Play and Environment

The unit provides early childhood pre-service teachers with the characteristics and theoretical approaches to play and collaborative learning and their role in the curriculum. The importance of physical environments and play resources are explored in practice outlining how they promote children’s active engagement with authentic learning and promote the resilience and wellbeing required for success. The unit details relationships between children's play and inquiry across the range of subject disciplines and learning areas and provides students with practical opportunities to analyse experiences that foster learning in early childhood education.

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
1. Evaluate the teacher’s roles in supporting and encouraging children’s play and inquiry in inside and outside learning environments.
2. Compare contemporary and traditional theories of play.
3. Examine play and understand its complexities, including cultural influences and global perspectives.
4. Assess key aspects and features of play environments that support learning for children aged Birth-to-eight years of age.
5. Describe and define aesthetic and creative features of environments that invite engagement, active learning and constructive play.
6. Analyse nature pedagogy, natural materials and outdoor play spaces in children’s play.