Incorporating Play into Early Childhood Environmental Education

Early childhood education has increasingly incorporated environmental education; however, a divide exists between the traditional pedagogical approaches to early childhood education and environmental education. On the one hand, environmental education emphasizes combining experience with knowledge and values to foster environmental literacy, as well as pro-environmental values and actions. On the other hand, early childhood education emphasizes play-based, open-ended activities. This qualitative study examined teachers' views on the effectiveness of different types of play for developing children's environmental knowledge. The authors developed a pedagogical model that combines approaches of early childhood education and environmental education.

Views of play-based learning have evolved over time. Open-ended play was historically viewed as providing exploratory experiences that led to learning. More recent research provides a more nuanced perspective, acknowledging that culture and context affect play, play is value- and gender-laden, and interactions between children and teachers during play support learning. This more nuanced view has created space for considering “pedagogical play,” the idea that many different forms of play exist, each of which may be appropriate for different circumstances and learning goals. The authors compare teachers' and students' engagement with three approaches to play in relation to environmental learning:
• Open-ended play, where the teacher simply provides materials that suggest an environmental or sustainability concept
• Modeled play, where the teacher models ways to use materials before letting children play
• Purposefully framed play, where the teacher provides opportunities for open-ended play, followed by modeled play, and then teacher–child interactions
The authors hypothesized that purposefully framed play best supports the integration of environmental education into early childhood education settings.

To determine the ways each play type supports environmental learning and teaching, the authors studied the implementation of the three play types in 16 early learning centers in Melbourne, Australia. The authors provided professional development to teachers around the three types of play, and then filmed each teacher implementing each play type focused on a particular environmental or sustainability concept. They followed with group interviews with the children, in which they showed the videos and discussed what the children were doing and learning in each play type. The teachers were also interviewed. The authors qualitatively analyzed interview transcripts and teacher-planning documents to discern ways teachers understand the relationship between play and environmental content.

The authors found teachers believed a combination of open-ended play, modeled play, and teacher–child interaction was most effective, though not necessarily in the order specified by the purposefully framed play in this study. Teachers were interested in the range of ways different play types could support both learning and teaching. One teacher, for example, discussed how the three play types provided a clearer role for the teacher in supporting students' environmental learning in a play-based setting. Several teachers commented on the synergies between the play types. Students, for example, could implement what they learned during modeled play or teacher-student interactions in their open-ended play, and they could gain confidence and experience in open-ended play that supported more cooperation during other play types. Combining different play types also created opportunities for differentiation: children could engage in teacher–student interactions if they wanted to go deeper with content, or in open-ended play if they did not.

The authors conclude that purposefully framed play may help reconcile the approaches to environmental education and early childhood education. Their findings support the notion that open-ended play by itself is not as effective at promoting deep learning as a combination of play types. Finally, the authors recognize the need for further research into the effect of the order and timing of play types on learning, such as if they are best combined into a single session or spread across multiple days.