‘Guided’ play better for teaching children than direct instruction
‘Guided’ play better for teaching children than direct instruction
‘Guided’ play better for teaching children than direct instruction
January 14, 2021
Summary
Teaching younger children through 'guided' play can support key aspects of their learning and development, and is often regarded as better than traditional, direct instruction.
Guided play broadly refers to playful educational activities which, although gently steered by an adult, give children the freedom to explore a learning goal in their own way.
The results are evidence that guided play has a greater positive impact on some areas of children's numeracy than direct instruction.
Among these positive findings there was also no statistically significant evidence that guided play is less effective than direct instruction on any of the learning outcomes studied.
Guided play better supports the development of children's cognitive ability to switch between tasks.
Paul Ramchandani, Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at the University of Cambridge, added: "The argument is sometimes made that play, while beneficial, adds little to children's education. In fact, although there are still some big questions about how we should use guided play in classrooms, there is promising evidence that it actively enhances learning and development."
One possibility is that the guided play's gentle prompting may be a more effective way of teaching children to work through the logical steps which maths-based tasks regularly involve.
Reference
'Guided' play better for teaching children than direct instruction. (2022, January 14). Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/guided-play/127665/