With the increased awareness about the importance of the early years has come some misguided notions of what preschool and kindergarten should involve. In some settings, play has been pushed to the sidelines as early childhood education has become more like school in the upper grades. Play is a natural way young children learn. How can we keep play as a central feature of early childhood classrooms and meet the learning goals we have for children?
The Pedagogy of Play (PoP) Project (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/pedagogy-of-play) has developed a framework to help ensure that play is at the heart of young children’s learning experiences in school. In this two-day conference, PoP researchers from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the International School of Billund (Denmark) share the key principles of playful learning along with practices that promote classrooms and schools where learning through play thrives.
The conference will begin with a keynote describing the PoP framework, and exploring what playful learning can look and feel like in early childhood classrooms. Over the two days, participants will engage in four workshops to deepen their understanding of the PoP framework and identify ways to adapt PoP ideas for their settings. The workshops are:
Learning is a process of constant communication and inclusive exchange. Embracing children and teachers as active agents and collaborative participants in the learning process requires a new conversation about children, childhood and education.
This conference offers the recognition of agency and participation as important concepts for international educators and schools to consider. It aims to stimulate a conversation that is founded on the fundamental rights of children. It will explore participation and agency as central forces that activate learning in the early years, explored through four different lenses. During the conference delegates will have the opportunity to hear all four keynote presentations and then select two ‘deep dive’ workshops where ideas will be exchanged and thinking stimulated about agency and participation through different lenses and perspectives.
