“When we take that away from children, I think that they can’t really figure out what they want to do in life,” she added. “I’m a firm believer in learning better when it’s put to music … so there’s a lot of songs and poetry, which is also fun and kind of like play,” Payne said. Payne agreed, and said she now tries to weave content and play together. “There are ways in a way that is engaging and fun in order to meet five-year-olds where they are.” “Oftentimes the way they’re learning is by engaging in discovery, play and interactions,” Bassok said. “The main takeaway is really that kindergarten is quite changed over a relatively short period of time,” Bassok said.įor example, about 10 years ago kindergarten teachers didn’t always expect every student to know the alphabet and how to read by the end of the school year, whereas now that is a major point of emphasis.īut, the Curry School professor added, the idea that play is at odds with learning is a “false dichotomy.” That pressure, Bassok added, has trickled down to the lower grades as schools begin introducing academic content earlier. “Schools are under an immense amount of pressure to ensure that by third grade their students are performing well on assessments.” “One of the big things is pressure from accountability and things like No Child Left Behind,” Bassok said. “My center time, which I call learning centers because you learn when you play, used to be an hour long, and now it’s down to about 30 minutes,” Payne said.ĭaphna Bassok, a professor at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education who recently completed a study examining how kindergarten classrooms have changed, said the increase in academic content instruction to five-year-olds - a nationwide trend - can be attributed to many factors. However, Payne, who has taught kindergarten for 32 years, said the role of play in the kindergarten classroom is much different than it was just 10 years ago. This is a typical morning in Brenda Payne’s kindergarten classroom at Venable Elementary School. A girl in the corner smells the meal she’s cooking in her toy kitchen. Beside them, a dinosaur rides a train between two giggling students. Two children are building an addition onto a castle.
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