The Development of Spatial Representation Through Teaching Block-Building in Kindergartners

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of the teaching block-building intervention on overall spatial representation and its three sub-forms, namely linguistic, graphic and model representations, in kindergartners. Eighty-four children (39 girls and 45 boys), aged 5–6 years old, were randomly selected and equally divided into two groups, i.e., experimental group and control group. The experimental group received the intervention of teaching block-building for 14 weeks (45 min each time, once a week), while children in the control group freely played with blocks for the equivalent time. Children’s spatial representation performances were measured in both pre- and post-tests by the Experimental Tasks of Spatial Representation for Children . The results showed that: (1) teaching block-building could promote not only the overall spatial representation but also all three sub-forms of spatial representations; (2) there was no gender differences regarding the effect of teaching block-building on neither the overall nor three sub-forms of spatial representations; (3) after the intervention, the diversity of children’s choices regarding the use of sub-forms spatial representations was also promoted in the experimental group. In summary, these results contributed to a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the effects of teaching block-building on spatial representation among children in kindergartens.

Theme-Based Block Play Intervention Facilitates Chinese Preschoolers’ Language Development: A Quasi-Experiment

“…Block play is a common activity in the early years, which has also been defined as an open-ended, creative, and valuable play and learning experience available to every setting, offering children enormous opportunities to explore their surrounding world by taking apart and putting back together any block-based creation they can think of ( Rybczynski and Troy, 1995 ; Ferrara et al, 2011 ; Cai et al, 2020 ). In the past decades, researchers reached a consensus that block play in the early years generates various kinds of benefits for children’s development, which include but are not limited to: motor and fine-motor skills ( Hanline et al, 2001 ), social development (i.e., peer-relationship, cooperation, prosocial behaviors, etc., see Rybczynski and Troy, 1995 ), cognitive development [i.e., spatial ability, see Wolfgang et al (2001) for example; math achievement, see Hanline et al (2010) for example; engineering potentials, etc., see Cai et al (2020) for example], and language development ( Stroud, 1995 ; Pickett, 1998 ; Christakis et al, 2007 ; Cohen and Uhry, 2007 ; Ferrara et al, 2011 ).…”

“…Specifically, theme-based block play (or theme-based constructive play), an exploratory construction activity carried out by children, has become more common and popular than before in Chinese kindergarten. During a theme-based block play, children are allowed to operate different types of building blocks, using construction skills such as tiling, widening, enclosing, inlaying, and combining their own experience under the guidance and support of teachers ( Liu, 2004 ; Cai, 2018 ; Yan, 2018 ; Wang, 2019 ; Cai et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, Liu (2004) stated that children could acquire the skills of building blocks and gain various beneficial experiences in the theme-based block building activity, uniting all kinds of developmental domains into one early learning curriculum.…”

“…In this perspective, block play has been viewed as a comprehensive playful learning activity that integrates aesthetics, creativity, cognition, and language development ( Liu, 2004 ). Under this trend, more and more kindergartens and teachers in China have experienced plenty of teaching practice in organizing theme-based block play activities, gradually establishing a comprehensive and developed program ( Yan, 2018 ; Wang, 2019 ; Cai et al, 2020 ). For example, Yan (2018) concluded four elements of theme-based block play activity in early years learning, including (1) life-oriented construction theme to stimulate children to explore and conceptualize, (2) appropriate ways to respect and understand children’s independent exploring and trials, (3) sufficient space to provide proper guidance and encouragement, and (4) diversified and comprehensive, constructive play to enhance children’s playful learning and constructive development.…”