Play is serious business. Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to: optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day. "We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional. Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.
A practical book for teachers consisting of 10 YC and TYC articles on the importance of integrating rich content-based, teacher-guided instruction with meaningful child-centered play to nurture children's emerging capabilities and skills.
`An excellent overview of the development in thinking about play, based on research into different aspects of play...This book enables the reader to not only access, and engage with developing theories and ideas, but also provides practical ideas and examples that have been tried and tested in the classroom. This book should be compulsory reading for every teacher of young children who are interested in developing their practice to provide a stimulating, active and playful environment with their children in which effective learning and positive attitudes are developed' - Bernadette Hancock, Headteacher of Christ the King Primary School, Cardiff `One of the major strengths of the book is that it makes some complex theory highly accessible to its audience....This makes it an excellent introductory book for use on inservice and undergraduate programs' - Sue Rogers, Institute of Education `This book aims to improve the quality of play in "educational" settings. It will be valuable for a wide range of practitioners' - Nursery World `In this new and updated edition of an outstanding book, Wood and Attfield once again demonstrate how young children make meaning, and construct knowledge, through play. They combine an informed discussion of the 'ideological tradition' of the early childhood pioneers, which continues to underpin most contemporary provision, with a refreshing openness to the new insights provided by recent research, and the new opportunities offered by the Foundation Stage era. Their unrivalled explanation of the links between theorists, such as Vygotsky, and classroom provision for play, is now expanded through considerations of recent findings in neuroscience, and a renewed awareness of the sociocultural contexts of childhood, as well as by studies which acknowledge the importance of boisterous, rough-and-tumble, play activities for children's development. And throughout, they remind readers and practitioners of the important distinction between play as a spontaneous activity of children ('play as such'), and the play which educators offer as a medium for learning' - Elizabeth Brooker, Course Leader: MA in Childhood Studies, Institute of Education 'This book provides a thorough and up-to-date overview of the topical issue of teaching and learning through play. Chapters cover issues including assessment through play, the role of adults in children's play, the impact of play on social and emotional learning and how to develop a whole-school approach to learning through play. ...This book is theoretical and detailed but extremely interesting and there is certainly practical information to be found in it' - Early Talk This timely Second Edition explores recent developments which strongly endorse play as an integral part of the curriculum. The content has been fully revised to reflect contemporary thinking about the role and value of play in early childhood and beyond. A key focus is the provision of a secure theoretical and practical grounding for developing a pedagogy of play. In the first section, the authors provide an overview of recent developments in education policies, and reviews of research into different aspects of play. In the second section, the emphasis is on classroom practice, specifically: organizing and developing play with particular reference to the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1; establishing progression and continuity with Key Stage 1; assessing children's learning through play; the role of adults in children's play; using the plan-do-review approach to integrate child-initiated and adult-directed play; the importance of socio-dramatic play for children's social and emotional learning; and developing a whole-school play ethos. This book enables practitioners to create unity between play, learning and teaching, and to improve the quality of children's learning. New material provided by practitioners has been added, to show how this unity can be successfully achieved. This is an essential text for students of education. It is highly recommended to those undertaking degrees in Childhood Studies and those on Initial Teacher Training programmes in early years and primary education.
Learning Through Play translates the theory of play into practice while seamlessly integrating the Australian Curriculum, government policy and current trends. It aims to create a shared understanding of play and play-based pedagogies that positively influence the everyday practices of educators and improve the learning experiences of children. The book extensively covers the various contexts that children may engage with during the early years - the period from birth to age 8. Learning Through Play is structured to complement the Early Years Learning Framework and early childhood education studies. It begins by drawing on theories to discuss the centrality of play to children's development and learning, then delves into the practicalities and challenges of implementing these play-based approaches, and finally discusses the future of play in early childhood contexts. With several learning features that blend theory, context and practical skills, Learning Through Play will not only help pre-service teachers to understand play in principle and in practice, but also to advocate articulately for play-based approaches.
In Play=Learning, top experts in child development and learning contend that in over-emphasizing academic achievement, our culture has forgotten about the importance of play for children's development.
Why Play? Learning Through Play is a valuable resource for everyone interested in exploring early childhood education and development. This book explores the critical importance of play for children (and for adults!) Some topics discussed include: Reasons that play is important Types of play Brain development Health and nutrition Tips for how adults can promote play Educational philosophies For more information and to explore the world of play visit, www.whyplay60.org
Planning is central to the role of any early years practitioner and involves careful consideration of resources and the learning environment, learning outcomes, observation and assessment and the unique abilities of individual children. This is a big ask and in a busy setting it can be a challenge to adopt a flexible, creative approach to planning that embraces the unexpected rather than relying on templates or existing schemes of work. This book takes a fresh look at planning to consider the possibilities that should be encouraged when playing alongside young children. It shows how a creative approach that allows for spontaneous adventures in play through child-led projects leads to rich learning experiences that build on children’s own interests. Drawing on practice from Reggio Emilia, New Zealand , Scandinavia and settings in the UK, the book covers all aspects of planning including: using observations of children to enable them to lead projects; organisation of indoor and outdoor learning environments; inclusive practice; learning through risk taking and adventure play; working with parents and carers; encouraging the team to consider different ways of working. Including encounters from authentic settings and provocative questions for reflective practice, this timely new text aims to give students and practitioners the confidence to adopt a flexible approach to planning that will better meet the needs of the children in their care. The authors are experienced lecturers, practitioners, mentors and assessors. Working with students, visiting placements, training teachers and early years professionals, they provide a sense of real purpose in their writing and enjoyment in the themes made explicit throughout this book.
In this textbook the author takes as inspiration recent breakthroughs in game playing to explain how and why deep reinforcement learning works. In particular he shows why two-person games of tactics and strategy fascinate scientists, programmers, and game enthusiasts and unite them in a common goal: to create artificial intelligence (AI). After an introduction to the core concepts, environment, and communities of intelligence and games, the book is organized into chapters on reinforcement learning, heuristic planning, adaptive sampling, function approximation, and self-play. The author takes a hands-on approach throughout, with Python code examples and exercises that help the reader understand how AI learns to play. He also supports the main text with detailed pointers to online machine learning frameworks, technical details for AlphaGo, notes on how to play and program Go and chess, and a comprehensive bibliography. The content is class-tested and suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on artificial intelligence and games. It's also appropriate for self-study by professionals engaged with applications of machine learning and with games development. Finally it's valuable for any reader engaged with the philosophical implications of artificial and general intelligence, games represent a modern Turing test of the power and limitations of AI.
"The chosen approach allows HS to move into truly original themes and conclusions. In an argument for the importance of social dynamics as key for innovation he elegantly moves beyond the established norms in innovation literature. HS skillfully manages to avoid a dogmatic critique of existing literature, and instead points to the need for diverse and complementary approaches and the need to combine them through more comprehensive and multi-faceted frameworks. In the work the author demonstrates a comprehensive insight into theories of play and games, and also contributes to knowledge by proposing a linking of different discourses that each in their way deal with social dynamics, e.g. institutional theory, social capital theory and the theory of complex responsive processes of relating." The Assessment Committee.
