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Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments

Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2023.

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Other Authors: Swanepoel, N. (Nadia)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Swanepoel, N. (Nadia)
author_browse Swanepoel, N. (Nadia)
author_facet Swanepoel, N. (Nadia)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2023.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:25.890Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/91575 Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments Swanepoel, N. (Nadia) u13080939@tuks.co.za Thuketana, Nkhensani Susan Pienaar, Karen UCTD Early childhood educators Early childhood programmes Children's development Construction play Learning environments South Africa Education theses SDG-04 SDG-04: Quality education Education theses SDG-09 SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure Education theses SDG-11 SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communities Education theses SDG-10 SDG-10: Reduced inequalities Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2023. Historically, the concept of play has been at the centre of early childhood programmes. Early childhood educators have observed and emphasised that young children bring energy and enthusiasm to their play, which seem to drive development and form an inseparable part of a child’s development. This study determined how construction play occurs in different preschools and learning environments - looking at indoor and outdoor learning environments. I focused on six preschools in different socio-economic settings, in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. I looked at how regularly construction play occurs, what form of construction play the children engage in, what the learning environment looks like, and whether the teachers have enough knowledge, understanding and practical application. I also investigated if teachers know and understand how to implement construction play and if they know how to use this form of play in different learning environments. In conclusion, I investigated whether construction play is beneficial and how teachers can better implement this form of play in different learning environments. For my data generation, I used semi-structured interviews, structured narratives, observations and photo voice to gather data related to preschool teachers' perspectives on the importance of exposing young children to construction play and whether they are mindful of the benefits of construction play, such as for cognitive and problem-solving skill development. The process I used to document this information was: voice recordings of the interviews, which were transcribed for data analysis purposes; structured narratives, which are the teachers' stories about construction play written with given guidelines, visual representations of the learning environment, children engaging in construction play and the teachers engaging with the children and classroom observations. The findings are thoroughly explained in Chapter 5, where the findings show that this form of play develops the young child in a holistic way. The literature and research findings agree that the teachers’ background plays a role in their implementation of this form of play. There is further agreement between the literature and research findings that it can be beneficial to pair construction materials with other resources and toys. Construction play is a well-loved form of play with an abundance of developmental properties and aspects. Early Childhood Education MEd Unrestricted 2023-07-21T09:26:58Z 2023-07-21T09:26:58Z 2023-09-07 2023 Dissertation * http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91575 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.23723793.v1 en © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Early childhood educators
Early childhood programmes
Children's development
Construction play
Learning environments
South Africa
Education theses SDG-04
SDG-04: Quality education
Education theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Education theses SDG-11
SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communities
Education theses SDG-10
SDG-10: Reduced inequalities
Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title_full Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title_fullStr Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title_full_unstemmed Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title_short Teacher’s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
title_sort teacher s implementation of construction play in early childhood learning environments
topic UCTD
Early childhood educators
Early childhood programmes
Children's development
Construction play
Learning environments
South Africa
Education theses SDG-04
SDG-04: Quality education
Education theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Education theses SDG-11
SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communities
Education theses SDG-10
SDG-10: Reduced inequalities
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91575