Froebelian Principles and their Impact on Practice
Starting with the Central Importance of Play
Associated Course:
Project summary:
An observational study to discover if a staff team with a shared mindset and greater understanding of Froebel Principles can have a positive impact on children’s experiences as they play.
Introduction
This project looks at how staff interact with children during play and what changes are needed in practice in both indoor and outdoor environments to create interactions that align with Froebelian principles.
It takes into account current practice, identifies links to Froebelian practice and considers how a better understanding of Froebelian principles, starting with the Central Importance of Play, can positively impact the interactions between a child and a practitioner.
This enquiry matters as children deserve the best outcomes and practitioners who can deliver meaningful interactions.
My purpose in undertaking this work was to support practitioners to identify their good practice, discover ways to improve interactions and to encourage shared thinking based on Froebel principles.
Context
I believe there is a lot of good Froebelian practice happening in my setting but practitioners are not aware of what it is and I would like to help them identify the good in their practice, however there is also practice which is fighting against the good Froebelian practice and I would like to provide practitioners with the knowledge and understanding to see the good practice and to identify the practice which needs to change.
The key messages from literature on a child’s play are that children learn more from having the opportunity to take their time to play with open ended resources that inspire creativity and curiosity. Their learning can be enhanced by practitioners who understand how to be valuable play partners.
I will benefit from reconnecting with Froebel’s principles and reminding myself about the theory behind them and I hope this will enable me to confidently share my knowledge and understanding with the staff team in order to create positive learning experiences for the children in the setting. I believe the whole staff team will benefit from a greater understanding of Froebelian principles and gain the knowledge to improve their practice and the children will all benefit from practitioners who are working towards the same goals with the knowledge and understanding of how to meet these goals with a shared mindset.
I issued an online questionnaire to ascertain staffs’ knowledge of Froebel and Froebelian principles as a starting point. I knew that they should all have encountered Froebel at some point in their training but I wanted to find out what they remembered and if it had had any impact on them. I wanted a personal response and felt this was the best way to achieve this. At this point I only had two members of staff, however I felt it was still worth continuing and I knew that I would have three members of staff in due course. I interviewed each member of staff, (by this time 3), to gauge the level of their understanding of play and the Froebelian principle of the central importance of play. Again, wanting an individual response, I did this one to one. Following this I gave each member of staff individual feedback on their responses and on the observations I had carried out throughout the research period. I finished by issuing a further questionnaire to find out if their thoughts had changed and if they felt their practice would change in any way due to the project. I gave written feedback initially to all staff as I knew I would not get an opportunity to speak to every member of staff due to circumstances out-with my control. I did speak with two members of staff to discuss my feedback and to answer any questions they had and offered to answer in writing should the third staff member wish me to do so. We also had a group discussion to share thoughts with everyone and discuss moving forward.
Ethics
Due to the small size of my staff team, and recent absences, I knew this was going to be challenging. Before starting, I obtained written consent from all three members of staff for taking part in the project and for me recording an interview with them. My main concern was to protect the responses of the staff as I did not want them to feel self-conscious about me reporting their answers or my observations. I did not want to label responses ‘adult A, adult B, adult C’ as it may be obvious who gave which response, instead I chose to report my findings without identifying the adults involved. In my personal feedback I would have the opportunity to relay my thoughts and observations to each staff member and allow them to discuss anything with me in confidence. I was also mindful of giving feedback, ensuring I highlighted the positives along with offering suggestions for improvement to ensure all staff felt valued and had a positive experience from this project.
“The benefits for me as a practitioner, is the opportunity to share in this new adventure together with the children, which will encourage me to re-visit and re-evaluate my own methods of practice.”
Findings
My initial observations showed some staff being outcome focussed and others interrupting meaningful play opportunities. In one scenario, children were offered a task to take part in which was adult initiated. We had been discussing various types of transport that we find in the air after two of our children came back from holidays to tell us about their experience on an airplane. The children were keen to find out “how does an airplane stay in the air”, “a helicopter doesn’t have wings, how does it fly?” and “what would happen if I jumped out of an airplane”. Their curiosity was inspired by talk of holidays and what a fantastic opportunity for staff to support and extend learning, by exploring the why and how an object can remain in the air. The children created their own flying machines using blocks and other loose parts they found in the nursery. One child made “an airplane so that granny can fly to the shops because it’s too far”. A number of children were keen to take part in the task and chose to explore what was on offer. The first group enjoyed painting and the following day, when the paint was dry, doing some threading to create a parachute with various objects attached to the strings, the purpose being to discover how quickly the parachute reached the ground or would it float in the air. While I observed the children’s excitement as, out in the garden, they tested their theories, it was only the first group who saw the task completely through from start to finish as the practitioner completed the parachutes for all the other children after the painting stage to ensure the strings were in the correct place and that the objects were securely tied. Had the children been allowed to complete these in their own way, the outcomes may have been different but that would have led to more discussion and hypothesis and ensured the children led their learning.
In another scenario, the children were engaged in meaningful child led play outdoors using loose parts to create structures they could hide in and bridges they could cross. There was great team work and role play, there were children who joined in the play who were usually quite shy and hesitant to get involved and the conversations from the children with each other were interesting as they found their place in the team and the play developed. “Put that brick there”, “can you hold this?”, “let’s make a lift so we can get to the top”, “the bridge needs to join or we’ll fall in the water”. I left the scene for a few minutes to support a child in another part of the garden and when I returned, the loose parts were scattered, a group of children were running around with a practitioner playing tig, having left the play, and I had one very upset child and another who looked bemused at what had just happened. The structures and bridge had been destroyed.
To me, this revealed a lack of understanding of play and the benefits of allowing children to lead and direct their play and also a lack of respect for the children. It also raised the question, do the staff know how to be meaningful play partners?
I gave the staff the pamphlet, ‘Froebel’s principles and practice today’ and asked them to read it, in particular the section on ‘the central importance of play’. I also gave them individual feedback on the interview I had conducted with them, which explored their understanding of play and its benefits, and on my observations of their practice.
Conclusion
From the final questionnaire, all staff agreed that they had a better understanding of the Froebel principles, in particular the central importance of play, than they had before the project and that it had been a positive experience.
“This introduction to the Froebelian Approach provided me with an informative insight into some of the many ways that our practice can benefit from this approach.” (Participant in the project)
While not an in-depth understanding, they all appreciated that even with a small amount of knowledge of the Froebelian key principles, they could imagine making some changes to their practice to benefit the children in the setting. This acknowledgement means that we can move forward in a more Frobelian way, as a team, taking one principle at a time, building our knowledge and understanding in order to positively impact the children’s experiences and learning while continuing to reflect on our own practice and observations to ensure the children are getting the best from us as their facilitators of learning.
The staff have indicated a special interest in different aspects of Frobelian practice which will allow us to develop as a team giving everyone the opportunity to learn about and drive forward the practice around their chosen aspect, sharing the knowledge they gain and I hope this will encourage a commitment to a Frobelian approach for the future.
Research implications
To be completed
Practitioner enquiry
To be completed
Leadership learning
To be completed
Author and role
To be completed
Comments from other network members
What did you appreciate about this research? What forward-looking questions did it raise for you?