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Misalignments among Public Discourse, Classroom Realities, and Research
Policy makers around the world increasingly mandate play-based learning in kindergarten classrooms, a pedagogical approach backed by research espousing not only the developmental appropriateness of play-based learning for this age group but also the benefits to students' academic achievement. Despite these mandates, researchers continue to see a discrepancy between policy and practice. Using the lens of institutional theory, the authors reviewed the issue and discovered that, although free play seems ubiquitous, teacher involvement in play-often fundamental for academic learning-fails to occur in approximately half of the classrooms studied. The researchers found evidence of an entrenched and limited definition of play as being child directed, a definition perpetuated by media depictions. These findings have direct implications for teaching practice, suggesting a need to develop a broader understanding of play-based learning and its role in classrooms for media outlets and the stakeholders they influence. Key words: institutional theory; media and education; play-based learning; teacher perceptions; teacher practice
Children's environments, from an early age, often shape their understanding of play as fun. At home, parents might reward their children with time to play after they finish their chores, subtly emphasizing the dichotomy of play and work, situating play as the antithesis of work. At school, similar perpetuations of the difference between play and work can be observed at recess, during which a time of play provides a break from the more rigorous academic learning of the classroom. Kindergarten programs traditionally emphasize the inclusion of free play in the curriculum because of its vital role in children's social development (Russell 2011; Lynch 2015). More recently, however, research demonstrates the value of other forms of play, in which teachers actively include academic learning-incorporating both literacy and numeracy acquisition (Ginsburg 2006; Myck-Wayne 2010; Riek 2014; Smith and Pellegrini 2013; Weisberg, Hirsh- Pasek, and Golinkoff 2013). At the core of this research lies a more nuanced perspective that considers the level of teacher involvement in play (Pyle and Danniels 2017).
For a long time, the term "play" was synonymous with free play, in which students engage with one another in creative, imaginative, and voluntary interactions. Teacher involvement in play, however, can substantively change the nature of that play and foster academic learning (Pyle,...