96 | Quality Early Learning
ecause these games share many of the characteristics of other types of B play, and almost always involve social negotiation and the use of precise language, it seems likely that there are social and linguistic benefits arising from games with rules. The negotiation of rules itself also has strong parallels with the social negotiations that occur in social pretend play, and so is most likely to have similar benefits. The evidence suggests that there is value in the whole spectrum of play (Zosh et al. 2018). Free play, which is child-initiated and controlled by children, and may involve so-called risky play, has been shown to be important for children’s mental health (Sandseter and Kennair 2011; Whitebread 2017) and their development of self-regulation (Barker et al. 2014). However, there is also clear evidence that playful learning can be enhanced by the involvement of adults. This is sometimes referred to as “guided play” (or play in which adults are involved as co-players). As discussed previously, to most enhance the quality of the play and learning, adult involvement needs to be of a facilitating or scaffolding nature rather than direct instruction of a body of knowledge structured by the adult educator.
Key Takeaways • Playful, active learning affects children’s executive functioning, selfregulation, and language development. • Play is multifaceted and can be characterized into five types—physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, pretend play, and games with rules—each of which serves a different purpose.
KEY CURRICULUM ELEMENTS Much time and effort have been spent by many countries in designing preschool curricula. However, these curricula are often not research based, and the most recent, extensive analysis of curricula widely used in US preschool programs shows that those including a designed, but not evidence-based, curriculum, have no more impact on school readiness (academic and socioemotional outcomes) than those without a curriculum (Jenkins et al. 2019). Given the limited resources that are generally available in low- and middle-income countries, high quality can be most cost efficiently achieved by putting resources into training educators in the relational pedagogy set out in this chapter rather than in devising a highly sophisticated and detailed curriculum. Chapter 3 addresses how to train teachers on curriculum and pedagogy via initial training and continuing professional development. This section reviews evidence underpinning key principles relating to a
