DCU Institute of Education marks first UN International Day of Play with play event underpinned by research
Researchers from the School of Language Literacy and Early Childhood Education hosted first class pupils from a local primary school, and children from a local preschool on DCU’s St Patrick’s Campus. Staff were encouraged to bring their own children to the event, at which researchers presented their work on play.
The event included two rooms where children could engage in socio-dramatic play (in which children are encouraged to act out imaginary situations, or inhabit different characters), and play with lego. There was also space given over to playing with percussive instruments, outdoor play, and, for older children, woodworking.
Organiser Dr Carol-Ann Ó'Sioráin said
"We are emphasising the importance of letting children lead play, standing back to let children explore and ask questions or to both problem pose and problem solve in their own way. As adults we need to realise that play requires energy, can be noisy and also emotional. Adults are important in the play environment as players themselves and as play partners when invited by the children. Play is intergenerational and supports positive emotional wellbeing and mental health."
The event was organised to mark the inaugural UN International Day of Play, which has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly to champion and protect children's right to play.
Dr Therese Farrell and Fiona Giblin presented their research on this exact topic on the day. Their chapter in the recent Routledge collection 'Pushing the Boundaries of Human Rights Education Concepts, Challenges and Contexts' urged the recognition of this key right through the creation of participatory pedagogies in which teachers engage and challenge children in moments where they have elected to play.
One of the key aspects of the day was to recognise the interdisciplinary research on children’s and adult’s play taking place at the Institute of Education, and to call for further university wide examining of this key right. The afternoon saw presentations on a range of research projects centred on play taking place at the IOE:
Ruth Collins and Dr Maura Coulter’s research on supporting children during risky outdoor play (climbing trees, jumping, balancing.) The project examined ways that teachers can facilitate this type of play with their classes by implementing a six week programme of risky play at a local school. The children’s ideas and observations were recorded, along with ways risky play can support development. The key factor in these situations is that children feel safe and supported. Dr Coulter is also collaborating with Dr Orla Kelly on an Erasmus + project examining risky outdoor play. They hosted an event on DCU’s All Hallows campus last week.
Dr Cora O’Farrell and Dr Sinead McAuley Lambe’s project examined play and story, the ‘native languages of children.’ In April, they ran a four week course designed to engage parents and caregivers who want to develop their children’s inner moral and spiritual lives. The course encouraged parents to consider their own playfulness, and the developmental power of play and story. The project also engaged in ‘self-study’ of teaching practice.
Dr Carol-Ann O'Síoráin is collaborating with colleagues from Trinity College Dublin and the Middletown Centre for Autism on a project examining autistic children’s play. The central question was how autistic children’s play is understood, experienced and utilised in early intervention primary school classes and special education classes. The project seeks to gather insights from children, teachers and parents on how play is used in identity, agency and self-direction.
Leah Hand, Conor Brogan, Darragh O’Mhuirtle and Hazel Meaney’s research looked at integrating Minecraft Education edition into outdoor maths learning to create more meaningful outdoor maths education experiences. A group of secondary school students were given a selection of outdoor measuring tasks, with accompanying tasks in Minecraft mirroring those they had carried out physically. The exercise was underpinned by the Constructionism theory that teachers should ‘provide the conditions for invention rather than providing ready made knowledge.’
Another project from Nicole Reilly, Tara Conway, Lauren Kelly and Tara Katie Coyle sought to develop an interactive, playful method for teaching mathematical ratios. The team wanted to show how maths can be integrated with art, and introduce the concept of ratios to students in a meaningful way. The team found, reflecting on their own school experiences that maths teaching can be very textbook based without hands on activities. The team arranged an event in which maths educators were put in groups of four and encouraged to mix paint in various different ratios to reach certain colour goals. The event demonstrated that hands on activity made it easier for people to visualise and understand ratios.
Aoibhinn Butler, Finn Madden, Maura Ni Bhrain, Niamh Mulrooney organised an event examining how maths education can be integrated with geography in a playful, outdoor context. The underlying thrust of the project was to reflect on whether the team, as educators, was to examine the team and their peers’ confidence in teaching maths and to find and assess new ways of integrating maths education. For the event, the team invited a group of their peers to come on a geography trail on which they used mathematical language to guide their blindfolded partners through a maze, examined lines of symmetry in leaves, and built towers using sticks by assessing their size and shape. Survey responses after the event showed that teachers were more confident in finding ways to integrate maths education as well as relying on traditional textbook methods.
Sophie Hanagan, Chloe Byrne, Cormac Marhane and Sadhbh McElearney’s project invovled an event where maths educators were encouraged to draw to solve two visual problems involving crossing a town square. The two contrasting tasks were designed to assess how maths teachers can support students’ self-efficacy beliefs by exploring the teachers’ positive and negative emotional reactions to the tasks. The study found that effective resources can aid students’ visualisation of mathematical concepts and therefore their feelings of self-efficacy.