Is it play? Towards a reconceptualisation of role play from an activity theory perspective

Oers, Bert van

doi:10.1080/1350293x.2013.789199

Cited by 97 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Vogel has made an interesting start with integrating play and mathematics learning, but further elaboration is needed to include play activities that go beyond adult defined rule-games (with sticks and blocks). One may also doubt here, whether the old assumption of "purposelessness" (as in Vogel's definition) is a productive assumption for a valid definition of play as an educational context, and whether this is a necessarily to be included as a defining characteristic (van Oers, 2013a).…”

Section: The Theory Of Mathematical Learning and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Challenges in the innovation of mathematics education for young children

Oers

2013

Educ Stud Math

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The early bird catches the wormTechnological developments over the past 50 years have opened new opportunities for action and prosperity for many citizens all over the world. Consequently this has also significantly raised the need for an ever improving education system that is supposed to equip citizens with high quality cultural tools, skills and attitudes to keep up with the pace and innovations of cultural development.Governments all over the world try to answer these increasing demands with a number of policies regarding how the educational system should contribute to a higher general educational level among people, how to lay the foundations for new expertise and innovations for the future, and take care that no child is left behind. Governments spend big (though differing) amounts of money in research for improvement of the educational system and require accountability of schools in return. In the ways that governments in the industrialised countries try to influence the research agenda, and maximize the value of research outcomes and school improvements, a number of communalities can be seen. First of all, there is a strong tendency worldwide to concentrate on raising the achievement levels of students in the domains of reading and mathematics. This aim is furthermore often combine with a firm belief that achievement levels are validly represented by test scores. The difficulties in achieving these goals have furthermore led to the tendency to concentrate on research and program development for the younger children. It is widely believed that early starts in domains like reading and mathematics (when properly implemented) will provide children with benefits that can help them flourish in a future society. It is the early bird who catches the worm.Educational research over the past decades has definitely produced useful understandings that can support the innovation of early childhood education and confirm this "early bird assumption". However, it also turned out that the complexity of the problem denies easy solutions and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Each of these ambitions produces many different challenges (ethical, cultural, theoretical, practical) that ask for further elaboration and collaboration, and that may finally even contest some of the current assumptions involved.

show abstract

Section: The Theory Of Mathematical Learning and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Challenges in the innovation of mathematics education for young children

Oers

2013

Educ Stud Math

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although there are various definitions of "play," from wide to limited (e.g. Piaget, 1962;van Oers, 2013;Vygotsky, 1930Vygotsky, /1978, in our study, "outdoor play" includes all of the activities that the children from age 0 to 6 are engaged in during their stay in the centers. The reason that we define "play" so widely is that, for children, "play" includes a number of different thingssuch as caring for plants and animals, taking rest under trees, and observing other children between their active playtimes -that adults do not generally define as "play" (Tsujitani, Akita, Miyata, Sugimoto, & Miyamoto, 2016).…”

Section: Concerning the Outdoor Environment The Kindergarten Standarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variations in Staff Viewpoints regarding Children’s Outdoor Play in Japanese ECEC Playgrounds

Tsujitani¹,

Akita²,

Ishida³

et al. 2018

Pac Early Child Educ Res Assoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study aimed to reveal variations in Japanese early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers' practices and thoughts regarding outdoor play and relationship between the two. A questionnaire was distributed and the answers from 1,659 centers were analyzed. First, it was revealed that the frequency and perceived importance of practice in outdoor environments are different between centers. Some outdoor practices are thought to be important in many centers while others are not. Second, a confirmatory factor analysis showed that centers varied in their practices and the perceived importance of direct or indirect guidance for children in outdoor play although indirect guidance was rated highly in many centers. This means that the varied thinking about outdoor play in Japanese centers can be seen in how they teach physical activities or make use of playgrounds. Third, it was revealed that thoughts about fostering children's build strength and acquire athletic skills vary between centers and centers focusing on such things had high scores in direct guidance while centers focusing on children's wonder or interests had low ones. In conclusion, we can consider ECEC's outdoor play practices and perception together and what centers value is important in discussing the quality of outdoor environments for children's development.

show abstract

“…Although a lot of work in this area has been done, play is a difficult concept to define ( van Oers, 2013;Samuelsson & Carlsson, 2008). One possible explanation for this difficulty is the subjective part of play, where it is up to the individual what is considered being play or not.…”

Section: Mathematics and Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a longer discussion what play and freedom might encompass and history of research in play, see e.g. van Oers (2013) and Lifter et al (2011).…”

Section: Mathematics and Playmentioning

confidence: 99%