Impact of play-based pedagogies in selected Asian contexts: What do we know and how to move forward?

Abstract

In the Asian continent, many Early Childhood Education (ECE) policies have been influenced by Western theories and pedagogies. An example is the widespread presence of the notion of play in curriculum policy frameworks, which in part responds to research findings originated in the West. However, given what we know about cross-cultural differences in child development and learning, it is imperative to examine the state of the art on play research conducted with Asian children. This chapter reviews the literature on the impact of play-based pedagogies in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. We describe the types of studies conducted in these jurisdictions and their overall findings, with the aim of outlining future research agendas. We describe the socio-cultural beliefs about ECE in the selected contexts and the visions of play articulated in their official policies. Then, we provide an overview of the empirical studies available, distinguishing between naturalistic and intervention studies. Studies published in English academic journals have mainly analyzed the impact of structured and guided forms of play, focusing primarily on socio-emotional outcomes, with minimal research on domains such as scientific thinking, number sense, or creativity, and no research on other areas. We argue that the existing work reflects traditional Asian values and deep-rooted beliefs about ECE, where play is seen as a rather unimportant activity. We conclude that to better justify the inclusion of play in ECE policies across Asia, it would be vital to produce an extensive, rigorous, and locally situated corpus of play impact studies.