Dr. Natalie Robertson:
So welcome everyone to the first webinar of the Differentiated Play-Based and Inquiry Learning in the Early Years of Schooling Project. My name is Dr. Natalie Robertson and I am facilitating this afternoon's session. With me this afternoon, we do have a panel of experts in both practice and knowledge of play based and inquiry learning. I will ask each of our panelists to introduce themselves, starting with Jenny Dibble.
Jenny Deeble:
OK, my name is Jenny Deeble, I am the principal of Wales Street Primary School and we are an IB accredited world school.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you, Jenny, and which school do you work at?
Jenny Deeble:
Oh, sorry, Wales Street Primary School.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you. Then I will ask Peter, would you please introduce yourself?
Peter Fahey:
Hello, everyone. Hi, Natalie. My name's Peter Fahey. I am the co-principal at Saint James' Primary School in Ballarat. We are a P-6 primary school and we have four learning areas and we have around two hundred children.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you Peter, and Elise.
Elise Fraser:
Hi, I am Elise Fraser. I teach at Saint James in Ballarat and I am in the Discovery learning area, which is also equivalent to foundation.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you Elise, and Louise.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
Good afternoon everyone, I am Louise Paatsch, I am a professor of education at Deakin and my area of research is in play and language and literacy. So welcome everyone.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you all very much for coming this evening and for being part of our expert panel on play based and inquiry learning. So today's webinar is extending upon the online module, which was Understanding Play-Based and Inquiry Learning. So in the online module, if you have had time to work your way through the module yet, this or this might be your first time in being introduced to this exciting professional learning programme. The module introduced you to the concept of play-based and inquiry learning, also some theories in play-based and inquiry learning and it also started to explore the benefits of play-based and inquiry learning for children's learning, development, social, emotional capabilities among a wide range of benefits. So before we get started today, I would like to acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first sovereign people of this land. As a community of educators, we recognize with deep respect their continuing connections to lands, waters, knowledges and cultures.
In doing so, we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. So before we get started, I would like to run a bit of a poll with you all, where I am going to share with you in a minute on the chat function, a link to an online poll. And so what I'd like everybody to do is follow the link and you'll be prompted to answer a couple of questions, and as your questions start coming in, I'm going to share my screen with you, which is going to show us live your answers as they come up on the screen. You might be familiar with this type of technology because when Louise and I were running a professional development session for early childhood teachers just a couple of weeks ago, we found that some of the primary school teachers in the room as well have been using some polls with their children. OK, so I have just posted that into our chat now. OK, the first one, do you already use play-based and inquiry learning in your classroom?
Well, we are starting to get something come through, excellent. If you follow the web link, it will take you to the poll online, but just repost it in the chat, and all you need to do is click the link. We can see that quite a lot of you are using play-based and inquiry learning in your classrooms again, already, which is fabulous because what this means is that you're going to be coming in to the webinar tonight with some ideas and knowledge about what play-based and inquiry learning can look like, what its potential benefits are, but you'll also start to know about what some of the challenges might be. And tonight, as we talk with our expert panelists, we are going to be really unpacking the concepts and the components of what play-based and inquiry learning can look like because there is not just one approach.
And then we are also going to be thinking about, well, how can we bring on board teachers and families within the school community to, I guess, value and adopt a play-based and inquiry learning approach. Further to that, we are going to have a really great discussion about what the potential benefits of a play-based and inquiry learning approach can look like. All right. I am going to move this slide over now. And what I would like you to share with us now is how long have you been implementing a play-based and inquiry learning approach for? Alright, I have got quite a diverse range of experiences in here as well. Some of you are quite new to the play-based and inquiry learning scene, and we do hope that you are finding the professional learning program to be a supportive resource as you move through this complex world of play and inquiry. And then we have also got some of you that have been using it for quite a long time as well. And it would be interesting to hear some of your experiences during our question and answer time this evening.
I am going to start handing over to our expert panelists. I would like to put the question to our two principals, Jenny and Peter, and ask you both, could you tell us a little bit about the play-based and inquiry learning approach that is used in your schools? We might start with Peter this time first.
Peter Fahey:
Thanks Natalie. At Saint James, we have been using a play-based inquiry-based form for around 15 years. And I will tell you right here and now, we have been through times of absolute chaos and disorder and times of real coherence. We are at a moment now in our lifespan, we are for probably the last three to four years, we have a real coherence. What is helpful for us is that we do not call ourselves play-based, inquiry-based. We are a place of learning, that is our function. And in that place of learning, we have multiple forms and two of those forms are play and inquiry. What is really helpful also for us to understand the different forms is to understand how we differentiate the acquisition of knowledge and skills. So the work of Geary and Sweller was really helpful for us in understanding primary knowledge and secondary knowledge. Primary knowledge is the acquisition of self regulation, narrative, sequencing, vocabulary, how we learn to speak. We learnt those types of things through imitation, exploration.
Secondary knowledge is that human invented knowledge such as reading, writing, spelling, etcetera, which requires more explicit learning. So those two distinctions, the differentiation of those two knowledge types really helped us, and we can drill deeper into that, but gave us a surface knowledge that we could help build coherence across our whole school and helped us align the functions, what we wanted to achieve with the various forms.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's great Peter. Thank you. So are you saying that you use play at or play and inquiry-based learning as an approach to firstly, teach children the primary concepts of knowledge and then through that play-based and inquiry approach, you can also teach through explicit teaching of our maths, literacy, science areas.
Peter Fahey:
Absolutely. They are reciprocal. They are operating not either or. They are operating and in each learning community. It is about the agility of the educator of the professional educator, to weave backwards forwards, in and out and align the function of learning with the form at that particular moment in time. It is really emphasizing the craft of the educator to be able to do that. It takes a really long time and a lot of expertise.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Great. Thank you very much. Jenny, is there anything that you would like to share about the play-based and inquiry learning approach that is used in your school?
Jenny Deeble:
Well, we have been an International Baccalaureate school, as I mentioned earlier, and we use the IB framework and philosophy. We have been an inquiry school for teaching and inquiry approach for a number of years. And once we became accredited and we developed a strategic plan, we did a focus on student agency and we felt that play-based learning lent itself very nicely to that. We had been doing discovery learning, which is more of a free play that was very literacy, oral language based, and that's where we've come from. But this year we felt after a COVID year, we really felt we needed to do more emphasis on play, especially for our foundation students coming in who missed a lot of the social skills and play opportunity with others, with their peers. A lot of them had limited kinder experience as well, so we did look into doing a more rigorous, play based approach. We use the IB approaches to learning, reflecting the research such as, social thinking, communications and self-management skills.
Each play-based session has a learning intention and it is focusing on one of those areas. We do look at more at provocations and invitations to play and we are doing a more structured approach in the foundation years. We have also now moved into grade one and two. So these teachers have not really done extensive teaching in this space. But because we have done a lot of inquiry approach, we felt it is really a very child-centred way of really improving those curiosity skills and inquiry skills. And also, it is guided so we can really focus on what we think the students need and then looking on reflecting on what is happening in a lesson or your session, and then looking to how we can then build on that for the next session. It is still very organic at this point in time, and we are still very much in the beginning stage of learning. As I said, when you start with discovery, it is all a bit of fun play and kids love all that, but we wanted to really give it more meaning and more purpose. And so that is where we've sort of come into that entry-level to give it some more rigor.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes, that is fine.
Jenny Deeble:
And our prep team is quite stable. They have been together for four years, so they have had more experience in that area. They are leading the way with our grade one and two teachers, and our PYP coordinator of course, has modelled a lot of this. She has gone into model what a lesson session looks like, and how she is built in those elements, so that there's explicit teaching and explicit instruction that sits alongside the guided play.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes now, that is fabulous. Thank you. So, Jenny, you mentioned that this year you are implementing a more structured approach to the play-based inquiry learning. What do you mean by a more structured approach? What does that look like?
Jenny Deeble:
Well, the teachers have a number of different stations with different players set up. And so they are not always just a cafe. We have actually set up some Maths stations where the teachers might sit down and invite children to join in where they are sort of experimenting with base 10 and blocks and creating numbers and things like that in a play environment. They are being more conscious about the types of activities. Plus we also have a unit of inquiry that, like the work we are doing in community. So very much a lot of the play direction is linked to that unit of inquiry, so we are also looking at the central idea and addressing and teaching through that unit inquiry and the lines of inquiry as well.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's all right, I might go to Elise. Elise, I am just wondering while we are talking about what a play-based inquiry approach looks like you are on the ground. What does it look like in your classroom?
Elise Fraser:
Yeah, I mean, each day can look different, but we always start out with, so certain areas still set up, so we make sure we have our role-play. We use mini worlds or figurine areas, construction, and that sort of thing. But then what might be there is agile and fluid as well. So as Jenny mentioned, if we do see a need for a particular Maths focus, we might bring that into some play. But two, we've noticed with our children this year as well, with the many other years, we used the 'Pretend Play Checklist' through Karen to kick us off, and definitely just saw some of those primary skills that Peter talked about, that's probably our next step that we were able to use that checklist. So, the play has changed depending on the day, what the outcome might be, what we are looking for. But yes, each day's a little different.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Now, that is fabulous. Thank you for that. And so when you are saying Elise, that you will teach explicitly, Maths concepts or science concepts or literacy concepts through these mini worlds or pretend play, what does that look like?
Elise Fraser:
Yes, so again, that can be quite varied. If we are focusing on, so for instance, play groups or story development, so for some children, they are very much, they are ready to jump in, they are modelling it to others for some children we are having to guide that a lot more with them. But it depends on the child, but knowing like the adults, knowing the space, kind of that outcome for each kid or where their next step might be with that as well. With Maths for instance, our overall target at the moment is, one to ten coming from the curriculum we have had so the MAI or the Maths assessment at the start of the year. We know that there are some children who are still only grasping one to five, noticing in small explicit workshops, they might not be there yet, but then bringing their interests in. So it was, loves garbage trucks and garbage bins. So we have set up the little, role of OK, well how many bits of rubbish are gonna go into that bin instead? And he gets to act that out, and gets to be his little garbage man, but at the same time, still using those Maths concepts.
And similar to that, they are feeding the teddies or going to the supermarket and purchasing different things. So guiding it that way a bit more too.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's great. Thank you Elise. We are just getting a couple of questions about the play checklist come in, and I thought it might be just good to talk about it now. So we will be expanding on the 'Pretend Play Checklist,' more in module three, but Louise, would you like to just quickly talk about the 'Pretend Play Checklist?'
Professor Louise Paatsch:
Yes, sure. Natalie, thank you. So the 'Pretend Play Checklist' came out of extensive research from one of our professors, emeritus Professor Karen Stagnitti, who does a lot of work, in therapy with play. And we have been working with Karen, myself, and Professor Andrea Nolan, for quite some years now. And then we saw the need for a checklist to be developed to be used by schools because picking up from both... Well, all three, Elise, Jenny, and Peter around making play more explicit, understanding that play actually is a cognitive skill. Understanding that play has various phases and development, and particularly for pretend play we saw the need that we not only need to assess the areas of the curriculum, but we also need to assess the children's play. And that has also come out of our research that we have conducted together around looking at the importance of pretend play and how actually it is a predictor of children's language development, which then obviously leads into literacy.
So the 'Pretend Play Checklist' was developed by Karen and myself in 2018, and in module three we will be unpacking that more. Here is the 'Pretend Play Checklist for Teachers' manual. And it has, a number of instructions around how it is used, as well as the actual checklist itself, which comes in a tick-the-box form. But, in module three, Natalie, Andrea, myself, and Virginia will be going through that in more detail for you. Did you want me to expand anymore with that yet, Natalie? I can later, but I think it would be good to continue to hear from the panel. Yes. OK.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you for that, Louise. That is a pleasure. It is good to just expand on what that was.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
I am lucky I just had it right beside me. [Laughs] I just might go back to Elise for a moment just because when I was having a look at the Padlet online, I was noticing that, within our professional learning program, there were a few questions about... Well, what does it actually look like if we had a play-based and inquiry-learning approach in our classrooms? How would I set up my day? So, Elise, would you be able to share with us what a day would look like for you within your classroom?
Elise Fraser:
Sure. This has changed sort of, even just as this year's gone on and you have got to know the children more, as well as then in previous years, depending on team, as we have read more around research. It has not definitely been this is how we have started the year and it is going to be always like that. So currently at the moment, our children come in and we gather, been a Catholic school in prayer, and we have even used play in that sense. So if we are looking at a piece of scripture or around a concept, we might model it as well as then, we repeat it using symbolic. So we will, for instance, at moment creation story, so I have had animals, but then a few days later we've started to use symbolic pieces to replay that or to retell that same story. Our children then move into some little literacy rotations, and through that there's hands-on experiences, specifically chosen as well. So as Jenny mentioned, there has definitely been at times that idea of discovery where it is well, hang on, is it just free or what are they really getting from this?
Our kids then move into some, we call it guided play because some groups might be with an adult. An adult might be modelling something specific, or we might just be the observers as well. And that takes us through then into, we end that with writing to try and get whatever stories the children have been telling in that time, down on some paper. And we have even noticed the difference from the start of the year where it was, the paddock with the animals or just describing what their scene was. Now they have been able to say a bit more or start to tell that story as we have introduced those story markers and story grammars. Then good old snack, and they get plenty of play outside. We are also really lucky in our space that we have indoor and a separate outdoor just for discovery as well. So, they can move in and out of those two spaces. Generally, on another day or a normal day as such, would then move into some, explicit math workshops with again, that play happening. So the adults are aware, again, of what targets might be.
And we might then have some more again guided, but around the Math concepts. But again, that might even happen in the morning. So as much as they are telling the story, if they are at the mud kitchen, oh, you are making that cake, how many spoonfuls or how many cups, and you are getting them to count it out for you. And then in the afternoon, that is generally where we have been bringing in our larger storyboard or it is a larger mini world, basically [laughs] and that is where a lot of our larger concepts of what we are looking at are belonging at the moment being term one. They have been getting letters from these little story people, which then sends them off into another activity. It began as little symbolic people on the table, but now the kids have added their own identities to those people. There is more purpose around that as well. But that is a typical day [laughs] as much as it is a typical day in a school. But yes, just being that agile to it all as well.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's lovely. It sounds great. I think I want to come and teach at your school [laughs].
Elise Fraser:
It is good. We definitely still always have a role-play area that changes. So, as they are starting to look at that concept of caring for animals, we have brought in the little vet, we have the mini wells, we have our construction, a bit of art and things around. So just linking that depending on what is happening.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's fabulous. Thank you, Elise. Jenny, I am wondering if you could tell us what a typical day would look like for a foundation teacher in your school? Because it sounds like it could be a little bit different.
Jenny Deeble:
Yes. So, at the moment, we have two double sessions a week. We are starting small, that are just purely on the guided play sessions. So we still we do a synthetics phonics program in the morning, so that is quite structured. They do other types of play where they will take the play, and then use a writing impetus as well. And because we do, and it is same with Maths, they will do, more literacy rotations and numeracy rotations. But then I suppose because we are still at the beginning stage, we want our play sessions to be... We want to get students really in that habit of we do a provocation, we introduce the learning intention, and it could be just trying new things and what they are all trying to do. We have an inquiry diary in which we record the learning intention potential go through what the range of different plays stations areas are. She might even go and say well, I am going to work in this area, who would like to come with me? And she has an invitation to children who want to join that particular task.
They do have opportunity to move quite around quite a bit. And then they will come back together and do the reflection and they will record their story, their ideas into the inquiry diary. Now often the teacher will then take this further and then maybe do a writing task after that, or just writing down what they have thought. Often when the teacher is walking around recording conversations, listening to what the children are talking about and maybe using that information to take further for a provocation down in the next session or the next week. And then the teachers are all coming together and reflecting on what they have learned from the session and where to next. That is where the teachers are trying to support each other in implementing this new approach. But the rest of the day is still probably your typical foundation day where they do explicit teaching and literacy and numeracy, but they are trying to gradually build upon that to increase the amount of play-based sessions as the confidence and experience grows.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Now, that is fabulous. And it sounds like you are, you are in a process of change at the moment. So how do you support teachers to value and implement the play-based and inquiry learning approach?
Jenny Deeble:
I think they have always been very in fact, you are very much in favour of the inquiry approach. And I know with foundation it was also a challenge because you are trying and introduce quite complex concepts, and they fail as if the plays are really a strong avenue for introducing especially the PYP concepts of form and function. And using that language, it gives them a way of introducing it in a more connected way with students as well. And I think the fact they are working as a team and it is really having those times together where teachers can bounce ideas off each other and say, this has worked, this has not worked. I tried this but, really giving it the support and with our PYP coordinator, she has been very much there from the beginning and she has been sitting in on their planning sessions and modelling over this term to really get it off the ground. And then she is going to also model it with the other classes later on down the track.
But I think with foundation, they felt they had a lot of the materials they did invest in some buying some extra sort of resources that they felt they wanted to use. And then how do we use them effectively? I think that is really important to that collaborative approach, which is very much a key strategy that we use across the board. But yes, they have always been interested in the inquiry approach and been able to do that, the foundation level, you try to keep it really streamlined and simple so that students can actually learn as they go.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes, that is really a great point to make. And it sounds like that collaboration among themselves and also having the support from leadership within the school as well has been a very helpful and valuable factor in leading them through the change.
Jenny Deeble:
Yes for sure. But as I said, we are very much at the beginning stage. I am not like so James as they do it for a number of years. But we have found it also because we do four units of inquiry a year, it means in a term we can bring in the central idea and we can have that as a main focus. But as you know, foundation every day can bring a different experience, a different curiosity, and you can bring that into play base as well. And they find that is really successful.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes. No, that is a great point. And just might extend upon that point that you have just raised. If a child comes in or children come in after the weekend and they have a new curiosity, how do teachers go with that and I guess be flexible enough to change what they might have planned and introduce this new concept of learning?
Jenny Deeble:
That's where I am not really in the classroom knowing what they are doing with that. But I know with the inquiry diary, they do record anything that comes up that there's interest in the class that they will go further with and they might use that as a provocation coming up or through the day or teachers to look at how they can incorporate it into their play-based session. So it is not forgotten. It is actually taking that agency from the students that they come in with some ideas and how can we incorporate that into our play-based session.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
So great. Thank you, Jenny. Peter or Elise, what about you? How do you respond to children's curiosities I guess in the moment?
Peter Fahey:
I will reply to this question from a leadership position. And from a leadership position, what we need to emphasize is the craft of the professional educator. And that craft is unlike any other and it needs to be highly valued. The closest metaphor I can think of is an ED ward in a hospital. A professional educator has 1,001 things that they are thinking about at any one time. They are highly agile and so they are ready for whatever is going to happen. And what drives their decision-making is clear agency and purposeful learning. So when a child comes in on a Monday morning and they have been to the circus or they have been here or there or they come in after recess and they have fallen over and they have got a bloodied knee. The teachers are ready to use that purposeful situation and apply it to learning. And that is the craft. So again, from a leadership position, I must ensure that that craft is really acknowledged and that craft is not de-emphasized. Learning is not linear.
And if you try to make it linear, you are on some bureaucratic political journey. We have got a really agile profession and so we have got to make sure our educators are well informed. So and we emphasize here the currency of knowledge. So we eradicate everything that impacts on the educators being professional.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's some really fabulous insights there, Peter. So how does that impact on teacher's planning? Because planning is a big aspect of the teacher's role. So how do they plan for children's learning through this approach?
Peter Fahey:
If I enter that again from a leadership position, then hand over to the practitioner Elise, but I need to make sure that our educators have real-time PD. So whatever resources we have, we make sure that the educator is the priority. So, for example, in so many schools that I have been in, things are tacked on to the start or the end of the day. We emphasize learning and the professional educator so much that they have real-time PD. We give them time during the day. We give them time to learn during the day. We give them as much planning time together in teams as possible. We eliminate as much bureaucracy and distractions as possible so that they can attend to their craft. I will hand the ball over to Elise.
Elise Fraser:
Thanks. Yes. On the previous question, because I would have reiterated the same thing to say that it is about owning the profession and knowing that and now jumping to the planning that if you have something planned, it does not need to stay with that. If it means then that, you are just doing it because you feel you have to. My own journey, I was teaching uppers, something was not clicking for me. I came to Saint James, and that's when things started to make sense. I had a group of grade sixes who were not able to write but expected to write about an experience of going camping. And this was the middle of London. So, they have never even been to the suburb over. So I made that experience for them in the space. So had that camping experience. And then suddenly you are getting this rich language. So I had these little one-offs going, hang on. But even then I had to explain to my principal why my plan had changed where now you do you have that agency to go.
Well yep. These are the things we have ready to go. Yes. These are the targets or where we would like the children to get to. So we backwards plan. Um, coming back to what Louise and I mentioned around the pretend play checklist. So using that, if you have these kids who are already developing these play scripts and can have these ongoing and switching roles, that's very different to some planning that you might have for a little kid who's still just using the train and pushing it backwards and forwards. So planning comes down to knowing your students, knowing that you can be agile and changing if need be, knowing what your ultimate outcomes want to be or the goals for each of them.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Fabulous. Thank you, Elise. I think that that would stay with some really important perspectives that you shared. I am just wondering, we have spoken about, I guess, the value of play and sharing the value of play with colleagues. And it seems like that collaboration and that time to talk and to learn about and plan for learning through play is something that is really important to the introducing this mode of learning within your schools. I am just wondering if Jenny and or Peter would like to just briefly talk about how you bring families on board, 'cause I know that that is probably a burning concern that some of you listening are wondering about.
Peter Fahey:
Jenny, if I jump in first. That is OK. I mentioned earlier that we have been doing this for a long time and we have had periods of chaos and disorder. Some of my learnings have been that parents not to advertise I am doing a play-based approach. That scares the bejesus out of those who do not understand. What is really helpful is engaging children in different forms and children actually learning. When they learn to regulate, when they learn to collaborate, when their narrative understanding is developing, etcetera, the parents then come and say, wow, this is exciting. What are you doing? Well, this is what we are doing. So we do not put the cart before the horse. So we engage the families in learning. The families become excited and understand what their child is doing that they are learning, and then we explain the forms that we use. That is helpful if you are just starting off.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's really good advice. Peter, thank you for that. Jenny, what about you? What insights do you have?
Jenny Deeble:
Well, I agree with Peter. You do not go out there and advertise as a play-based approach 'cause everyone has their own impression or idea of what that looks like. Look, we are fortunate a lot of our families have been at Bush Kinder programs that are in the local area. And one of the key things we are building at the moment is a nature play outdoor classroom space. So they do value the importance of play as a way of learning. And so that was a real push for our parents, who have raised a substantial amount of money to create this new play space. So they do have an understanding that play plays an important part of learning, but we have not sort of been out there advertising that this is the way we are going, but we are introducing it slowly and we use seesaw as a program for communicating with parents. So we asked, we are putting up what they have done in play today or this is some of the learnings that we have been doing over the last unit of inquiry. It is all really still into our units of inquiry, which is across the board from foundation to Grade six.
They are very used to the idea of students doing a bit of the finding out about the central idea and then, going further and then also having an action component. Supply fits in really nicely with that, but we have not actually advertised the fact that it is we're moving more to that, more structured or guided play experience. But it is just part of the way we deliver our program inquiry.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
That's great. Thank you for that. And I think there are also some insights that many of our participants can share as well about parents and their feelings towards play. Yes, so thank you for that. But think that is a good segue for the benefits of play. So, Louise, you have done quite a lot of research on the benefits of play, specifically for literacy and language. I am wondering if you would like to share some of these insights with our participants.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
Yes. Thanks, Natalie. I suppose the backstory of the work that I have been doing, as I said, with Karen's dignity, Andrea Noland and also with you, Natalie, more recent times is that we often get approached by schools’ leadership, but also teachers in different professional learning environments. And they are saying and noticing that young children are coming into school with very low levels of language. And they have also noticed that these same children are the ones that are also struggling when you see their NAPLAN results in year three and again in year five. And for many schools, they are looking for a greater opportunity to support young children's learning. And have gone specifically through a play-based and inquiry approach to support that. So our research is actually investigating whether this is actually supporting what we would hope. And for one of the studies that we did just recently with seventy-seven foundation children entering foundation level, we did formal play assessments on these children as well as their formal language assessment.
And what we noticed were that many of these children, in fact, two-thirds in this particular group, were entering schools with very low language levels, both expressive and receptive. They are listening as well as they are speaking. And we also notice that their levels of play were quite delayed in many aspects. So they were below their expected age range, if you like. And when we looked closer, we saw that these children had difficulty with elaborating their play. So making stories, building the stories up over time. We also noted that they were not able to self-initiate in their own play. We saw many of these children who were imitating others. They were just watching. And what we are seeing even this year when we have gone into a school with Peter and Elise, are some of these children are doing a lot of imitation. And we are guessing in this project that many of these children it is an impact of COVID as well.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
We're also seeing that for many of these children that they are unable to substitute an object for something else. So in other words, a pen could be a person, but even more that the child is able to use this pen in all sorts of different ways, not just the way it actually looks. They could turn it into a rocket ship. They could turn it into anything to tell their story. When we look at this kind of play, we are also noting that many of these children's narrative. We are seeing that they do not set up with characters and a setting, for example. And as you would know, for the genre of narrative, there is a problem and the problem needs a resolution. And for many of these young children, we are seeing that there were no problems in their story and therefore, obviously there was no resolution either. So our research then showed that, in fact, that those children who could substitute an object where they could use any object for anything or they could use an object for anything and actually talk about what it was and the function of that object.
So that very high level of object substitution that then their language was kicking off and it was very, very high and usually quite complex. We saw that they had multi-word languages. They had greater complex of grammatical speech as well. And we also saw an enormous amount of what we say, more complex narratives. Some of these children actually had two problems or three problems in their story that they were then able to resolve throughout the play. And this play was also occurring over a period of two to three days. These children just did not come in and play and then start another story five minutes later. They did not come away and then come back the next day. This play continued on for two to three days and for some children, it was carrying over for two to three weeks, which is a really high level of play script.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Incredible.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
Yes. And so some of the other things just to finish up, we saw when we look at an aspect of language called pragmatics, which is the social use of language, how children enter a group, how they make friends, how they enter with their peers that have already started up a story. We saw that play provided a really strong way for these children to master emotional ideas, their feelings and their experiences. And it was also a way for facilitating friendships and promoting that pro-social behaviour and attitude. So all of these learnings we see from a large number of projects over time with a large number of schools that we're seeing.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Great. Thank you so much for that, Louise. That is some incredible data that you have collected that show the benefits of playing inquiries. Peter, I am just wondering if you could tell us about some more of the exciting benefits that you found from your play-based inquiry approach because you have had some exciting NAPLAN results that our participants might like to hear about.
Peter Fahey:
Yes. Our journey, as I said, has been a really extensive one, and we have had to hold our ground and be affirmed and confirm our own research-informed journey. To stay the course within today's session inquiry and project-based and the impact that will have on secondary learning. What we found and what our net plan results are starting to show consistently is that when our children, whom many of started off. And when I began school, started off at a two-year, three-year age range. By the time they reached middle school, NAPLAN and particular year five NAPLAN, they had caught up with their peers. And some had gone past their peers. Now, what is really interesting also is we are able to follow the trajectory of those children into year seven and year nine. And what seems to be happening is those children's NAPLAN results in year seven and year nine are continuing an upward trajectory, whereas their peers who were actually at standard in primary school, were plateauing or dropping. That is really exciting stuff.
Now, that took a lot of work to stand the ground and might I say, educational policy begins at five. The definition of childhood begins at zero and goes to eight. When you think about that, there are some huge dilemmas and myths and misunderstandings at play. When you acknowledge childhood and you align your forms with the function of childhood, you get a totally different understanding of what education, particularly early childhood education is all about.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you, Peter. There were some really good final comments to make about play I think. And it might challenge some of our participants here tonight thinking about play and childhood. I will allow a few minutes for some questions. We have our expert panel here. Now is the time for you to ask two to three questions. Otherwise, please feel welcome to post your question into the chat and I can direct it to our panel. I can see Kim if you would like to ask your question. Thank you. We have got one in the chat room.
So, Nathan has asked, can you tell us a bit about the role of the teacher through these sessions? So Elise you might like to elaborate on this. The focused children that the teacher follows? Or do you choose? What do you do?
Elise Fraser:
Sure. Again, this can be quite agile. We have definitely got some children who at the moment we are watching a bit more intently. They might always be choosing to go to the same area as much as it might look like the play is continuing over days, it is a repetition of the same story. That is when we go, let us jump in and guide the play a bit more. Sometimes though, we do it more as a mixed. Even the children might be guiding other children. The teacher's role or the adult’s role might just be more as that observer. Other times you are the player, you jump in there, they are telling you what to do. You are this character, I have got to think what those Pokemon do. But yes, jump in and just have a go. So it changes throughout.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Now, that is fabulous. And module two is going to really focus on the role of the teacher in play. And there are some really good examples, both from St. James and also from Wales Street that are going to be depicted within that module. So keep yourselves posted and ready for when that module comes out shortly. We have got a question here about EAL students. How are they included in play-based learning? I am open to anybody answering that one.
Elise Fraser:
I think as Louise mentioned, the importance of it around the language and the language development. So a lot of it then might be a bit more repetitions. And that is what I did find or I have found is great with play, is that if a child wants, they can go back and revisit an area. If we kept changing that provocation every day, then it is a whole new load of language to be learning and they might not get that stronger experience. So even at the moment, we've got the supermarket, so I'm going to buy an apple or he is going to do this because often say, with the EAL might find that the pronouns are around the wrong way. It is again, just observing, jumping in, using that moment-by-moment experience as well.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
And just to add to that, Elise, what we have seen with some of the children is it is really important as teachers to watch their play because they can often do very complicated play with very few words and nonverbal. And it is trying to get that language from them because for EAL, they have a strong L1, and it is a matter then of trying to support that with the English that they are learning as well. That is also really important to think about. Yes Elise.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you very much. We have had a question here, and this might be our last question. But in regard to the amount of time that is spent on play-based learning per week, is there an ideal amount? Do you think? And that might be a question for all of our panellists to end with.
Peter Fahey:
I would say some things impact on our mindset and time is one of them. We try to eradicate the Westernized concept of time. We also try to eradicate stereotyping, withdrawal, intervention. When you can eradicate those, you are opening yourself up to see learning, to see children, the intricacies of their mind. So that is how I would answer that question.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Thank you, Peter. Jenny, what do you think?
Jenny Deeble:
Look, we are probably more a traditional approach. We are a school of six hundred. So the timetable does have really time constraints on us in terms of delivering specialist classes and people having their time. We organize our teachers, have a meeting time together through the day. So, that is really important for the collaboration and also one after school. So that is an important part of the way we structured our program as well. At the moment, I said they are doing two double sessions a week. They would like to expand on that, but we are actually just doing it slowly as we go because we want to actually get teachers to really understand the process, really be observant of what is happening in the session. And using that information to then structure or the next sessions coming up. They are actually becoming, it is a more robust model. At the moment, we are finding 200-minute sessions for us is working well. But that is not to say we are not fluid and open to expanding that as we get more knowledgeable in this area as well.
Professor Louise Paatsch:
And that is really important too, I know the work Andrew and I have done with the school where we supported a school to put in play-based approach. You do need to start small and I am sure Peter and Elise, it did not start the way it is now. It has to start small. And as you are saying, Jenny, just to get that feel, just to work out what you are doing and how you are observing, how you are notating and all those things that we do as teachers is really important. And then just once you get comfortable and know what it is about, then it is expanding over time. Yes.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes. That is a really...
Professor Louise Paatsch:
And not to say it as an add-on. Sorry, Natalie, often it is that that change, what Andrew and I saw was that they started to see it not as an add-on or an extra. It actually became embedded in what they did. And sometimes it ended up that literacy, that may have been the traditional two-hour went down because they could see the literacy happening in the play or if the numeracy block or whatever it was or inquiry that became reduced because they could see it happening in the play and in the inquiry-based anyway. Then it became more individualized and across the board for all children. Yes.
Dr. Natalie Robertson:
Yes. Now, thank you for that. There are some really good comments to make, Louise. And I would like and encourage you all to trial some of these things that we have spoken about today. And it might just be that you trial it for an hour in an afternoon or an hour in the morning and just have a go. And report back on your reflections using the Padlet within our professional learning module, because it is meant to be a great space for you all to share your ideas, get feedback from one another and also hear a response from us as well. We are monitoring that regularly and we are here to support you through your journey. So, unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. Think that we could talk about this for hours because it is such an interesting topic and I can see that we have a couple of questions about reporting and assessment coming through. We do have a whole module on assessment of learning through play coming in module three, and we will be holding a webinar for that as well.
So again, just keep your eyes posted, keep engaged, share your ideas and we would love to hear from you.
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