Assessments Conducted
Assessment Analysis
1. Perspective of Play
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The principal believes in the balance between academic and purposeful play in the classroom. As the academic caters to the needs of the parents, the aspect of the play ensures that the children are happy and engaged in learning.
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The principal also believes that the teachers play a strong role in implementing play as not only are they the facilitators but are engineers that direct play towards a direction, the planner, and architect that constructs play opportunities for the children.
2. time as a need
Emphasis on Preparation Time
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According to the principal, a challenge faced by the teachers would be the lack of preparation time. There is a need for time to prepare purposeful play materials, especially when the teachers need to ensure that the lessons incorporate as much play as possible. In addition, teachers usually busy with implementing routines and ensuring safety within the centre.
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In this centre, the teachers have dedicated their time to preparing the materials for the entire academic year and reusing them in the following years.
Emphasis on Planning Time
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The principal also mentioned that one of the roles of a teacher is to plan activities for purposeful play. The teachers have to take the needs and interests of the child into consideration while planning. Moreover, they also need to evaluate the information gathered and come up with objectives that would best benefit the child.
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This requires lots of time as it includes the process of conducting assessments on the child’s needs and abilities, analyzing it, before implementing into the lesson plans.
Emphasis on Training Time
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At the centre, there is an average of one child with special needs in each class. Despite having collaborations with early intervention specialists, the principal felt that more could be done to include these children in the play activities. The teachers at the centre are not trained to accommodate to these children and hence need time to train the teachers who have expressed interest in working with them.
Assessment Tool 2
google form for teaching staff
To understand and identify the needs of the centre on implementing purposeful play from the teaching staff’s perspective.
Upon interviewing, we have highlighted their responses on "Materials", "Teacher's role", "Children's interest" and "How play is implemented".
Assessment Analysis
1. teachers' role
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The teachers agreed that the role of the teacher in the classroom is facilitating the children’s learning. However, it was ranked one of the lowest priorities when compared to the other factors to consider when implementing play in the classroom. This shows that the teacher’s role in play is not as prominent as the other factors of play.
2. MATERIALS USED
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The teachers had differing opinions on the types of materials that should be used. While a portion of them felt that recycled materials and resource kits are best suited for play activities, another portion of the teachers felt that commercial products should be used.
3. Children's interest
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The teachers emphasized the importance of considering the children’s interests when planning for a play experience. This is seen as the child’s interest is ranked first as one of the factors to consider when implementing play in the classroom. This is higher than the objectives and learning goals of the play experience and age appropriateness of activities.
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Additionally, the teachers also recommended considering the child’s interests and allowing play to be child-directed and emergent to increase the quality of play in the classroom.
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Lastly, the teachers are also hoping to implement play that is more child-centered with open-ended materials. Therefore, they are hoping to implement a play-based curriculum in the near future. In a play-based curriculum, the children’s interest is one of the top considerations when implementing a play experience.
4. Implementation of Play
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The teachers understand and value the benefits of implementing play. Despite that, play is only implemented during learning corner times and as an introductory activity to motivate children at the start of each lesson.
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Therefore, even though the teachers agree that play should be child-directed, they may lack the skills to implement an emergent play experience. This can be seen as the recommendations for improving the quality of play includes having more experience in implementing play, understanding the children's interests and needs more, and being open to ideas from the children. In other words, to have a child-directed play, the teachers need experience.
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