̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Christine O’Farrelly

Learning through 'guided' play can be as effective as adult-led instruction

tdk25 — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 09:01:39 +0000

Teaching younger children through 'guided' play can support key aspects of their learning and development at least as well, and sometimes better, than traditional, direct instruction, according to a new analysis.

̽��ֱ��research by academics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge gathered and assessed data from numerous, widespread studies and information sources, which collectively documented guided play’s impact on the learning of around 3,800 children aged three to eight. Guided play broadly refers to playful educational activities which, although gently steered by an adult, give children the freedom to explore a learning goal in their own way.

Overall, the study found that this playful approach to learning can be just as effective as more traditional, teacher-led methods in developing key skills: including literacy, numeracy, social skills and essential thinking skills known as executive functions. ̽��ֱ��findings also suggest that children may master some skills – notably in maths – more effectively through guided play than other methods.

̽��ֱ��relative merits of play-based learning compared with more formal styles of instruction is a long-standing debate in education, but most of that discussion has focused on ‘free’ open-ended play.

̽��ֱ��new study is the first systematic attempt to examine the effects of guided play specifically, which is distinctive because it uses games or playful techniques to steer children towards specific learning goals, with support from a teacher or another adult using open-ended questions and prompts.

This may, for example, involve creating imagination-based games which require children to read, write or use maths; or incorporating simple early learning skills – such as counting – into play. Such methods are common in pre-school education, but are used less in primary teaching – a deficit which has been criticised by some researchers.

̽��ֱ��analysis was carried out by academics from the Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Centre at the Faculty of Education, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Dr Elizabeth Byrne, a co-author, said: “It’s only recently that researchers have started to conceptualise learning through play as something that exists on a spectrum. At one end you have free play, where children decide what to do with minimal adult involvement; at the other is traditional, direct instruction, where an adult tells a child what to do and controls the learning activity.”

“Guided play falls somewhere in between. It describes playful activities which are scaffolded around a learning goal, but allow children to try things out for themselves. If children are given the freedom to explore, but with some gentle guidance, it can be very good for their education – perhaps in some cases better than direct instruction.”

Paul Ramchandani, Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��argument is sometimes made that play, while beneficial, adds little to children’s education. In fact, although there are still some big questions about how we should use guided play in classrooms, there is promising evidence that it actively enhances learning and development.”

Guided play has rarely been systematically studied in its own right, but the team found 39 studies, undertaken between 1977 and 2020, which had captured some information about its value compared either with free play or direct instruction, usually in the course of wider research.

By combining the results of studies which looked at similar types of learning outcome, the researchers were able to calculate how much of an overall positive or negative effect guided play has on different aspects of numeracy, literacy, executive functions or socioemotional skills, compared with other approaches. These effect sizes were measured using Hedge’s g; a widely-used statistical system in which a result of 0 represents no comparative gain, and 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 represent small, medium and large effects respectively.

̽��ֱ��results offer significant evidence that guided play has a greater positive impact on some areas of children’s numeracy than direct instruction. For example, guided play’s comparative effect size on early maths skills was 0.24, and 0.63 on shape knowledge. There was also evidence that guided play better supports the development of children’s cognitive ability to switch between tasks.

Alongside other positive findings, there was also no statistically significant evidence that guided play is less effective than direct instruction on any of the learning outcomes studied. In short, guided playful activities tend at the very least to produce roughly the same learning benefits as more traditional, teacher-led approaches.

̽��ֱ��researchers offer various possible explanations about why guided play may improve numeracy in particular. One possibility is that the gentle prompting that guided play entails may be a particularly effective way of teaching children to work through the logical steps that maths-based tasks often involve.

Equally, the fact that guided play often involves hands-on learning may be important. “Children often struggle with mathematical concepts because they are abstract,” Byrne said. “They become easier to understand if you are actually using them in an imaginary game or playful context. One reason play matters may be because it supports mental visualisation.”

More broadly, the authors suggest that guided play may influence other characteristics which have a positive, knock-on effect on educational progress – enhancing, for example, children’s motivation, persistence, creativity and confidence.

Dr Christine O’Farrelly, a Senior Research Associate at the Faculty of Education, said: “It’s likely that playful activities have the sort of positive impact we saw in our analysis partly because they are acting on other skills and processes which underpin learning. If we can understand more about how guided play shapes learning in this way, we will be able to identify more precisely how it could be used to make a really meaningful difference in schools.”

̽��ֱ��study is published in the journal Child Development.

Play-based learning may also have a more positive effect on younger children’s acquisition of important early maths skills compared with traditional, direct instruction.

If children are given the freedom to explore, but with some gentle guidance, it can be very good for their education – perhaps in some cases better than direct instruction

Elizabeth Byrne

Faculty of Education

Researchers and children at the PEDAL Centre during the Cambridge Festival

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Video-led feedback programme reduces behaviour problems in children as young as 12 months

tdk25 — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 10:15:14 +0000

̽��ֱ��six-session programme involves providing carefully-prepared feedback to parents about how they can build on positive moments when playing and engaging with their child using video clips of everyday interactions, which are filmed by a health professional while visiting their home.

It was trialled with 300 families of children who had shown early signs of behaviour problems. Half of the families received the programme alongside routine healthcare support, while the other half received routine support alone. When assessed five months later, the children whose families had access to the video-feedback approach displayed significantly reduced behavioural problems compared with those whose families had not.

All of the children were aged just one or two: far younger than the age at which interventions for behaviour problems are normally available. ̽��ֱ��results suggest that providing tailored support for parents at this earlier stage, if their children show early signs of challenging behaviour – such as very frequent or intense tantrums, or aggressive behaviour – would significantly reduce the chances of those problems worsening.

Children with enduring behaviour problems often experience many other difficulties as they grow up: with physical and mental health, education, and relationships. Behaviour problems currently affect 5% to 10% of all children.

̽��ֱ��trial – one of the first ever ‘real-world’ tests of an intervention for challenging behaviours in children who are so young – was carried out by health professionals at six NHS Trusts in England and funded by the National Institute for Health Research. It was part of a wider project called ‘Healthy Start, Happy Start’, which is testing the video-based approach, led by academics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Dr Christine O’Farrelly, from the Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Faculty of Education, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Often, as soon as you move a programme like this to a real health service setting, you would expect to see a voltage drop in its effectiveness compared with research conditions. Instead, we saw a clear and striking change in child behaviour.”

Beth Barker, a research assistant at the PEDAL Centre, said: “ ̽��ֱ��fact that this programme was effective with children aged just one or two represents a real opportunity to intervene early and protect against enduring mental health problems. ̽��ֱ��earlier we can support them, the better we can do at improving their outcomes as they progress through childhood and into adult life.”

̽��ֱ��programme, known as the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD), is delivered across six home visits, each lasting about 90 minutes.

Health professionals film the family in everyday situations – such as playing together, or having a meal – and then analyse the content in depth. During the next visit, they review specific clips, highlighting often fleeting moments when the parents and child appear to be ‘in tune’. They discuss what made these successful, as well as any incidents in which more challenging issues arose. This helps the parents to identify particular cues and signals from their children and respond in a manner that helps their children feel understood and reinforces positive engagement and behaviours.

̽��ֱ��300 participating families all had children who scored within the top 20% for behaviour problems during standard healthcare assessments. Misbehaviour is a normal part of toddlerhood, and not all of the children would necessarily have gone on to develop serious problems. All were, however, deemed ‘at-risk’ because they exhibited challenging behaviours like tantrums and rule-breaking more severely and frequently than most. These are often the early symptoms of disruptive behaviour disorders and typically emerge at 12 to 36 months.

̽��ֱ��researchers used various tools, principally interviews with the parents, to assess each child’s behaviour before the trial, and again five months after. Each child received a score based on the frequency and severity of challenging behaviours including tantrums, ‘destructive’ behaviours (such as deliberately breaking a toy or spilling a drink); resisting rules and requests; and aggressive behaviour (hitting or biting).

Between the assessments, all 300 families received the routine healthcare available to them for early symptoms of behaviour problems. ̽��ֱ��researchers describe this as ‘typically minimal’, as there is currently no standard pathway of support for behaviour problems in such young children. Only half of the families were given access to the parenting programme.

In the second assessment, five months later, children from families who received the extra video feedback support scored significantly lower for all measures of behaviour problems than those who only received routine care.

̽��ֱ��average difference between the scores of the two groups was 2.03 points. While the exact meaning of this varied depending on the specific problems exhibited by the child, the researchers describe it as roughly equivalent to the difference between having tantrums every day, and having tantrums once or twice a week. Similarly, in the case of destructive behaviours, it represents the disparity between regularly throwing or breaking toys and other items, and barely doing so at all.

Encouragingly, 95% of the participants persevered with the trial to its conclusion, suggesting that most families are able to accommodate the visits.

Paul Ramchandani, Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “To provide this programme in any health service would require investment, but it can realistically be delivered as part of routine care. Doing so would benefit a group of children who are at risk of going on to have problems with their education, behaviour, future wellbeing and mental health. There is a chance here to invest early and alleviate those difficulties now, potentially preventing problems in the longer term that are far worse.”

̽��ֱ��results are reported in JAMA Pediatrics. ̽��ֱ��Healthy Start, Happy Start project is also reviewing further data from the project – including assessments of the children two years after the trial – which will be reported at a later date.

A home-based parenting programme to prevent childhood behaviour problems, which very unusually focuses on children when they are still toddlers, has proven highly successful during its first public health trial.

We saw a clear and striking change in child behaviour

Christine O’Farrelly

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Mum and toddler

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