanduring structured situations. Activities duringfree play were conceived as whole events.These events had a definite theme, such ashaving a doll party, construct a trap, play thespook game, and so on. Detailed accounts ofthe theme structure were presented.: whoplayed what role, what were the rules, whatwas allowed to be done, and what was not al­lowed. A lot of behaviour was explained thathad not been observed or could not be inter­preted from our observation. For example,girls chasing boys seemingly just to catchthem was explained in the interview. It was akissing game. The girls chased the boys and ifthe boys were caught they were kissed. Thisdid not occur in the presence of adults.

While play was more often described inwhole sequences, learning situations weredescribed as unconnected events. There wereno intentions by the child in learning situa­tions. The goal was to do what the teacherwanted. Usually children did not know whythey should learn what was expected. Whileplay was a collective enterprise, the structuredsituation was typically seen from an individualpoint of view. The child might have the con­ception that she or he learned something butthe rest of the group did not.

In contrast to observation of free play, itwas easier to interpret learning situations fromour point of view. We could easily define the

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educational setting and the teacher's intention.We found, however, that we had often misin­terpreted the child's own experiences of thesituation.

How do children conceive play andlearning?

Most children in the study had a cleardefinition of play. Conceptions about learningdiffered, however, and distinct differencescould be noticed between the two preschools.

The 5- and 6-year-old children definedplayas follows:

• Activities that involvepretendingandfantasy (as opposed to reality.For example, it was allowed to tiea child to a tree if he or she per­mitted it in play. If no permissionwas given, play turned intoreality.)

• Activities that centredaroundathemeandfollowed certainrules.

• Drama, role play, rules to whichall agreed.

The following were not defined as play:

• Doing things. (For example, con­structive activities such as build­ing; mastering things such asbicycling, jumping, and so on.)

• Experiencing things, having fun,swinging, rolling on the ground,chasing, and so on.

The children thus differentiated playfrom other activities that are called play byadults. For children play is a complex mentalactivity, not easily observed and interpreted byparents, teachers, and researchers.

Children in both preschools usually hadthe following conceptions about learning:

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• Learning is to be able to do things,to practise, to be good at.

• Learning is teaching, transmissionof knowledge from somebodywho knows to somebody whodoes not know. Adults teachchildren, older children can teachyounger ones.

• You learn things from books, forexample, how to train a dog, con­struct paper air planes, and so on.

• You learn particular things, suchas a song, a skill such as reading,and so on.

• Learning occurs in a particularselling,e.g., in structured situa­tions.

In spite of these conceptions children hadthe idea that they had learned most things bythemselves. Next important agents for learn­ing were their parents.

Clear differences in the conception ofboth play and learning could be found betweenthe two preschools. In the play oriented pre­school, play was often related to mediated fan­tasy activity such as stories, T.V., and so on.The play activities were more rich in fantasy,varied and complex. There were long playthemes, sometimes for hours or a whole day.Often the same theme reappeared in differentversions for weeks. Sometimes the play themereflected the ongoing educational theme.

Children had the conception that theylearned things in play, e.g., how to be trappers,to arrive at agreements in play or to transmitideas to younger children such as the beauty offlowers. Learning in the sense of being taughtwas by some children experienced as hardwork.

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Much self-initiated activity could be ob­served having the same educational goal asteacher directed activities, such as trying outcolour mixtures that should satisfy the child'sprevious experiences of a specific colourshade. Some of the older children, however,sometimes preferred to get suggestions aboutchallenging activities from the teachers.

In the learning oriented preschool playwas more conventional. Children were oftenseen to play house, family themes, cops androbbers, and so on. Play themes were short astime for play was often interrupted by teacherdirected activities. The children conceivedplayas clearly differentiated from learning. Inthis preschool the children were of the opinionthat they didn't learn by playing. Learningactivities were related to specific situations.But sometimes learning could be like play, forexample doing gymnastics. To learn was funmost of the time. The children conceived thatthey had learned things in preschool thoughnot always such things that the teacher had in­tended to teach. Instruction was sometimesmore fully described than play activity.

The children's conception clearlyreflected the attitudes toward play and learningamong teachers. In the Rose, the play orientedpreschool, learning was seen as a process bythe teachers. You learn all the time. Play isnot separated from learning. To gainknowledge is a process that is determined bythe child. The adults' task is to give oppor­tunities for the child to express his or her in­tentions and make the necessary provisions tofind solutions to problems in the pursuit ofreaching the goal.

In the Tuft, the learning oriented pre­school, the teachers' conception of learning

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was narrower. Learning was conceived as aproduct. The teachers' task was to formulateeducational goals and through different tech­niques provide the child with learning situa­tions that helped the child fulfill the teachers'goals. Learning was clearly oriented toschool. The long range goal was to get thechild prepared for school.

ConclusionsPreschool children aged 5 to 6 have a

clearer conception of play than of learning.Their conception of play is different from thatof learning.

For a child at this age, play may be ahighly complex and goal directed mental ac­tivity.

Play is conceived as a sequence of eventsthat are meaningful to the child while learningis conceived as a process aimed at acquiringcertain skills. The affective element ormotivational force characteristic of playmerges with cognitive processes that help thechild construct his or her own unique concep­tions of the world.

Play is a creative process. As one girlsaid, ''In my fantasy activity you have to thinkfor yourself." In accordance with Gardner'sviews, play is serious business. It can be com­pared to the work of artists. But this mentalprocess seems to be dependent on educationalfactors forming the child's experience.

The results suggest that complexity ofplay is a collective process related to theeducational environment of the preschool. Aprogram rich in fantasy content, generous timefor play and the the teachers' perspective onplayas a valuable developmental tool forlearning seem to be necessary conditions for

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the integration of cognitive and affectiveprocesses in play.

Today there are social and politicalforces in our Western countries working in thedirection of an earlier school start. Recentresearch shows that in the long run the cog­nitive development of the child is not favouredby starting school early. Studies in bothEngland and the United States give evidencethat training children early in school-like tasksmay even have serious social consequences inlater years. On the other hand, as in traditionalpreschool practice, activities that are based onthe child's own intentions may facilitate com­plex mental processes. In line with the ideasof Froebel, the whole child has to be engaged.A better understanding of what affective forcesand strategies are revealed in play may give usa clearer picture of the development of cog­nitive processes. A valuable tool in thisrespect is interviewing children. This can bedone in every day practice as well as inresearch work.

References

Corsaro, W. (1985). Friendship and peer cul­ture in the early years. Ablex.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: Thetheory of multiple intelligences. Palad­ing, Granada.

Karrby, G. (1986). 22,000 minutes inpreschool. Molndal: Department ofEducation and Educational Research,Gothenburg University (Summary inEnglish) Rapport 1986:09.

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Sylva, K., Roy, C. & Painter M. (1980).Childwatching at playgroup and nurseryschool. London: Grant McIntyre.