Avgitidou, S., Andrews, M., Boland, A., Canning, N., Hännikäinen, M., Loizou, E., van Oers, B. European Early Childhood Education Research Association Special Interest Group Rethinking Play: Position Paper about the role of play in early childhood educati

Keywords: play early childhood education teachers’ role learning and development

Avgitidou, S., Andrews, M., Boland, A., Canning, N., Hännikäinen, M., Loizou, E., van Oers, B. (2019) European Early Сhildhood Education Research Association Special Interest Group Rethinking play: Position paper about the role of play in early childhood education and care. Preschool Education Today. 6:13, 20–23 (in Russian)

This work is licensed under a Сreative Commons Atribiution - NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

2019, 6

Eleni Loizou
University of Cyprus, Cyprus

Natalie Canning
The Open University, UK

Sofia Avgitidou
University of Western Macedonia, Greece

Mandy Andrews
University of Plymouth, UK

Annerieke Boland
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Maritta Hännikäinen
Professor emerita, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

Bert van Oers
PhD in Psychology, Professor of Faculty of Psychology and Pedagogy of VU University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of understanding play in the contemporary context of quality assessment of early childhood education. The relationships between the concepts of playing and learning and the role of an adult in the organization and support of children’s play are considered. Further, the question of expediency regarding the instrumentalization and regulation of children’s play in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is posed. The position paper calls attention to the importance of independent but also supported children’s play activity in ECEC and the current tendency to restrict or redirect its value according to the evaluation of predetermined outcomes in ECEC.

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