Introduction:

Play is an important and complex topic in relations to childrens development. In this paper, I will come out with a concept diagram (model of play) and then reflect on the active institutional practices that led to the concept diagram and theoretical discussion that linked to the model of play. Besides that, the evidence of play observations and planning and explanation from childs perspective of why this particular model of play is pedagogically sound will be explained in this paper. Moreover, the conclusion and references will be provided at the end of the paper.

Model of play:

Family
Knowledge & Experience

Educator

Interest

Imagination

PLAY
Interaction

Creativity

Social Context

School

Community

Reflection on active institutional practices that led to concept diagram:

In my concept diagram (play model), I have included the active institutional practices which are the family, educator, school and community as the outer layer of my diagram. I think that it is really important to include these elements in my play model as it makes a huge impact in childrens learning and play. Besides that, the children participate in different institutional setting such as the home, school and community affords different opportunities for their learning in daily life.

Children grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships which provide love and nurturance, security, responsive interaction, and encouragement for exploration. Therefore, a childs first experience with this kind of relationship is at home with a loving family. The Victorian Framework recognises that childrens learning and development takes place in the context of their families as the families are the childrens first and most important educators (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [DEECD], 2009). Families provide children with the relationships, the opportunities, value of different cultures and background and the experiences that shape their learning and development. I believed that young children learn from their family home, then in their wider communities and in their early childhood setting. Though, the professional educators also play an important role in childrens play as well, not only in supporting the early childhood setting but also respond to what s/he notices and recognizes when children play. However, this will depend on the culture of the centre and on the teachers own understanding and experiences, on his or her belief about teaching and learning, and the knowledge of children and their families (Brooker and Edwards, 2010).

Young children live within a wider community and interact with the people, objects and different places in the community. Moreover, the observations that the children made regarding the activities that are happening in the community forms their learning and experiences. Therefore, the children may bring some of these experiences into their play in school or at home. For instance, a child who went to for a dental check-up might bring that experience into their play by pretending to be a dentist.

Play is an essential medium through which children learn who they are as individuals and how they are expected to interact with others and in the various setting in which they engage. The other important element that I have included in my play model is the early childhood centre (school). Early childhood centre is also an active institutional that provide education with various programs, curriculum and pedagogy that support children with the opportunity to develop their imagination and creativity of play in their learning. In order to accomplish this, the school have to equip the children with spaces, materials, conducive environment and the support they need to explore their real life or imaginary world. On the other hand, early childhood settings are such institutions which they have the considerable responsibility for how children are prepared for their roles in society. Therefore, the effective programmes of play and learning in school respond to childrens funds of knowledge through selecting activities of the real world of childrens homes and communities, providing links between various aspects of children lives (Gonzalez et al. 2005, as cited in Brooker and Edwards, 2010).

Theoretical discussion linked to personal model of play:

Apart from the active institutional practices which formed the outer layer of my model of play, I have placed six other important elements in the play model which are knowledge and experience, imagination, interest, creativity, interaction and social context which also constantly connected and influence childrens play.

My concept diagram (play model) is very much influenced by Vygotskys sociocultural cognitive theory which has stimulated considerable interest in the view that knowledge is situated and collaborative. The sociocultural cognitive theory explains that knowledge is not constructed within the individual but generated through interaction with people and objects in the environment (Santrock, 2007). Clearly, in order to achieve the highest level of development possible, it is important for the educators to expose children to a variety of social situations, since each interaction is considered a learning experience. Furthermore, it is also important to introduce children to people and ideas that operate above their current knowledge level, giving them access to new ideas and concepts and guiding them working as part of a group all provide opportunities for them to expand their current base of knowledge.

According to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), play is a context for learning that enables children to make connections between prior experiences and new learning (Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009). Moreover, we can always see that imagination usually occurs most of the time during childrens play. Imagination is the ability and creation of a person to form images in a phenomenal world. Although they are not factual, it enhances the creativity ability of a person. Gordon and Browne (2008) identified that play is the essence of creativity in children throughout the world. In my observation of childrens play during my placement, I found that children develop their creativity imagination from play. Creative imagination creates inspiration for new development. Besides that, imagination also creates improvising ideas which could actualise in reality. Fleer (2013) stated that, the dimension of play in a cultural historical perspective, children move in and out of imaginary situation in play. Also, according to Vygotsky, Imagination is associated with reality. Everything in the imagination creates is always based on the elements taken from reality or from a persons previous experiences (as cited in Quinones, 2013). Therefore, it is very important for the

teacher and children to work together imagine and create new possibilities in playful learning situations (Fleer, 2013).

Interest is always leading an important role in childrens play. Children interests are commonly cited as a significant source of curriculum which would guide teacher decisionmaking about whose and which interest might be followed in co-constructing curriculum with children in both intentional and spontaneous ways (Brooker and Edwards, 2010). According to Stonehouse (n.d.), if an individual interest is being supported, it will expand his or her horizons. It open the door to new experiences, information and skills which can lead to new possibilities and help the child to appreciate the power and joy of learning and going into new territory. Moreover, pursuing an interest can encourage creativity, exploration and reasonable risk taking.

Based on the above, the four institutional practices from my outer layer of my play model which are the family, educator, school and community indicates that they have play an important role in supporting childrens play and need to constantly be aware of and embracing the childrens interests, knowledge and experiences, and the social context of play. In addition, the school and educators can support childrens learning by setting up the environment to be safe but open at the same time, focusing on childrens interests and their past knowledge and experiences to enhance and stimulate creativity, imagination and interaction in their learning pathways.

Evidence of play observations and planning using own model of play:

(Context: A four year-old pre-prep kinder room.) The teacher had set-up a restaurant setting in the home corner with some toy food, chefs costumes, plastic cutlery and cash machine for the children to play. Reahn, Jaslyn, Ashley and Max decided to have a play in the restaurant. During the play, Jaslyn decided to be the customer, while Reahn volunteered to be the cashier, Ashley and Max decided to be the chef. The children invited me to join in the play therefore I decided to be one of the customers. In the play scenario, Me: Hi, I would like to order a glass of orange juice and some croissants please? Jaslyn: Oh, now only I realized that we dont have a menu in our restaurant! Reahn: Why dont we use the paper to draw our own menu? After negotiating for a few minutes, the children agreed to create their own menu before continue their play. Therefore, they started to draw and create a menu for their restaurant at the free drawing table. After captured the interest of the children, the class teacher and I provided some materials such as food catalogues, stationary, printed notes and coins for the children to make their own menus in an interesting and fun way. The children enjoyed a lot in making their special food menu and at the same time they were introduced to the value of money as well. During the process of making their food menu, Natalie came out with an idea Why dont we make some food for our restaurant? Maybe we can cut out some picture of food from the catalogues? Josh added, Yea, we can do that since we dont have much food to serve the customer! After that, the children and teacher had a discussion and they finally came out with a wonderful idea which was the children decided to extend their play in creating more food by pasting the pictures of food on the paper plate to play in the restaurant. Some children even came out with the idea of putting a sign of open and closed in the restaurant so that their customer will know whether the restaurant is operating or not. After that, there were more children joined into the play at the restaurant and they were having so much fun in taking turns to try out the different roles in their pretend play.

Photos:

End of observation:
After developing this model of play, I planned to use it to analyse the play scenario in an early childhood setting during my placement. In one of the pretend play scenario, I observed that the children could come out with new ideas; they discussed and finally solved the problem together during their play. In the play it was comfortable switching in and out of the imaginary situation (Fleer, 2013). It is shown that the children brought a wealth of funds of knowledge that they have gained form their everyday participation in the family institution and community into the play. For instance, one of the child came out with an idea to make a open and closed sign for the restaurant. This could be probably he or she has seen the sign when they go to a restaurant and relate it into their play experience. The creativity thinking also has been shown as the children could extend their play in making more food from the catalogue to play in the restaurant. Besides that, the teachers also play an important part in extending the childrens play by observing their interest has shown when the children were provided with different materials such as food catalogues, printed notes and coins to make their own food menus. These contexts served to the six elements which are interest, imagination, knowledge and experiences, creativity, interaction and social context.

Explanation from childs perspective of why this particular model of play is pedagogically sound:
Play would not be viewed simply as a vehicle for delivery the curriculum, under the guise of play-based learning. The starting point would be to see the value of play from the childrens perspective, as a powerful context for understanding emerging and shifting subjectivities within classroom relationship (Brooker and Edwards, 2010). In my view, the best way to gain the childs perspective is through asking question and listening to children. In order for an educator to discover what are the interest and thinking of the children, it is important to listen and provide opportunity for them to express their ideas and thoughts during play.

In my model of play, the elements I included allow us to reflect from the childs perspective on play, for instance the childs interest. Therefore, when a childs perspective is taken into account, the adult is able to plan and support the needs and interest by creating developmentally appropriate programs and activities for the children. It is recognised that a secure pedagogy of play needs to include a thorough understanding of the meaning of play activities from the perspectives of the participants (Kernan, 2007).

Conclusion: In conclusion, the institutional practice (family, school, educator, community) and the six elements (interest, interaction, knowledge and experiences, social context, creativity, imagination) of my play model are all interrelated to support childrens play. Each of the parties plays an important role to help the children develop and learn best throughout their play and learning process. However, as an educator, it is our responsibility to be aware and not forgets to look at the childs perspectives in play in order to help us understand the thinking and needs of the children in a better way. Through this, we can provide a delightful play learning experience in a childs learning pathways.

References: Brooker, L. & Edwards, S. (2010). Engaging play. UK: McGraw-Hill Education.

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Learning Years Framework for Australia. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework: For all Children from Birth to Eight Years. Melbourne, Victoria: Early Childhood Strategy Division Department of Education and Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

Fleer, M. (2013). Play in the Early Years. NY: Cambridge University Press.

Gordon, A. M. & Browne, K. W. (2008). Beginning and Beyond: Foundations in early childhood education (7th ed.). United States: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Kernan, M. (2007). Play as a context for Early Learning and Development: A research paper. Retrieved from
http://www.ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Early_Childhood_and_Primary_Educati on/Early_Childhood_Education/How_Aistear_was_developed/Research_Papers/Play_paper.p df

Quinones, G. (2013). Lecture 3 EDF 4328 Imagination and Play. Retrieved from http://moodle.vle.monash.edu.au

Santrock, J. W. (2007) Child development. (11th ed). NY: McGraw-Hill

Stonehouse, A. (n.d.). Building on childrens interest. Retrieved from

http://ww2.rch.org.au/emplibrary/ecconnections/FS18_children_interest.pdf