Finding a place for Froebel's theories: early years practitioners’ understanding and enactment of learning through play

Smedley, Sue; Hoskins, Kate

doi:10.1080/03004430.2018.1525706

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In this case, this conformed with the research objective of the testing requirement of bringing the learning concept of STEM to be applied with the children's playing activities (Colliver & Veraksa, 2019). Moreover, this conformed with the concept of the Froebel Model that stated that the best form of learning for children was to play by expressing themselves with freedom until gaining positive experiences from the playing activity with their suitable development in each age level (Smedley & Hoskins, 2020). In the same way, it should have the integration from these two concepts for designing the toys to increase the playing requirements of the children and allowing them to express themselves with their bodies in various activities to learn new things: 1.…”

Section: Playing Activities With the Concept Of Stem + A(art)supporting

confidence: 60%

Toys for children with the concept of STEM: study of the result from children’s playing activities

Egwutvongsa¹

2021

Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists

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This research aimed to examine the result from toy invention with the concept of STEM. The testers comprised 36 people who were the parents and children aged between five to seven years old that used the service of a child development center in Buriram Municipality in Thailand. Additionally, they were selected by purposive sampling that used multiple regression analysis to show the result from the testing of the newly designed toys as the concept of STEM. The results found that the toys had a satisfaction level of the Good (mean=4.333; S.D.=0.652) with the regression equation ̂ = 0.234 + [0.741 X1] + [0.106 X2] + [0.049 X3] + [0.071 X4] to explain the changing of the level of satisfaction to be 72.73% (r²=0.7273). Research of the playing design as the concept of STEM at this time, Able to meet learning goals based on STEM concepts to an excellent level.

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Section: Playing Activities With the Concept Of Stem + A(art)supporting

confidence: 60%

Toys for children with the concept of STEM: study of the result from children’s playing activities

Egwutvongsa¹

2021

Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists

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“…We found that having sufficient time for children to play is a key issue for these practitioners, but so too is the professional confidence and understandings of enacting Froebelian informed play, which we discuss in depth elsewhere (Smedley and Hoskins, 2018). A further necessary ingredient to enable play to flourish is a supportive parent who appreciates the importance of play for all aspects of child development, but this support was not always forthcoming for our practitioners.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Protecting and extending Froebelian principles in practice: Exploring the importance of learning through play

Hoskins

Smedley

2018

Journal of Early Childhood Research

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The current early years emphasis on ensuring young children achieve 'school readiness' has contributed to a context of academic pressure in early years settings in England. The debated term 'school readiness' is vaguely expressed in England's early years curriculum as 'Children reaching a good level of development in the prime areas of literacy and mathematics' (EYFS, 2014, 2017). Opportunities for play, self-directed and adult initiated, are impacted by the academic pressures created by the English government's demands for young children to achieve school readiness (EYFS, 2014, 2017), which can dominate and determine the activities on offer in early years settings (Bradbury, 2014). The possibility to enact Froebelian approaches to learning, through child initiated play, are further marginalized by the current early years policy agenda. A key issue relates to Ofsted, who judge settings primarily in relation to the quality of the academic environment provided and successful academic and developmental outcomes achieved by all children. In our recent research project we sought to understand how much capacity early years practitioners perceived they had to enact Froebelian principles in their daily practice and the importance they attached to Froebel's notion of learning through play. We interviewed 33 early years practitioners in six settings, working with preschool children aged between 2-4 years, about their understanding of Froebel's concept of learning through play, the space, physical and temporal, they had to encourage and enable play and the challenges of supporting children to learn through play. We explored the participants' theoretical understandings of Froebel's work and ideas in their education and training pathways. Our data highlights that many practitioners followed Froebel's approach, but did not overtly name and identify their practice as Froebelian.

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“…We contend that if our participants were able to immerse themselves in their setting with theory that fits their practice, rather than through attending a higher education institution, there is a space for reflexive practice that could develop and enhance developmental professionalism. In our other publications from this project (Hoskins and Smedley (accepted); Smedley and Hoskins, 2018), we argue that a lot of the practice discussed in our interviews is Froebelian, even if not overtly identified as such. By raising the theoretical voice and philosophy that encompasses a Froebelian approach, we could enhance the professional status of the many practitioners who we found to be integrated into their community and identified by the managers in all of our state-maintained settings as providing quality care and education to young children.…”

Section: Professionalising the Workforce: Developmental Professionalismmentioning

confidence: 76%

Higher education provision and access for early years educators: Localised challenges arising from national policy in England

Hoskins

Smedley

2018

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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Much has been written about the sustained attempts by successive governments to professionalise the early years sector over the past 20 years in England. A feature of these policy interventions has been to focus on creating a graduate workforce to improve academic outcomes for young children. In this article, the authors draw on data from their recent Froebel Trust-funded project, which involved interviews with 33 early years practitioners, to first explore the challenges facing state-maintained early years settings in contrasting geographical contexts in England, including rural, suburban and urban, as they work towards achieving compliance with the recent policy aim of one graduate in each of their settings. Second, the authors use policy enactment theory to inform their analysis of senior staff members’ perceptions of tensions and opportunities created by having a graduate workforce in state-maintained early years settings. Third, the authors tentatively explore how to reconceptualise staff education and training with existing, experienced early years staff that would re-emphasise Froebel-informed approaches to enable practitioners to theorise their practice in a move towards what the authors have termed in this article as ‘developmental professionalism’. The data shows that there is uneven access to higher education in contrasting geographical contexts for those professionals seeking to gain graduate status, and the authors examine the implications of this for early years practitioners and managers attempting to access graduate qualifications.

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Finding a place for Froebel's theories: early years practitioners’ understanding and enactment of learning through play

Cited by 7 publications

References 32 publications

Toys for children with the concept of STEM: study of the result from children’s playing activities

Toys for children with the concept of STEM: study of the result from children’s playing activities

Protecting and extending Froebelian principles in practice: Exploring the importance of learning through play

Higher education provision and access for early years educators: Localised challenges arising from national policy in England

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