But Play IS Learning!

After reading Vygotsky’s Mind in Society and discussing his ideas in class, I wondered if how we teach our students would have evolved to where we are today if it wasn’t for his insights. I assume eventually that learning and development would be studied and analyzed to determine how children best learn. But, Vygotsky was really ahead of his time. Who would have thought that play IS learning? When we think of children playing, we think of them occupying their time with games and toys. When in reality, they are developing essential symbols, tools, and rules that will be used throughout their lives. When these tools, symbols, and rules are learned during play, they help children develop those critical, high-order thinking skills which they will apply to other situations, such as work.

When discussing the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), I thought about my students who depend on support when learning a new concept. ZPD is what a child can do with help until they can do it on their own. There is such a great feeling when I have worked with a student and that lightbulb goes off in their head and they just “get it.” You can actually see it in their eyes.  Not only does it give them a sense of accomplishment, it gives me one too. When comparing Piaget’s idea of children developing naturally at certain age ranges, Vygotsky’s “play is learning” and Zone of Proximal Development is more realistic to how I experience children learning in my classroom. I couldn’t imagine saying to a student, “You’re 12-years-old, you should know how to do this.” Vygotsky’s process lets children develop at the time that is right for them at that moment, getting the help that they need when necessary.

The fourth Design Principle, The Learning Principle, is about designing engaging lesson which allow students to participate in “playful” activities at the edge of their knowledge and understanding using symbolic tools to develop and internalize meaningful thought. Students can engage in meaningful, playful activities to allow them to interact with the concepts being taught. We did just that during class when we wrote our poems. We took what we learned about Vygotsky then created different types of poems (eg: haiku, concrete). The poems where the symbolic tools we constructed to represent Vygotsky’s ideas in a fun, playful way. We did the same thing when creating our mind maps of the ZPD. These lessons really resonated with me after class, I mean, I internalized meaningful thought from participating in these lessons (: I really enjoy this class because it gives me the opportunity to think about how children learn rather than what I want them to learn. I look forward to introducing more of these types of activities in my math classes. Maybe, just maybe, my students will look forward to math for once!