This page shares text accessible versions of different interactive elements in our first chapter. This includes transcripts for any audio-visual material such as video podcasts and videos that formed part of Chapter 1 learning.

Introduction to Chapter 1: What is play-based learning, Engaging with this chapter – transcript

Introductory title screens

The short vodcast begins with a Deakin University logo appearing on screen. Followed by the below Acknowledgement of Country:

We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first sovereign people of this land. As a community of educators we recognise with deep respect their continuing connections to lands, waters, knowledges and cultures. In doing so we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

An animated title screen appears reading:

WHAT IS PLAY-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING. ENGAGING WITH THIS CHAPTER.

Narrated content

The vodcast then has a single narrator sharing with you the following advice:

This first chapter plays a fundamental role in this book as it really situates what we mean by play-based learning. You’ll notice that part of this chapter looks closely at definitions and provides a language to start thinking about what we refer to as a play-based environment.

And I think that like in any good fundamental chapter, you’ll also note we start talking about the teacher’s role at the benefits for learning. And these threads are really so essential to any dialogue about play-based learning its benefits for children.

We hope as you get through chapter one those fundamental elements put you in a very good place to consider some of the discussions that are going to emerge in the following chapters. Just as we encouraged in the introduction, and I’m about to do again now, please make sure you get on to those interactives and you use the different resources that are made available to you throughout the text.

The vodcast finishes with a fade to black screen.

Play and Learning video with Dr Robertson and Paatsch – Play within the primary classroom. Vodcast content and transcript

Introductory information on the screen

The short vodcast begins with a Deakin University logo appearing on screen. Followed by the appearance of photographic images of Dr. Natalie Robertson and Louise Patch.

Narrated content

The vodcast then has a discussion between the pair sharing the following advice:

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Hi everyone and welcome to this discussion on play within the primary class. My name is Doctor Natalie Robertson and I’m a senior lecturer at Deakin University. I’m joined today by Louise Patch who is a professor at Deakin University.

We have both researched children play and play-based and inquiry learning in the early and middle years of childhood. In national and international contexts.

Louise Patch: Hi everyone, thanks for listening.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: So to begin, we would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We would like to pay our respects to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today.

So Louise, we’re holding a discussion about play and its relationship with learning today. What do you think? Best explains the concept of what play is?

Louise Patch: Well, what a huge question to answer Natalie.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Sorry.

Louise Patch: Play can be just so many different things to different people. And for me it’s the nature of play, that makes its meaning really complicated and it’s multifaceted.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: It is, isn’t it?

Louise Patch: I see where students inquire about the world around them, using their imagination to explore or discover, collaborate, improvise or create. And it’s an engaging experience for young children where they can ask questions, build narrative. They build their literacy skills, they can design investigations.

Louise Patch: What else? Explore mathematical and scientific concepts. They co-construct knowledge of the world around them. And what we also see is huge opportunities for interacting and communicating with others. And that’s how they form their peer relationships, as well as they interact and communicate.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah, and those peer relationships and the process of interacting and communicating. It’s such a great way for children to build their resilience and their self regulation as well.

Louise Patch: Absolutely.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: They make those interpretations and form explanations, and form such great arguments based on their discoveries as well. I think that’s such a great way to explain what the key elements of play is.

Louise Patch: Absolutely.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: What I also find is important to understand about play. And perhaps could also be the most complicated aspect, is that it’s not defined by anyone experience.

Louise Patch: No, not at all.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Play incorporates a wide range of activities. So you might have children that are engaged in play when they’re playing construction with blocks.

They might be in play, when they’re running around on the playground, running climbing, swinging. They could be wrestling on the grass with their friends, or maybe creating artefacts, or creating a dance.

It’s just so wide in variety, but I think that the most important aspect that we need to consider about play, is that there’s always, or almost always, a component of imagination involved.

Louise Patch: That’s such an important point, I think Natalie. I think in their play-based and inquiry learning approach in the classroom.

The main aims are to use your imaginary context and for students, you know their internal motivation. To support that inquiry of their world and through these experiences students are using their imagination. They’re learning.

And I think when teachers identify this learning. They can support these students in what they’re playing, but also in other parts of the curriculum as well.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah, and it reminds me of when we visited that school last year and we saw children involved in a play-based and inquiry approach.

Louise Patch: That’s right, yes. When they were learning about mammals. Oh yes, that’s right.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: So they would be introduced to the concepts of mammals, through a whole group discussion.

Louise Patch: That’s right. And then they had the small stations.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yes yes. So they were set up by the teacher. And remember they had that science area.

Louise Patch: Oh they had the lab coats.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yes and they would be able to learn in that section, more about mammals through books or the computer or iPads.

Louise Patch: And then they had the toys and the blocks as well, that’s right.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah yeah, and they were prompted by the resources in that section to build something and then act out with the toys.

Louise Patch: Absolutely. I remember that classroom really well Natalie. I also remember that this classroom had two other important features. I think for me the first was about the powerful role of the imagination played in the student’s enquiries, and I think the second was the role of the teacher.

Such a critical role for me, because I saw that teacher how she made the students play, and they’re learning really purposeful.

She used a whole lot of integrated teaching approaches, that allowed the students the time to explore with their peers, but also time on their own.

She also knew when she needed to step in though. She wasn’t just watching them. She stepped in, she asked more questions. She provided some direction. And she also prompted them to engage multiple learning areas while in the play.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah, it was truly amazing and I remember they were writing their findings, discoveries and stories up from their play into books. Which was corrected by the teacher using the Victorian Curriculum English focus areas for writing.

Louise Patch: Yeah, that’s right. They were making assessments and while she was doing that, she was looking at the children’s text structure, their punctuation and expression of ideas.

She was also looking at prompting and adding a problem, that they could then write about. And then further to this, the teachers were getting involved in the students play, so they always supported them.

Whether it was, as I say, prompting with a problem and therefore the children were then saying, “Oh, we’ve got to resolve this.”

And they had to work it out and problem solve. So the teacher was also making language assessments and she was also supporting general capabilities, particularly the one around the social and emotional.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Very, very integrated and I think I also noticed the mathematics in there too. Students were recording measurements of animal footprints and counting incorporated into their play enquiries as well.

Louise Patch: Absolutely, there’s so many opportunities for the children’s learning, when they were using play-based and inquiry.

And I suppose this is why so many researchers that we know suggest that when you examine children’s play you can actually gain insight, into their conceptual awareness of a topic.

The link with their social capabilities, the link to their communication language and cognitive abilities.

As well as their mathematical concepts, numeracy, etc. And I think we can capture both the processes and the outcomes of children’s learning.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah, so I’m finding that there’s a lot of common misconceptions of play. For example, I’m constantly hearing adults saying how fun or joyful plays the young children and that children learn through play because they find it to be fun. However, play is not always a place of joy or pleasure for children.

Louise Patch: No, not always.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Sometimes, for example, it could bring up some strong social biases, or children could be exploring some complex and challenging ideas. Often for example, children will be exploring the concept of death, or they’ll be exploring concepts and fear that they’ve experienced, they’ve heard about or they have seen on TV.

Louise Patch: Absolutely agree with you.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: And so I just worry, that such a romanticised view of play just being fun. Can take away that significance and depth of the experience for the child. And also, we can’t assume that children are having fun when they’re playing.

Louise Patch: Oh absolutely, I remember one of the schools I was out watching the children play and they were working with their topic of safari and building their knowledge around mammals, and they were all allocating roles. One girl said she didn’t want to be a cheetah, which was very funny, but the other children told her that only boys. Because boys were fast. And the girl said that there were girl cheetahs in the wild and that she was a faster runner than Daniel. Who was a boy in the class.

Anyway, there was conflict and they had to resolve it, but she ended up being a zebra, so.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Oh no, was she upset?

Louise Patch: Yes, absolutely, but she did not mean it. You know they worked it out and they end up resolving it and that’s part of that whole conflict resolution. That’s really important for them in social skills.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yeah, yeah. Look, I’ve seen very similar situations unfold as well. Children can be left out of the play altogether. But as you said, that’s an important part of building up those general capabilities in social and personal skills. So I think that it’s just important for us as adults to just acknowledge that children will internalise experiences and knowledges during play.

Louise Patch: There’s another common misconception that I often hear too. It’s around that whole notion that play-based learning is led holy by the child. And the adults have a minimal role in their play and learning. And they see it kind of as a time for just free play. And children can do what they like.

Dr. Natalie Robertson: Yes, I know in my research I often find that this free play approach will often become a situation where the teacher then becomes a security guard, overseeing the children. And intervening only if there’s a behavioural issue or if someone’s safety is at risk. And it creates a bit of a strange situation, because there’s that big belief by teachers and adults that free play best supports children engagement in play. Because they’re giving children all this time to run free and interact and play with each other.

However, what I found is that children are less engaged in play and learning. When there’s not an appropriate or good balance of play. Where the child leads the experience, and situations also where the teacher gets involved and guide children in the experience as well.

Louise Patch: In the research that I’ve done with Andrew Nolan. We’ve seen that was a real issue for the teachers to say, what is my role in this play? And what we saw was that those teachers, that actually became in certain situations the player.

It was really important then for the children to see what a player does. To role model that and then they will be able to move it into their own play context later on.

So the adult has a crucial role here. And probably one of the most challenging parts for teachers is actually to know when to come in and when to remove and when to observe and just look at the children playing.

The vodcast finishes with a fade to black screen.

Differentiation in Practice. Video content and transcript

Introductory information on the screen

The short video begins with a Deakin University logo appearing on screen. Followed by the below Acknowledgement of Country:

We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first sovereign people of this land. As a community of educators we recognise with deep respect their continuing connections to lands, waters, knowledges and cultures. In doing so we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

An animated title screen appears reading:

DIFFERENTIATION IN PRACTICE. CHAPTER 1.

Narrated content

The video has Foundation teacher Elise Fraser, speaking to camera with the following advice:

To differentiate our learning for diverse learners, it’s making sure that you do have different opportunities for them. So just because we as an adult might get really super excited about a scene you’ve setup, doesn’t mean other children will.

Other times it might be that we’ve picked up on some language or something they’re needing more support in. And so we might set up a play scene for that or a mini-world to direct that language, that then builds that confidence for them to then take it and use it at other times as well.

We’ve got different settings. So our role-play setting, construction. But we’ve also then – it’s the hands-on in other ways as well.

It looks like children engaged. That’s the main benefit we’ve definitely seen, is that everyone’s in there having a go. Or if we do notice something, that’s when we’ll jump in with some guided play just to get them rolling.

My role as the teacher, it can differentiate. So sometimes it is that guide if you’re needing to help them along the way.

Sometimes you’re in there as the character. So they can pull you in and say: “Oh, you’re the robber now!” And if not, I’m changing into another role as well. And sometimes the mediator between the sharing and those sorts of things.

But it’s those life skills that we’re just trying to build them up for.

If we’re looking at say, a literacy or some oral language, sometimes I do need to be more of that guide to bring that language in.

Other times, if it’s in a supermarket setting: “Can you go get me four apples…”and you’re bringing that counting in.

So guiding and teaching. But other times it can be: “Hey, you know, you’re this…” Putting on a superhero cape and you’ve turned into Superman. And yet you’re going along and having some fun with them as well.

Play-based learning has many benefits for children’s learning. It comes down to also just that engagement. Anytime that they’re given that opportunity, they’re in having a go, they’re directing it, they’re leading it, they’re bringing others in who they might not consider friends out in the playground.

But also it’s just that again, you get to hit so many things from the curriculum, so your oral language, but also those other skills of sharing, even just problem-solving. Oh, so you know: “The fire’s hot!… What should we do?” Let’s step back. Giving those opportunities as well.

So as an adult or a teacher in this space, it’s just seeing that everyone’s having a chance and an opportunity guiding them if they need it.

The video finishes with a fade to black screen.