Early Childhood Education Pre-service Teachers' Concepts of Play

Abstract

The subject of play in the classroom is extremely controversial, especially since bigger emphases have been put on accountability and academics even in the very early grades. The steady removal of play from schools is controversial among members of the field of early childhood education, because play has generally been considered as an important vehicle for learning. However, there is little research regarding how changes in beliefs about play have been affecting pre-service teachers, who are instead immersed in theory, rather than practice. The purpose of this study was to extend the knowledge base on pre-service teachers' assumptions about, and perceptions of, play, in order to better inform teacher education practices as well as general understandings about how pre-existing mental frameworks affect teachers even before they enter a classroom. Sixty-five undergraduate pre-service teachers participated in this mixed-methods study. Their beliefs about adjectives describing play and activities constituting play were assessed. Results indicate that there are very few significant differences among cohorts, but beliefs about play are widely varied among pre-service teachers in the same teacher education program. This suggests that while paradigms regarding play may not differ among cohorts, they are as widely varied in the pre-service time period as researchers suggest they are throughout the field of early childhood education.