Meaningful science learning through play

Imagination and play are powerful tools for sparking children’s curiosity and supporting science learning. In this webinar, internationally recognised researcher Professor Marilyn Fleer shared practical insights into how play worlds and narratives can be used to achieve meaningful science outcomes in early childhood and primary classrooms.

Play is widely accepted as an appropriate and important means by which to promote young children’s learning in early childhood settings and in the early years of school, but strong pedagogical models about how to do this have been lacking. Conceptual PlayWorlds offers a model that can support teachers to create rich, dynamic, and meaningful learning, particularly within the curricular area of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics], but also across the curriculum (other examples include mathematics, or social-emotional learning, for example).

The Conceptual PlayWorld model has five characteristics, which areused for planning a Conceptual PlayWorld. The five characteristics are:

1. Selecting an engaging story book (fiction rather than factual) which will capture children’s imagination and lend itself to imaginary play.
2. Designing a space (indoors, outdoors, or both) that will become the imaginary world. This doesn’t require a huge number of props, but rather thinking through where the imaginary play will take place.
3. Creating a routine for entering and exiting the imaginary world to signal to children when they and you are in the imaginary world and in character, as well as to signal when the imaginary play is over and teachers and children return to being themselves.
4. Identifying the curriculum concept you want to explore, along with learning outcomes and indicators that the learning outcomes have been met, and an authentic play problem that will invite children to engage with the concept. For example, in an imaginary situation based on the story of Charlotte’s Web, the curriculum concept might relate to thinking about what living things need to survive, and the problem can be created around looking after the different creatures on Wilbur’s farm. Play problems can be introduced via a letter from a character dropping out of the storybook, or children receiving a phone or Zoom call from a character or author.
5. Determining the role of the teacher as play partner, including the character the teacher will play.

The model of Conceptual PlayWorlds challenges assumptions about what it is that children within different cultural age periods can do and learn within STEM (the notion of ‘cultural age periods’ reflects the way in which community, family, and individuals all shape how children grow and develop, and the changing contexts in which children and families find themselves means that developmental theories may not reflect what children are capable of). In infant and toddler spaces, teachers may be challenged by the idea of introducing and leading imaginary play with children, particularly if they believe that infants and toddlers are not capable of such play. This may be because of theories such as Patten’s, which suggests that early play takes the form of rudimentary exploration of materials, moving through parallel play and then pretend play. This theory has influenced practice in that it is not common to see teachers promoting extended imaginary play narratives with very young children. However, Marilyn’s research shows that very young toddlers can be oriented to an early form of scientific concepts – for example, thinking about living things and their needs for food and being fed – as part of an imaginary Playworld built on the book The March of the Ants.

The characteristics of a successful Conceptual PlayWorld have been found to hold for every cultural age period, from infants and toddlers to children in the later years of primary school. However, implementing the five characteristics and creating the right conditions for a Conceptual PlayWorld might look different in the context of an infant and toddler room, a preschool setting, or a primary school class, because of the different practices that are common in each setting and the expectations they give rise to. For example, in a primary school setting, the role of the teacher required within a Conceptual PlayWorld may be quite different to the way that teachers usually perceive themselves in relation to the class, and the role of play required may challenge expectations about school learning as ‘serious’ business. Teachers may have concerns about managing the classroom, although teachers in role can solve management problems as they arise, using their character to do so. With preschool children, the challenge for teachers often relates to identifying and implementing an intentional focus on a core curriculum concept, and highlighting this within the PlayWorld.

Partnering with industry can be successful in exposing children to scientists, mathematicians, technologists, and engineers and their work, and building their motivation for STEM. Teachers in early childhood settings and industry partners have co-created Conceptual PlayWorlds for children resulting in outstanding outcomes for children in relation to STEM skills, but also attitudes and dispositions for STEM, particularly among girls, for whom STEM is often not a focus of engagement.

To begin implementing a Conceptual PlayWorld in your teaching and learning context, there are three levels of support to consider:

• At a personal level, teachers might like to think about themselves as risk-takers, and think through what being a play partner might mean for them. If this is an unfamiliar role, teachers might start small, simply by reading a storybook and then acting it out with the children as a whole group, before repeating this again the next day and adding in a play problem.
• At an institutional level, teachers might explore what books and materials they have in their setting to support the creation of a Conceptual PlayWorld. Other resources available to teachers include Marilyn’s YouTube channel, and Monash University’s Conceptual PlayWorld resources, listed below.
• At a societal level, teachers might learn to be critical of the evidence on which they base their pedagogical practices. For example, Patten’s theory of the developmental stages of play can be seen as outdated, based on limited evidence, and not relevant or appropriate given the changing conditions in which children today live. In contrast, the Conceptual PlayWorlds model is based on 20 years of research and five years of piloting across many different settings and groups of children and teachers, so it is really robust.

Further resources

Marilyn’s YouTube channel

The Monash University PlayLab’s website