Welcome
Ask any child what they like to do best, and the answer is unanimous – they want to play.
Through play, children become eager, capable learners. They know how to navigate their way through tough problems and social roadblocks, pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion.
The most important skills one needs for success in life are developed through play. Language and social skills, concentration, memory and adaptability in the face of change also contribute to a child's executive functioning. Research has shown positive executive functioning skills are the foundation upon which academic concepts can be successfully learned. Readiness for school, therefore, means much more than IQ or knowing letters and numbers.
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About This Site
Working in partnership with Alberta Education, Galileo Educational Network has developed comprehensive resources for parents and professionals in play-based early childhood education, focusing on children between the ages of three and eight. On the professional side, a series of workshops facilitated by Galileo mentors are taking place throughout Alberta on an ongoing basis. The workshops are catered to early childhood educators, and were based on research that underpins play-based learning environments. Educators worked in collaborative groups, and evidence of what they took away from the sessions is illustrated through a variety of videos in this site. Additionally, research articles can be accessed from leading bodies such as the Council for Early Childhood Development, Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, the Alliance for Childhood, and the National Institute for Play.
Parents can use the site to discover what kind of learning results from effective play-based environments, what it looks like, and how to enhance their child’s education through play.
We encourage you to share the work on this site. However you must attribute what you use to Galileo Educational Network and/or the original creators or authors. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. For more information, click on the Creative Commons symbol found at the bottom of each page within this site.
About Galileo Educational Network:
Galileo Educational Network is a non-profit organization based in the Faculty of Education, University of Calgary. Through research and the creation of knowledge-building learning environments, Galileo educators have influenced curriculum and classroom delivery both internationally and across Canada. Teaching for deeper understanding in all classroom subjects is a primary goal. This is accomplished by supporting new and experienced teachers through individualized professional development. The result is an educational environment where digital technologies are used in inquiry-based projects, allowing for students to learn in creative and thoughtful ways.
Why Play?
Play isn’t just for fun – according Dr. Stuart Brown, it’s a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep and proper nutrition. Throughout life, play continues to be an important factor in determining success and the ability to thrive. It is through play that we learn how to solve problems, interact with others and test our limits.
Another prominent researcher, Dr. Adele Diamond, says today's children are more likely to be entertained by technological devices, and/or to be signed up for lessons than to play for hours in the backyard with other children. "...most children today do not engage in the kind of intentional make-believe play that fosters self-regulation, an important characteristic for children to succeed in school."
Dr. Bryan Kolb is a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, based at the University of Lethbridge. He is considered a worldwide expert on brain development. In this video, he explains a child’s intelligence - whether academic, emotional or social, is all forged through play:
A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults - and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age. This Ted Talk video provides solid research emphasizing the importance of play for all of us.
And as renowned neuroscientist Dr. Sergio Pellis reminds us, not all kids are the same. For that reason, it's important to create diverse experiences, so children can select what they find most rewarding:
(running time 1:33)
Download:
Facilitating Children's Play: Young children need opportunities for different kinds of indoor and outdoor play. These tips for facilitating children's play are from Dr. Jane Hewes' Let the Children Play: Nature's Answer to Learning.
Supporting Research:
• Rieber, L.P. (1996). Seriously Considering Play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games. Educational Technology Research and Development.
• Brown, S., & Vaughn, C. (2009). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. New York: Penguin Group Inc.
• Diamond, A., Barnett, W.S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S., (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control, Science , 318, 1387-1388.
For more information on leading play-based experts and their work, visit the Research section.
Play: The Cultural Context
Every child is unique, and how they play is influenced by both their immediate surroundings and their culture.
While Western cultures consider solitary play an important developmental milestone, children from cultures that place a higher priority on social interaction tend not to engage in such play. Those from an oral background may tell their children stories rather than read to them.
In this video, Jarvey initially struggled with his class assignment – to tell a story about himself. He was more comfortable doing this through song, and by drumming and singing, Jarvey shared his story with his kindergarten classmates:
Language: When young children are learning a second language, the development of both languages is generally enhanced. The stronger the first (or home) language proficiency is, the stronger the second language proficiency will be. Maintaining the home language is not only key to a child’s success in school, it’s also important in developing their identity and self esteem.
What you can do: The Alberta Government, in consultation with authors Johanne Paradis, Darcey M. Dachyshyn and Dr. Anna Kirova, developed Working with Young Children who are Learning English as a New Language. The guide is intended to help early childhood professionals and teachers, parents and day home operators to better understand how children learn a new language, the importance of maintaining language and culture at home, and how to develop programming that effectively addresses these issues.
Loneliness: Many children of immigrants experience loneliness at school. Dr. Anna Kirova experienced this first-hand when she arrived in Canada with her husband and young son, who did not speak English. His difficulties prompted her to study the experiences of children who feel isolated in a foreign culture. She believes educators need to be aware of, and understand how these feelings of loneliness can affect a child’s ability and desire to learn.
Read more of Dr. Anna Kirova’s work
Downloads:
Learning A Second Language: How can you create an ideal environment for learning another language? Also, find out why maintaining proficiency in the home language is key to a young child's success in school.
Facilitating Children's Play: Dr. Jane Hewes has tips on how parents and teachers can help children get the most out of play.
How Do We Learn?
From tiny babies to chatte
rboxes brimming with daily discoveries, it’s incredible to see how much children learn during the first few years of their lives.
How do they do it? We’re essentially hardwired for learning right from birth, researchers say – both in terms of how our brains our wired and our natural knack for basic language and numeracy skills. In fact, studies have shown babies as young as five weeks old are capable of learning.
What does this prove? Even very young babies actively select experiences, and they’re capable of perceiving, knowing and remembering. This type of research has not only disproved earlier theories that babies’ minds are blank slates upon which experience and learning is gradually built, it has also determined that much of what is known about human learning comes from studies of how babies learn.
Between the ages of three and five, a child's social, emotional and problem-solving capacities become more developed. During this time, most have learned to detect and identify simple emotions in themselves and others, and can start to understand someone else's point of view. They start to learn to negotiate with others, and can sit with a group of children and pay attention for brief periods of time.
Close relationships with parents and other caregivers form an essential foundation to learning, from birth right through the school years. Children are naturally curious, and it’s up to adults to encourage this and provide a safe environment for exploration. Whether it’s a parent modeling appropriate play and problem-solving behavior, or an educator planning classroom activities, the learning process is strongly influenced by social interaction. From there, the emerging use of language, the understanding of numeracy, and the development of internal strategies to aid in learning can flourish.
Dr. Sharon Friesen (running time 2:53)
Download:
Facilitating Children's Play: Dr. Jane Hewes has tips on how parents and teachers can help children get the most out of learning through play.
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
• A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy: Using Evidence to Improve Outcomes in Learning, Behaviour, and Health for Vulnerable Children (2007). National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Harvard University.
How Learning Evolves
One effective way for both parents and educators to help a child’s learning is through connecting new situations to ones already understood by the child. For example, when reading a book about African animals, a parent might use the opportunity to remind the child of a previous trip to the zoo. The most effective teachers help children make connections among different aspects of their students’ knowledge.
Even young children, however, have their own perceptions and experiences, and teachers must recognize and determine where they’re coming from, in order to guide them towards learning something new.
Children are capable of becoming responsible for their own learning. They are natural problem solvers and problem generators. Gradually, children gain more insight into their own learning. They become aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and the demands of the task at hand. They can reflect on their own learning and correct any errors they’ve made. This is referred to metacognition – it’s a self-reflective skill essential to learning. If children lack insight into their own learning abilities, it’s difficult for them to make their way through a task. Metacognition is dependent on knowledge as well as experience.
This video, about a class of Grade 2 students learning to draw self-portraits, serves as an example of the above-mentioned evolution in learning. It is also illustrative of effective teaching.
Strategies for Learning: From a young age, children are capable of devising internal learning strategies. For example, when given a list of random items to memorize, one learning strategy would be to mentally group the items into broader categories. These strategies have a practical significance for learning and they are refined and tailored to suit the particular task at hand.
How do children come up with these strategies in the first place? According to Bransford, Brown and Cocking, three key findings have been determined:
• Discoveries are not made in response to failure, but rather in response to successful performance.
• Short-lived transition strategies often precede more enduring approaches.
• The generalization of new learning approaches occurs very slowly. Children often generate useful new strategies without ever generating ones that are conceptually flawed.
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
• A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy: Using Evidence to Improve Outcomes in Learning, Behaviour, and Health for Vulnerable Children (2007). National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Harvard University.
Studies of Infant Learning
The following examples are excerpted from authors John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown and Rodney R. Cocking in How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (National Academy Press, 2000).
• Babies can control their own sensory environment: A silent film was shown to infants between five and 12 weeks old. Each baby had a pacifier, which was attached to a pressure switch that controlled the film projector. The researchers (Kalnin and Bruner, 1973) found the infants quickly learned to suck at a given rate in order to bring the film into focus.
• Babies can count: Another experiment (Cranfield and Smith, 1996), had infants view a pattern of flashing pictures. The pictures would flash twice on the left side of a screen and then three times on the right. Once this alternating pattern was established, the researchers watched the infants’ gaze as the visual pattern continued. If the baby was still looking at the left side of the screen after one flash, but then shifted his or her gaze to the right side after the second picture appeared, then it was assumed a distinction had been made between one, two and three events. Using this procedure, infants as young as five months old have shown they can count up to three.
• Other studies have determined during the first year of life, children successfully learn that objects need support to prevent them from falling, still objects move when they come into contact with moving objects, and inanimate objects need to be propelled into motion.
The Key to Learning
Close, trusting relationships with parents, teachers and caregivers is the key that unlocks the learning process for many children. The environment – to the degree that it’s learner, knowledge, assessment and community centered - plays an essential role. These four conditions were emphasized in the research by John Bransford, Ann Brown and Rodney Cocking in their book How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. They are discussed in more depth here:
This video is an excellent example of what happens when all four strands are put into action in a Grade 3 classroom:
Students also maintained a website chronicling this and other class projects. Parents and other interested people were invited to visit for updates on what students were doing.
The bridge building project was designed using Galileo Educational Network's io program, a tool allowing teachers to design, collaborate and share student learning. Click here to find out more.
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
Ideal Learning Conditions
A rich learning environment results when the following is considered in the classroom:
• Learner-Centered Environments recognize each student brings their own perceptions about everything from subject matter and their level of understanding, to opinions on their communities and how others live. Teachers understand their students construct their own meanings and see their work as building a bridge between the subject matter and the student, all while keeping an eye on both ends of the bridge.
• Assessment-Centered Environments provide opportunity for feedback and revision. What is assessed must be aligned with specific learning goals. Teachers do a great deal of monitoring both group and individual work. They assess students’ abilities to link what they’re doing currently with other subject areas, as well as their daily lives. Students are also encouraged to assess their own work, and the work of their peers. Feedback is most valuable when students have the opportunity to use it to revise their thinking as they are working on a project. Feedback can be formal or informal in nature, and it can also involve the use of technology.
• Community-Centered Environments are also important for learning. The community can be the classroom, the school, and the degree to which students and teachers feel connected to the wider community of their town or city, province, and the world.
The most effective learning takes place when each of the four strands support one another. For example, students may be learning something valuable, but one cannot tell unless there is alignment between what is being learned, and any assessment to measure it. Similarly, students may be learning things others don’t value, unless the curriculum and its assessment practices are aligned with the broader learning goals of the community. When principals and teachers define a common vision for the entire school, student learning can improve. (Barth, 1988, 1991; Peterson et al., 1995).
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
Learning Language
From babyhood, environment, biology and experience set the stage for language development. One of the strongest predictors of early reading success lies in the use of oral language.
There are several studies that contribute to the current understanding even young babies have a built-in ability to learn language.
In this video, students use digital cameras to capture their surroundings and create their own alphabet book. The video was then placed in their school library, where students viewed it over and over again.
From relating the day’s activities, to recalling stories they’ve been told, young children can be accomplished storytellers. Familiar activities are favourite subjects for young children. By retelling and listening to stories, young children develop emergent literacy skills. As they get older, they generally participate more in storytelling activities, and these stories gradually become more complex. Essentially, storytelling is a powerful way to organize a child’s experiences.
Here is one example:
Downloads:
Literacy At Home: How can you encourage language development and literacy? Parents and educators can create a environment that supports these skills.
Learning A Second Language: How can you create an ideal environment for learning another language? Also, find out why maintaining proficiency in the home language is key to a young child's success in school.
A Remainder of One: Reading is foundational to literacy and language development. Books offer more than an opportunity to hone these skills – by paying attention to how your child interprets and questions what is read, you can explore topics that go beyond the pages of your child’s favourite stories.
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
Studies of Babies and Language
• They prefer words to other sounds. Infants around four months old are generally able to tell the difference between languages (Columbo and Bundy, 1983). Around this age, most babies learn to pay attention to speech rhythms and intonations – information that gives meaning to language. By eight to ten months of age, babies generally stop perceiving language as a collection of mere sounds. They become more responsive to the language spoken by others around them. Babies are especially attracted to faces, and often look at the lips of whoever is speaking.
• They actively attempt to understand the meaning of the language that is spoken around them, by paying attention to their surroundings and context. Many parents of children around a year old believe much of what they say is understood. Much of this understanding, however, is rooted in context. For example, one study (Lewis and Freedle, 1973) analyzed the comprehension abilities of 13 month-old babies. When handed an apple in her high chair, the child was told to eat the apple, which she did. When placed in a playpen, she was handed another apple, and was told to throw it, which she did. But when placed in the high chair again and given another apple, this time with the instructions to throw it, she bit into it instead. The same thing happened when the child was placed in her playpen with another apple. She bit into it when asked to throw it. This was a consistent pattern found with other children participating in the study.
This study also illustrates the many opportunities available to young children when learning language – it occurs in day-to-day settings. A child’s environment is vitally important when learning language and speech. Experiencing, or being exposed to language is obviously important, but so is the opportunity to use these skills. Learning in this realm has to be active and ongoing, through conversations, activities and encouragement, as opposed to something that is solely observed.
Download:
Literacy At Home: What can you do with your child to encourage language and literacy skills?
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
Learning Math
Even very young children can participate in their own learning and problem solving when it comes to some mathematical concepts such as quantity.
Several studies outlined by Bransford, Brown and Cocking, in the book How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, prove this ability in babies as young as six months old.
The authors note, however that if children have some knowledge about mathematical concepts before they start school, it still means there is need for careful learning about mathematical concepts later on. Early understanding of quantity or numbers can guide a young child’s entry into learning about number concepts by the time they reach school age:
discovering the patterns that live underneath mathematics.
(running time 3:36)
Links:
Downloads:
Math Landmarks: This document contains information about core math skills, such as compensation, patterns and cardinality. The skills are also identified in the math-related play outlined in the files below:
Jumping Frogs: Read how one child develops correspondence and compensation skills, thanks to a simple game of jumping frogs, rocks or marbles.
Marble Soup: Ratios are the name of the game when a young child decides to make "soup" out of different types of marbles.
Measuring Blocks: Mathematical reasoning and problem solving are just some of the math skills gained by playing with a simple set of blocks.
More Toast?: Breakfast time can be a great opportunity to think mathematically, as one mom and her son discovered.
The Sleepover: A simple bedtime story can open the door to another "what if" conversation that involves math.
A Remainder of One: Many children’s books address mathematical ideas in fun and interesting ways. Simply reading them, however, won’t instill deep mathematical understanding. But when kids can model the stories and are encouraged to find ways to generalize the mathematical ideas the stories contain, books can provide great opportunities for deepening mathematical understanding.
Road side or trailer side?: Even a walk along and across a muddy creek can be explored deeply in a mathematical way.
Supporting Research:
• Bransford, D., Brown, L., & Cocking R. (2000) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, Pgs. 6-24, Pgs. 79-154.
• Kirova, Anna. Bhargava, Ambika (2002) Learning to Guide Preschool Children's Mathematical Understanding: A Teacher's Professional Growth. Early Childhood Research and Practice, Vol. 4, No. 1. Champaign, Illinois.
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| road_side_trailer_side.pdf | 6.82 MB |
Studies of Babies and Mathematics
• In one study (Starkey et al. 1990), babies between six and eight months old were shown a series of slides of either two or three-item displays. Each successive picture showed different household items that varied in size, colour and shape. Half were shown a series of two-item displays, while the other half were shown a series of three-item displays. The researchers could tell the infants eventually got bored when the amount of time they looked at the slides dropped by half. The babies were then shown displays that alternated between two and three items, and if the displays showed a different number of items from what they had seen before, the infants began to show interest by looking again. The only common characteristic within the two-item and three-item displays was their numerical value, so one could say the infants habituated to the set of two or three things, and then recovered interest when they were shown a different number of things. The infants could have focused on the items’ shape, size, but they did not. This is an important clue they are able to process information that represents a number, at a rather abstract level.
• Other researchers (Wynn, 1996) have shown infants pay attention to the number of times a toy rabbit jumps, so long as the number of jumping events they have to keep track of is kept between two and four.
Download:
Mathematical Landmarks: Recognize key aspects of math understanding and infuse them into everyday play.
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