Transcript PLAY AND IMAGINATION - University of Lapland

PLAY AND IMAGINATION
Milda Bredikyte
Kajaani University Consortium
University of Oulu
“Often, those human experiences that are the
hardest to depict and understand are the most
important.
What is the meaning of love?
Why do we experience death?
What is the role of children’s play?
Human beings all over the world are universally
touched, at different times of their lives, by such
experiences.
Yet, comprehensive definition of these states elude
us.”
Tina Bruce
What is play ?
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Play is a fundamental human activity (it occurs
across life span as well as across cultures)
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Play is the basic activity of early childhood
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Play is an expression of the child\s developing
personality, sense of self, intellect, social capacity
and physicality
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Play is essential for optimal development and
learning in young children
Questions
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What is play activity for the children?
Why children play?
What is the relation between play and
imagination?
What is the relation between play and
development?
Does any play activity have
developmental effects, what actually
”good” play activity is?
Why children play?
 To make sense of and derive meaning from
the context of their lives, Donaldson, 1978.
 To
keep control of their lives at least of
that part which is their play, Garvey, 1977.
Play activity
What is play activity?
”Play is the leading
source of development
in preschool years”,
Vygotsky, 2002.
What are the main
functions of play
activity?
Development of higher
mental processes such
as:
• thinking,
• imagination,
• intention,
• generalized emotions
Memory, imagination, play
Memory is a central psychological process of
preschool age. Evolving memory ”gives
birth” for imagination.
”In play a child creates an imaginary
situation…
Imagination is the new formation that is not
present in the consciousness of the very
young child”, Vygotsky, 2002.
Imagination manifests itself through play
activity.
What is imagination?
”The word imagination usually
denotes the faculty of creating a
picture of something in our heads
and holding it there while we
think about it”, Hughes, 1988.
Imagination 1
Vygotsky (2004) distinguished two basic
types of human activity: reproductive and
combinatorial or creative activities.
”Creative activity, based on the ability of our
brain to combine elements, is called
imagination or fantasy in psychology”,
2004, 4.
Imagination 2
Imagination is the basis of all human
activity and an important component
of all aspects of cultural life.
Absolutely everything around us that
was created by the hand of man is
the product of human imagination and
of creation based on this imagination,
Vygotsky, 2002.
Imaginary space
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Play action is developing in imaginary plane,
although physically child is acting in real space.
The child in this ”flow” state is more real than
ever.
“construct mode” Donaldson (1992) - instead of
here/now or there/then mind begin to concern
itself with somewhere/sometime or
anywhere/anytime.
”In play a child is always above his average age,
above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he
were a head taller than himself... in play it is as
though the child were trying to jump above the
level of his normal behavior,” Vygotsky, 2002.
“Good” play - Sociodramatic play
Sociodramatic play is recognized as
the highest level of dramatic play
(Christie, 1982) because it requires
the combination of social and
dramatic play skills.
It requires creation of imaginary
common sense field
Sociodramatic play
Smilansky (1968) described six elements of play,
which must be present in order for play to be
considered sociodramatic:
 Imitative role play
 Make-believe with objects
 Make-believe with actions and situations
 Interaction
 Verbal communication
 Persistence
Egocentrism - play
Iljenkov (1977) underlined that social play
with peers enables children to overcome
their egocentrism, which is not possible
in interactions with adults. Only through
a situation of controversy, hot discussion
or most often a conflict children are
able to accept others point of view.
Sawyer (1997, 2001) pointed out that one of the most
improvisational activities of 3-to 5-year-old children is
social pretend play, also called fantasy play,
sociodramatic play, or role play.
By creatively improvising their play drama, children are
learning the creative skills that are essential for
everyday social life. Rather than learning roles or
scripts, children at play are learning how to improvise in
conversations with others and how to create a
conversational performance. Play is important because
it is unscripted – it allows the child to practice
improvisation. That’s why play has to be random and
chaotic.
”Play is the source of development and
creates the zone of proximal
development.”, Vygotsky, 2002.
”The child moves forward essentially
through play activity, Vygotsky, 2002.
According to Vygotsky (2002) play is
converted to internal processes at school
age, going over to:
• internal speech
• logical memory
• abstract thought
• rule based activities such as learning tasks
and work
The play — development relationship
can be compared with the
(instruction) teaching — development
relationship, but play provides a
background for changes in needs and
in consciousness of a much wider
nature, Vygotsky, 2002.
Early childhood education - Play based
education?
Sensitive program developing children’s play
is the foundation of early education. This is
not something to be replaced by more
rational, more realistic, knowledge based
activities. Because all forms of human
activities spring out from play activity.
Only rich play experiences will lead to
successful learning and life (in the
broadest meaning of the word) activities.
References 1
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Iljenkov, E. (1977). Uchitsia myslit’ (Learning to think).
http://caute.by.ru/iljenkov/texts/ums/III.html
Sawyer, R.K. (1997) Pretend Play As Improvisation/Conversation in
the Preschool Classroom. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers.
Sawyer, R. K. (2001). Creating Conversations/Improvisation in
Everyday Discourse. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1930, 2004) Imagination and creativity in childhood.
Journal of Russian and East European Psychology 42, 1, 4 – 84.
Vygotsky, L., S. (1933, 2002). Play and its Role in the Mental
development of the Child.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1933/play.htm
References 2
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Bruce, T. (1993). The Role of Play in Children’s Lives. In
Childhood Education, Vol.69, #4.
Donaldson, M. (1987). Children's Minds. London: Fontana
Press.
Donaldson, M. (1992). Human Minds. London: Penguin Book.
Garvey, C. (1977). Play. In Bruner, J., Cole, M. & Lloyd, B.
(Eds.). The developing child series. London: Collins/Fontana
Open Books.
Hughes, T. (1988). Myth and education. In K. Egan & D.
Nadaner (Eds.), Imagination & Education (pp. 30-44). New
York: Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Smilansky, S. (1968) The effects of sociodramatic play on
disadvantaged preschool children. London: Wiley.