The Relation between Early Childhood Teachers' Conceptualization of “Play” and Their Practice: Implication for the Process of Learning to Teach

• Published in: Frontiers of Education in China Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 65 - 84
• Main Author: Cheng, Doris Pui-Wah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands BRILL 01.01.2012; Higher Education Press Limited Company
• Subjects: Child Development; Correlation; EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION; Early Childhood Teachers; Foreign Countries; Hong Kong; Information processing; Learning Processes; LEARNING THROUGH PLAY; LEARNING TO TEACH; Pedagogy; Preschool Teachers; Psychologists; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Education; TEACHER'S THINKING; Teaching Methods; Teaching Styles; THEORY AND PRACTICE; Young Children; Hong Kong
• ISSN: 1673-341X; 1673-3533
• DOI: 10.3868/s110-001-012-0004-2

For centuries, educators and psychologists have advocated "play" as the ideal activity for the development of young children. Actually, play has been found currently to be the central pedagogy in the learning of young children in 21 countries in the world. However, the quality of play-based pedagogy is becoming a key concern across countries. Scholars found that play is either too loosely framed to result in children's optimal development; or it is too "teacherly" and loses the essence of play. The recent report released by OECD highlighted its concern about play in early childhood education and, urged international researchers and educators to make efforts to bridge the gap. Hong Kong is not an exception on the issue of play enactment. Though resources have been put in for the professional upgrading of early education teachers in the last two decades, the learning and teaching style is still didactic and there appears to be a misinterpretation of play-based pedagogy. The present paper attempts to explore the issue through early childhood teachers' conceptualization of "learning and teaching through play" with the aim of understanding the problem and shedding light for better ways to prepare teachers in this sector.