Availability of Content and Procedure of Play Strategies for Holistic Development in Preschool Children

Availability of Content and Procedure of Play Strategies for Holistic Development in Preschool Children

Content Structure of Availability of Content and Procedure of Play Strategies for Holistic Development in Preschool Children

• The abstract contains the research problem, the objectives, methodology, results, and recommendations
• Chapter one of this thesis or project materials contains the background to the study, the research problem, the research questions, research objectives, research hypotheses, significance of the study, the scope of the study, organization of the study, and the operational definition of terms.
• Chapter two contains relevant literature on the issue under investigation. The chapter is divided into five parts which are the conceptual review, theoretical review, empirical review, conceptual framework, and gaps in research
• Chapter three contains the research design, study area, population, sample size and sampling technique, validity, reliability, source of data, operationalization of variables, research models, and data analysis method
• Chapter four contains the data analysis and the discussion of the findings
• Chapter five contains the summary of findings, conclusions, recommendations, contributions to knowledge, and recommendations for further studies.
• References: The references are in APA
• Questionnaire.

 

Chapter One of Availability of Content and Procedure of Play Strategies for Holistic Development in Preschool Children

Back ground to the Study

Play can be used as an effective means to increase early literacy and promote reading comprehension skills (Haven & Duccey, 2007). Through active engagement, play as a pedagogical strategy can strengthen reading comprehension by helping pupils develop of a sense of action (Alex, 1988, Craig, Hull, Haggart & Crowder, 2001; Philips 1999). Having a sense of action is critical for pupils to make sense of text and derive meaning from a play.  In play, the interaction is personal, engaging and immediate (Aiex, 1988). These characteristics allow play to capture the attention of the audience. This enhances an understanding of the play by providing a social context for literacy.  Pupils can learn the social aspects of language through observation and participation in play (Iraig, 2001). Pupils have the ability to watch the players use action and facial expressions to engage the audience (Aiex 1988). When pupils activate plays, they have the opportunity to further develop their skills of comprehension by relating ideas with expression.

A developmental perspective pays attention to signs of maturing, whether of children maturing or, of the maturing of play (Scarlett et al., 2005). In this regard, Fromberg and Bergen (2006 p. xv) highlight what they describe as the permeable nature of play as it interacts with, parallels, represents and integrates physical, social, emotional, aesthetic and cognitive experiences. Ethnographic studies have illustrated that young human beings play in all societies (Schwartzman, 1978) although it is recognised that the types and forms of children’s play and the amount of play varies depending upon age, gender, cultural contexts and ecological characteristics of the play settings (Armitage, 2005; Bloch and Pellegrini, 1989; Smith and Connolly, 1980; Sutton-Smith, 1997). An anthropological view of play views it as an activity in its own right, where the main motive for children to come together is ‘to be where the action is’, while researchers have explored questions such as What is play in itself? and What does it mean for the player? (James, 1998; Strandell, 2000).

A collaborative understanding of play proposed by three ‘play advocacy’ organisations in the United Kingdom and adopted as underpinning Ireland’s National Play Policy (2004) captures these multiple perspectives: Children’s play is freely chosen personally directed behaviour, motivated from within by needs, wants and desires. Play can be fun or serious. Through play children explore social, material and imaginary worlds and their relationship with them, elaborating all the while a flexible range of responses to the challenges they encounter. By playing children learn and develop as individuals, and as members of the community (National Playing Fields Association, PLAYLINK and the Children’s Play Council (2000, p.6 cited in Ready Steady Play! A National Play Policy, National Children’s Office, 2004).

Statement of the Problem 

Early childhood years have been described as a very important stage, wherein a substantial aspect of the child’s intellectual, socio-emotional, physical competencies are developed. The use of play as an instructional strategy for holistic development in early childhood classes has been variously established by many research findings reports and scholarly writings. Yet, early childhood teachers are said to increasingly seeing procedure of play as a waste of time and scarce  resources  in their classes. This has led to the shift of attention and concentrate on the use of other methods perceived as more productive but not effective in given holistic development and also not academically fruitful. Past studies in this area were concentrated on the effectiveness of play strategy in classroom and less, if not any, attention was placed on availability and the procedure of use this strategy. This study therefore investigated availability, contents and procedures of using play strategy for holistic development of preschool children in Ayedire Local Government of Osun State.

Research Questions

The following research questions were generated to guide this study

1. To what extent are there play that are context appropriate for teaching?

2. What are the common play that reflect the development of:

a. Socio-emotional  b. Physical  c. Intellectual in the preschools children?

3. To what extent do the availability and content relatively influence the use of play in preschool children?

4. To what extent do the availability and content compositely influence the use of play in preschool children?

 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of the research is to study the availability of content and procedure of play strategy for holistic development of preschool children.

Significance of Study

 Play has been referred to as a very important tool through which (children’s) intellectual, socio-emotional, physical and language domains could be developed. To this end the findings from this study would reveal the availability, contents, procedure of use play strategy for holistic development of preschool children. Finding from this study would also reveal the extent to which the pre- school availability of the play to holistic development of preschool children in the cognitive, socio-emotional and physical. Private and public school administrators would benefit from this research as it would assist them in placement of appropriate procedure for teacher using play for holistic development of preschool children.

 Scope of the Study

This study investigated the availability, contents, and procedures of using play strategies for holistic development of preschool children. The study focused on the intellectual, socio-emotional and physical development of children. The study covered both public and private preschool in Ayedire L.G.

REFERENCES

1. Bloch M.N. and Pellegrino A.D. 1989. Introduction, ways of looking at children content and play in: M. N. Bloch and A. D. Pellegrino (Eds). The ecological context of children play. (Norwood N. Groom Helm), 1-15.

2. James A., Jenks C. and Pront A. 1998. Theorizing childhood. (Cambridge, polity)

3. Fromberg D.P. and Bergen D. 2006. Introduction in D.P. Fromberg and D. Bergen (Eds). Play from  birth to twelve: Contents, perspectives and meanings. (New York, Rutledge).

4. James E. and Reynolds G. 1992. The play is the thing: teachers’ role in children’s plsy. (Newyork college press).

5. James A. 1998. Play in childhood: an anthropological perspective, child psychology and psychiatry Review, 3, 104 -109.

6. National children Nursery Association 2002. We like this place. Guidelines for best practice in the Design of childcare facilities. ( Dublin National children association).

7. National children office, 2004. Ready, steady, play! A National play policy. (Dublin stationery office)

8. Scarlett W. G., Naudeau S., Salonius- Pasternak D. and Poute I. 2005. Children’s play (Thousand Oaks, Sage).

9. Schwarzman H.B. 1978. Transformations, the anthropology of children’s play. (New york, plenura press).

10. Smith P.K. and Conolly, K.J. 1980. The Ecology of preschool behaviour. (Cambridge, Cambridge University press).

11. Strendell, H. 2000. WWhat is the use of children’s play: preparation or social participation in: Penn (Eds). Early childhood services; theory, policy and practice. (Bucking ham: open university press), 147-157.

12. Sulton- smith B. 1997. The ambiguity of play. (Cambridge, mass: Harvard university press)

13. The children society 2007. The good childhood: a national inquiry.

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