You will need to ensure that you have read the article, chapter, or book that the quotation is taken from so that you can correctly summarise the author’s point. You will then draw upon appropriate literature to critically discuss the author’s position on play in the early years and to make a case for a particular approach to play in the early year’s curriculum.
A ‘pedagogy of play’ might be characterized by complexity and diversity of practice, the locus of interactions between the need and desires of children and those of adults, between ideological and pragmatic imperatives, between spontaneous and intrinsically motivated actions of the child and the demands of a standardized and politicized curriculum.
Moreover, pedagogy tends to be defined principally from the adults’ perspective with less attention to how children respond to and make sense of pedagogical practices within the contexts of their play, remembering that play is widely described in the Western early childhood literature as the child-initiated activity, free from externally imposed rules.
(Rogers, 2011: 1) The rationale should:
- Critically evaluate the statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE 2017), with emphasis upon the role of play within this.
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of debates around the role of play in the early year’s curriculum together with the role of the practitioner in facilitating a play-based curriculum.
- Present a well-structured and coherent discussion incorporating appropriate practical examples and illustrations.
- Make use of relevant and appropriate literature to sustain and develop a balanced and critical discussion.
- Follow the University’s referencing conventions.
