Personal Play Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education: An Essay

This essay delves into the concept of play pedagogy within early childhood education, emphasizing its significance in fostering holistic child development. It begins by defining play pedagogy, referencing Gunilla Lindqvist's work and Vygotsky's theory, particularly the Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding. The essay highlights the importance of parental involvement and attachment theory. It then examines the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), outlining its principles such as secure relationships, partnerships, high expectations, respect for diversity, and ongoing learning, and discusses the pre-dispositions of children. A personalized play pedagogy is proposed, integrating the EYLF principles, focusing on age-appropriate activities and scaffolding techniques. The essay acknowledges potential challenges like risk management and child choice, emphasizing the role of scaffolding. The conclusion stresses the value of play-based learning in early childhood education, advocating for a curriculum that considers both theoretical and socio-cultural factors, using the EYLF principles and children's pre-dispositions to create an inclusive and beneficial learning environment.

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PERSONAL PLAY PEDAGOGY
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Introduction
One of the most important aspects of growth and development is education. By education, it
is not always meant the knowledge of language or topics in particular but an overall
development of the cognitive framework as well. The early years of a child are crucial
because the developing brain is capable of taking in a lot of information, processing and
analysing them. This is why in the current educational context, early childhood education is
being given paramount importance and the aspects of childhood growth and development
stands out as one of the most crucial determiners of a holistic socio – cognitive
development. This essay deals with the topic of childhood learning through the angle of
‘play’ pedagogy whose main focus is to involve the parents/caretakers/caring adults, actively
in the teaching learning experience involving a child. With reference to early education
curricula and national Early Years Learning Framework ("Early Years Learning Framework |
Department of Education", 2017) alongside a variety of theoretical perspectives and
academic articles, this essay will highlight the importance and significance of the
development of a play pedagogy in an early childhood education system, followed by a
discussion on a personalised play pedagogy for an educational program involving children
aged 2 – 5 years. Finally the essay will also, through an in depth study of the Early Years
learning framework ("Early Years Learning Framework | Department of Education", 2017)
along with the principles entailed in the framework, attempt to highlight the implications of an
effective early education program based on play pedagogy.
Discussion.
The term ‘play pedagogy’ derives its meaning from play being a part of childhood
experience. It advocates a joint play involvement of both adult and child in activities “that are
respectful of the child’s culture, creativity and spontaneity” (Baumer, 2013 p. 2). Play
pedagogy was founded by Gunilla Lindqvist (Nilsson, 2009), grounded in a less popular
Vygotsky educational approach titled “Imagination and Creativity in Childhood” (Vygotsky,

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2004; Baumer, 2013). Vygotsky identified the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ which
indicates the distance between the most difficult task that a child finds impossible to
accomplish and the most difficult task that the child is able to accomplish with adult aid. The
type of adult aid that is provided to children to facilitate their learning is termed as
‘Scaffolding’ and numerous curriculum development projects nowadays take the aspect of
scaffolding very seriously (Berk & Winsler, 1995). An important aspect to consider in this
regard is the extant conflict between Vygotsky’s theory and that of Piaget’s. While the latter
emphasised that efficient children learning is a by-product of personal experiences, the
former facilitated the study of children learning in a context where adult involvement is given
paramount importance.
Currently, the aspect of play pedagogy is based on most of Vygotsky’s principles where a
holistic early childhood development incorporates parental/caretaker involvement. It is not
just focused on a cognitive growth but also puts an equal amount of stress of the
development of children’s identity and cultural competence. In fact, the Early Years Learning
Framework (EYLF) ("Early Years Learning Framework | Department of Education", 2017)
identifies a few crucial pre-dispositions of children that must be taken into account before
developing a curriculum based on play pedagogy (Margetts & Raban-Bisby, 2011; Nolan &
Raban, 2015). Those are as follows:
 Children possess a strong sense of identity.
 Children can connect with and contribute to their work.
 They also possess a strong sense of wellbeing.
 They are confident and involved as learners.
 They are also very effective in communication.
Those above pre-dispositions once identified can boost as well as route the curriculum and
pedagogical development process in the right direction. Whitebread et al., (2012) also
stresses the role of play in children’s lives as well as the overall adult involvement n the
process suggesting that here is no active cognition required for identifying the fact that play

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in a child’s life is of paramount significance. However, the question still remains as to why
the involvement of the parent or a caretaking adult is given such thought. Bretherton (1992)
states, in reference to the works of Ainsworth and Bowlbi (1991) that the crucial aspect of a
child – mother relation is the attachment. The attachment theory of Ainsworth & Bowlbi
(1991) is focused upon exploring how a child develops a strong attachment with the first
caring figure which is generally the mother. Therefore, a parental involvement plays a more
significant role in childhood learning and development than that of any random adult.
Alternately, the role of any random adult cannot be completely unjustified as the child can
develop a strong attachment with a parent – like figure as well (Bretherton, 1992).
Personal play pedagogy
While planning a personal play pedagogy, we must revisit the EYL framework and study the
5 principles of EYLF (Margetts & Raban-Bisby, 2011) in details. The five principles are:
1. Secure, Respectful and reciprocal relations: every child’s thought and feeling are
encouraged through active positive interaction.
2. Partnerships: Emphasises the role of a partner in learning stating that children cannot
learn in isolation
3. High expectations and equity: Identifying equal opportunities and growth for all
children irrespective of socio-cultural barriers and setting a high bar for learning
achievements whilst providing support and encouragement.
4. Respect for diversity: Respecting the cultural and linguistic nuances of all children
and their families and enforcing the idea that all diversities are equally accounted for.
5. Ongoing learning: continuing the developmental process of ongoing acquisition of
professional knowledge and skills whilst valuing the locally existing knowledge of
communities and gather information supporting children’s development.

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There are no explicit bars that are set for developing the content of a play pedagogy, implied
that the content should be appropriate, culturally and developmentally relevant as well as
appealing to the pedagogical practitioners for support, ideation and positive criticism. An
effective play learning system need not be focused on integrating parental involvement but
the involvement of an adult for scaffolding is usually preferred as a fine solution to child
learning. As mentioned above, scaffolding emphasises the adult involvement in learning that
deploys a limited amount of help to the child for completion of a task. For children in the age
group of 2-5, a lot of learning through pictures should be given focus as children are more
perceptive of audio – visual stimuli in the early stages (Han et al., 2010). Building up on the
specific children leaning styles a lot of moderate to difficult games and activities can be
planned for the children to develop their learning. A lot of such activities would involve small
games like match a picture with a sound, puzzle solving, building blocks, alphabet chains etc.
Not only do these activities provide an opportunity for the development of children but also
gives the educators an idea about the specific styles that a child employs during learning, the
level of proficiency and understanding that the child displays while completing he tasks and
how much of scaffolding would be required in order to effectively hep the child in the
learning process. A lot of the activities might be very simple for a certain set of students
while some maybe very complex for others. This is the aspect where effective scaffolding
plays a key role in determining where how much effort needs to be put (Zoureq, Torquati &
Acar, 2014). There are certain hurdles that accompany the process of providing a play based
pedagogy to children. Firstly, the implications of a play based learning involves the children
to be active, thereby increasing certain risks associated with the process. Secondly, there are
problems of allowing the children to make their own choices regarding he tasks. There are
chances that they will chose the task that requires less effort and is less difficult. However the
curriculum is planned in order to provide a holistic development to the child therefore it is

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crucial that all the activities are taken care of. The role of scaffolding is the most easily
identified in this case as they help the children in not only deciding what task to choose but
also help them through the completion of the task.
Conclusion
Early childhood education is one of the most significant aspects in education and childhood
development. Backed by a multitude of theories, policies and practices, early childhood
education has incorporated a lot of developments and innovations in its curricula throughout
the ages. This essay was directed at gathering a clear idea on the concept of ‘play pedagogy’
and how the implications of a play based learning can be accommodated in a current learning
environment. While there are theoretical and research based underpinnings in the context of
play pedagogy, the significance and value of such a curriculum can be highlighted as a
benefactor to the process of development in very young children. An effective early
childhood education should not only involve theoretical and conceptual problems but also
provide a holistic development to the children in all aspects of socio – cultural factors. The
EYLF principles along with the pre dispositions of the children as mentioned above in the
essay can be used effectively in the development of a curriculum that would not only be
beneficial but would also be all inclusive.

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References.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bowlby, J. (1991), An ethological approach to personality
development.American Psychologist, 46, 331-341.
Ball, D. J., Gill, T., & Spiegal, B. (2008). Managing risk in play provision: implementation
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Ainsworth. Developmental psychology, 28(5), 759.
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Margetts, K., & Raban-Bisby, B. (2011). Principles and Practice for Driving the EYLF.
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