Developing child-centred play pedagogy from children’s perspectives

Children’s needs, interests and stages of growth have been widely recognized as some crucial aspects to underpin the development of play-based curriculum, but research that focuses on investigating children’s views of play and learning is rather limited. The purpose of this paper seeks to enrich the existing literature by arguing the importance of respecting children’s agency as they participate in child-centred play-based learning activities. Interpretive method was employed for investigating children’s perceptions of play and learning. Four groups of children from different preschools that considered their curriculum play-based were observed, and post-observation interviews with children were conducted. Data were collected through non-participation observation during teacher curriculum planning meetings and when the respective curriculum was delivered in class. Feedback and other valuable information gathered from children focus group interviews also formed an important source of data for the present study. Based upon the observations made on children’ play-based learning in lesson, this paper scrutinized (i) how children were involved in play-based learning, (ii) how children’s learning was initiated (by teacher or by children themselves), (iii) how teachers made pedagogical choice to engage children in learning through play and to safeguard their play-based learning, and (iv) the unique settings that are conducive to play-based learning, and in which children can make free choices to direct their play and learning. Findings from children focus group interviews further revealed how children perceive if an activity is play-based or teacher-led and what they valued most upon their participation in child-centred play activities. Copyright © 2017 WERA-HKERA.