The Benefits of the natural play for children
Executive summary (done after the project is finished)…………………………………….. 3
Section 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Example to get you started:………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Setting/context…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Section 2: Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………… 6
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
How do I structure my paragraphs……………………………………………………………….. 6
What do I have headings for in my literature review?…………………………………….. 7
Section 3: Design of my research project…………………………………………………………. 8
My approach to Action Research/ Action Learning and some theory informing it 8
Who is involved in Your research?………………………………………………………………… 9
What are your ethical considerations…………………………………………………………….. 9
Rigour………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
What is going to happen……………………………………………………………………………… 10
Document your plan…………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Executive summary (done after the project is finished)
In this section you will write a short, succinct summary of the report and a list of any recommendations you have.
Section 1: Introduction
To conclude my Bachelor of Early Childhood Degree this action research was purposed as part of my final practicum. The initial focus for the literature review would be the challenges for educator planning and design a simulated outdoor environment in childcare. However, the laws to operate a childcare centre in a building are very recent and the services still need waivers approval to start the project in some states (Cook, 2017). Considering this information, the lack of researches and documentation about the topic the idea of the project was changed for the Benefits of Natural Play for Children, and the research method will be involving children in the implementation process of natural resources in a simulated natural environment.
Since I have the first contact with a simulated outdoor childcare environment, I asked myself about the importance of natural play for children. Therefore, I decided to research about the benefits of natural play in early years and how we can involve children and design an exceptional simulate outdoor area. Currently, in New South Wales to open an indoor childcare centre the owner only need to respect some specific regulations related to sun lights and square metres per child and ensure children will have the same opportunities for learning as they would in a centre with a big yard ( ACA, n.d).
The posed questions are:
- In which ways natural play can benefit children?
- Is it possible promote a natural interaction in a simulated outdoor space?
- How children can contribute to a simulated natural environment design?
A research into this area is extremely relevant because children are …
Setting/context
This research was undertaken in a childcare centre placed at a mall. The mall is located in a multicultural area close by the beach and parks. The centre has capacity for 54 children a day, however there are 54 children along the week attending at the centre. There are four different rooms, being one Nursery ( 0-2), one Toddler room (2-3) one Pre-school (3-4) and another Pre-school (4-5). The families who attend this centre are mostly locals, although they have different backgrounds which gave the centre one award for inclusion practices and diversity. The centre operates since 2007 and they have some long-term staff working in the premises. The centre have Exceeding rates in most of the areas excepted in Area 2: Children’s health and safety and Area 3: Physical Environment where they are meeting the standards. According to their Quality Improvement Plan they are planning implement more natural resources in the simulated outdoor area. They are still designing an action plan to put some new practices in place. The objective of this action research is also contribute for their improvement in Area 3 presenting some ideas of how they can include children’s voices in the environment improvement.
Section 2: Literature Review : The Benefits of Natural play for Children
Introduction
Nature play is an important topic in Early Childhood setting. Nowadays with the technological progress children have being separate from nature. According to many researches and theorists, the interaction with nature are extremely important for children development. This literature review will discuss the benefits of natural play in children’s area of development.
Policies, Laws and regulation for Outdoor Environment
Policies and procedures, laws, regulations and frameworks are extremely important in childcare settings. To run an educational business, it essential to follow some specific laws and standards determined by state laws and regulations and The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYFL) ( ACEQCA, n.d). The service also will design policies guided by those documents. The centre policy statement for physical environment determine the environment must be appropriate for their purpose, promoting children’s competence and exploration agency. The centre promotes sustainable practices, including use of environmentally friendly products and encouraging children to respect the environment, promoting learning experiences that brings understanding of responsibilities for a sustainable practice. Children must have flexible, inclusive and interactive outdoor environment having the opportunity to engage and interact with natural elements.
The NSW Legislation (2018) enforces some rules for outdoor spaces in childcare centres, such as space, shade and appropriate supervision . In Division 2 regulation 113 in the legislation is addressed children must have an outdoor that allows them to explore and experience natural environment giving some examples like sand, trees and vegetation ( NSW Legislation, 2018). The Guide to the National Quality Framework (NQF) (2018) supported by the NSW legislation (2018) emphasises the outdoor spaces features bringing some more examples of what the centre must to provide such as gardens, water play areas, dirt paths and worn farms. It does not mean every centre must have all those elements, however the premises must to have appropriate resources to promote children’s access for interaction with nature ( ACEQCA, 2018). The EYFL (2009), mentioned teaching about natural world and the importance of respect the environment as an essential educational practice, as designing learning environments that includes elements of the nature to foster children’s appreciation for their environment ( EYFL, p.14-16, 2009). The NQF and the EYFL are documents designed based on the states laws and regulations to guide and support educators in the educational journey.
Theories of Play
In this section you will review literature including research, policy and theory relevant to your research question. The aim is to present research and commentary from other’s that is relevant to your project.
How do I structure my paragraphs
Each paragraph will have a topic sentence. Try to make your discussion analytical, and also critical. It also helps to provide a synthesis at the end of each paragraph. Your synthesising sentence connects the idea you have just discussed back to the guiding topic, this builds cohesion across the text.
Not all your paragraphs are going to be structured the same, but they will all have a topic sentence. You might then introduce a key idea from the literature. If it comes from one paper discuss if it is research, policy; analysis, theoretical perspective. Have a few little phrases that help you explain what it is. For example: in research about transition to school; in a discussion about the influences of family on transition; in the curriculum framework transition is identified as a key issue, it states “Remember for direct quotes you use page numbers” (author, date, p.#). If you use a direct quote in the next paragraph always explain why that quote is important. Then link that back to your topic.
You may then go on to more literature. Try to avoid lots of direct quotes, because it is more analytical to paraphrase and discuss than it is to identify and describe. When you paraphrase you do not need page references so it is easier to reference (author, date). But remember to connect the idea back to your overall discussion.
What do I have headings for in my literature review?
Reviewing literature takes time. It is a good idea to read the relevant literature and keep track of the themes. You may find that one paper has more than one theme, which means you get to talk about it under different headings. You use headings to draw the reader’s attention to the themes. Remember the other reason you are reading the literature is to explain the field you are researching. This means that the headings also draw our attention to the ways you understand the literature.
Section 3: Design of my research project (this section needs to be well thought through before you go on prac, but will still be changed a little after depending on what happens)
Here you will discuss how you are going to go about doing your research project. If you haven’t done it yet, read Step 3 (MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008). You might also find Ferrance, (2000). Useful, so here is the link in the ACU library:
MacNaughton and Hughes (2008) talk about the ‘action research family’ essentially you need to know which family you are going to hang out with. You tell that in this section. You also need to read about ethical responsibilities in Step 5 (MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008), mapping the practicalities (Step 7 MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008) and how to add rigour you’re (Step 8 MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008). So write a brief introduction and get stuck into it!
Method and Theory Involved
As educators we always heard about the benefits of nature in children’s life and in adulthood. Rousseau and Pestalozzi, were the first theorist to introduce the idea that natural environment play a positive role in children’s education. Friedrich Froebel, founded the Kindergarten, and his theory enforce the idea the interaction with nature not only contributes to children’s awareness about the nature but also to develop in children the importance of the natural world and how it is connected with their health and life style ( Kadimba, n.d). Piaget, in his Stage of development theory addresses the different stages of learning that children naturally present in determined age. The toddler’s group would be in the Preoperational stage where children learning observing the environment and the causes and consequences. To develop the action research the use of manipulative play using natural elements are crucial to engage children in learning and to promote curiosity allowing children to explore the elements freely and gather their own ideas and observations through play ( Pound, 2012).
The idea of this action research is to observe if educators involve a specific toddler group in making decision about the simulated outdoor environment design and how children will respond and get benefits in their development through natural elements interaction. I decided to bring different learning experiences, mostly experiences is new for this group of children, such as gardening, natural loose parts painting, natural stones memory game and nude playdough with natural loose parts are some example of purposed learning activities. The objective of this project is to implement one step to help the centre improve their simulated outdoor environment adding more natural elements and engaging children in natural play. Using the purposed strategies children will have more contact to natural elements and they will make choices about which elements will be incorporate in the environment according to their play preferences.
This is an action research/ action learning project, so this is where you are going to describe how you are going to that. The MacNaughton and Hughes (2008) book is really helpful here, so if you haven’t read section 3 do it now. After you read that section you should be able to write this part. You should also draw on some other literature about action research and you will find references for those in section 3.
Here you will also discuss theory that is relevant. Identify your perspective: are you coming from sociocultural perspectives, post structural perspectives, ecological systems perspective? You need to explain why this way of thinking is useful to your research. Hughes and MacNaughton (2008) talk about potstructural perspective and postmodern perspectives. How do you think about things?
Who is involved in your research?
The research is about the benefits of natural play for children and the implementation of natural environment in a simulated outdoor setting. Mostly of the times children will be involved doing activities or participating in making decisions process. Educators and director are also involved guiding children, giving ideas about the learning activities purposed by the researcher and giving feedback about the process. It expected educators maintain the natural elements built during this project and implement more changes after that.
This research was undertaking in a childcare centre environment. For this reason, some ethical responsibilities were vital to proceed with this research project.
According to the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research (2007) the researcher should respect the right of those included in the research, follow practices of safety and security, ensure the findings are responsible disseminated, confidentiality and follow policies and procedures related to privacy, confidentiality and authorship. To ensure this ethical responsibility parents’ authorisation to take pictures of children are used. If the pictures are used to demonstrate the collection of artefacts, children’s face will be covered. The communication with staff to collect information about the specific topic is going to be used excluding names or positions. All the activities purposed during the research are conducting considering safety policies and relevant procedures ( Australian Government, 2007).
This research has approval from the university because it is part of your study. However, you still need to consider the research ethics of what you are doing. Will you need to get permissions? Are there people who need to be informed? Are you sensitive to issues of culture and privacy? How are you approaching the centre about your idea. (Step 5 MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008)
Rigour
Here you will talk about how you will make your research rigorous. You are doing a qualitative research project, so using numbers is not going to help you with authenticity. You need to consider strategies that are fit for purpose. You need to read the section in the text about this (Step 8 MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008). The approach to rigour is also informed by your theory, this is all talked about in the reading. You should be able to talk about some of these things:
- Using several methods to gather data
- Keeping a reflective journal about your research where you make your thinking about values clear
- The action research cycle you chose is followed clearly. So describe the cycle and explain how you will use your journal to keep track of the cycle as well as a schedule.
What is going to happen
Describe the data you are going to gather before you start and what this will look like. There is lots of different things you could do, but you must do a contextual analysis so put that down. Step 10 and Step 11 will help with this (MacNaughton & Hughes, 2008). Some things you might include are:
- Interviews with Director and teacher
- Interviews with others (children, famiies, staff?)
- Collection of artefacts
- Review of relevant policy
- Analysis of the NQS
- Analysis of the EYLF
- Other??
Document your plan
Now it is time to put your plan on paper. This is an important step because it brings your thinking together. This plan is also important to show that you have a rigorous process to follow. The plan needs to be in a table. You should have dates for when things will happen, specific days may not be needed depending on what you are doing. It may be that a weekly description is fine. It will depend on what you need to get done.
Try to visualise the action part of your action research/ action learning project. For example, if you are doing something about documentation, are you going to make some documentation ? What will this look like? Have you got any examples, ideas, jottings to share with people to help explain your idea? If you are focusing on partnerships, what is the element of partnerships you will focus on? Who is the partnership with? How will the partnership be described? Is there some process you will follow to build this partnership? Describe the process. It may be that you are following an action that has been done in previous research. Explain that you are using something else as a model.
You should also be thinking about your outcome. When everything is finished what do you have, or leave behind? Is it a process, a template, some principles, an artefact? How will it be used and who will use it? Who will see it? Will it be able to be done again, what learnings and changes come from it? Remember whatever you do needs to be connected to one of the NQS. These ideas might change as you go but at least try to think what will happen and have a go at writing it down in the table. You should print out your timeline. Expect that it will change, write on it, add to it, make new versions of it. Keep all the versions and annotations. These all make your project more rigorous. Now it is time to make your table. You’ll get feedback on this from your LIC.
| Date | Action | Comments |
| Gathering baseline data this will include | ||
| · Learning Activities | ||
| · Responses | ||
| · Gathering artefacts | ||
| Forming your reference group (in this research it is the people you talk to about what you are doing) You do not have to have meetings. These are people who you discuss your research with
· Who are they · how will meet with them and when? |
||
| What are you going to do | ||
| What next | ||
| Plan that you may have to add things in on the way | ||
| Identify a date for completion of the action | ||
| Gather some more data to see how successful this was |
In the last years there is an increase of indoors childcare centres. In Melbourne, some teachers and people who advocate for children’s education do not agree with the decision of the government to give permission for this type of business. Although the cities are growing and children need a place where they will have their needs attended when parents are at work educators believe children must have contact with natural environment to develop physically, socially and emotionally ( Cook, 2017). The topic is controversial and the objective is to demonstrate some practices adopted by educators in this indoors spaces that make possible children still interact with natural elements.
References
Henrietta Cook (2017). How fake nature in child care centres could be damaging. The age. Retrieved from https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/how-fake-nature-in-child-care-centres-could-be-damaging-20170113-gtr5il.html
Australian childcare alliance NSW (ACA) (n.d). Potential risks and lack of transparency over waivers for simulated outdoor spaces. Retrieved from https://nsw.childcarealliance.org.au/news/579-potential-risk-and-lack-of-transparency-over-waivers-for-simulated-outdoor-spaces
Kdimba, L. (n.d). Why is outdoor play important for children? Theorists weigh in on benefits. Bright hub education. Retrieved from https://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-preschool/107367-theories-on-the-importance-of-outdoor-play/
Pound, L. (2012). How children learn: from Montessori to Vygotsky. MA education. London. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=x5-_BAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT3&dq=pestalozzi+theory+of+play&ots=YHRRVugUpU&sig=7KpiiwsHAx35bCtXzqhUVJ3h6Kw#v=onepage&q&f=false
Australian government (2007). Australian code for the responsible conduct of research. National health and medical research council. Commonwealth: ACT
NSW Legislation (2018). Education and care services national regulations. Parliamentary counsel’s office. Commonwealth: ACT.
The national quality framework (ACEQCA) (2018).
Australia children’s education & care quality authority (ACEQCA) (n.d). Opening a new service: what you need to know about opening a new service. Retrieved from https://www.acecqa.gov.au/resources/opening-a-new-service
EYFL (2009).
