Chapter 8: Learning and Development in Play

The true power and potential of play in the lives of young children often become lost amid discussions of its role in “real learning” at school or the largely intuitive argument that play always promotes development. The goal of this chapter is to offer a reinterpretation of the significance of play in early childhood education, using the Finnish context as an example. The chapter begins with a description of the status of play in the three Finnish guidelines for the ages 0-8 years, as well as an overview of various definitions of play and approaches to play research. Next, I introduce a narrative approach as an alternative way to interpret learning through play, incorporating illustrative examples from three narrative learning environments: the Fifth Dimension, learning literacy in play, and the joint play world of adults and children. These environments are part of an experimental research program in which we have systematically varied the form and content of narratives. Simply put, we define a “narrative approach” as any activity based on make-believe in any form, including, for example, stories, pictures, music, and movement. We propose that the developmental potential of play should be reevaluated and our model of vertically integrated ECE helps to solve some basic contradictions in the Finnish educational system with regard to the role and power of play.