Supporting the Application of Playful Learning and Playful Pedagogies in the Early Years Curriculum Through Observation, Interpretation, and Reflection

Abstract

This chapter examines developments in the English national curriculum for children from birth to 5 years and from the mid-1990s until 2012. The chapter explores these different curricular iterations in relation to play, playful learning, and culturally informed playful pedagogies, including in relation to the final aspect, the perceived role of the adult in supporting playful learning and offering well-considered pedagogies. The place of adult observation of playful engagements has an especial focus. It links explicitly to long-term research undertaken by the author with practitioners. The research has underpinned the development of an observational tool known as the Social Play Continuum (SPC), described in the chapter. Its application has revealed high levels of intellectually challenging engagement in reciprocal play in early years settings. The capacities exhibited by young children far exceed those anticipated in assessment-related documentation. In particular, open-ended play spaces, which evolved in the research, have, seemingly, high potential for playful, cognitively challenging engagements. The chapter concludes that, barring one exception no longer in use, the curricular iterations have paid little attention to playful learning and related cognitive challenge, learning, and achievement. As such therefore, assessment-related expectations in the English curriculum for young children appear to underestimate young children’s capabilities.