PALICE: Childrens’ Experience of Learning through Play (CELP)

• In Event: Creating Learning through Play Experiences for Children: Tools to Support Playful Pedagogy

Proposal

The PALICE Modality 2 – the Children’s Experiences of Learning through Play (CELP), gathers children’s perspectives and feelings—those aspects that cannot be directly observed – about a discrete LtP activity implemented by the teacher in the classroom. The CELP is tailored for use by teachers (in the context of peer-to-peer learning), school-based instructional support staff (ISS), such as principals, head teachers, pedagogical coordinators and supervisors, as well as ISS from the education system, such as district-level officers, coaches and school inspector-supervisors who play a role in providing instructional support to teachers. CELP’s qualitative method is the Photo Elicitation Interview (PEI) protocol.
CELP follows a similar form and structure to the FORA, focusing on children’s perspectives of a specific LtP practice. During the LtP activity, the CELP facilitator takes photos of the LtP activity. After the class, the CELP facilitator conducts a focus group discussions with a small group of students who participated in the observed play activity, using 2-3 photos of the activity to elicit their perspectives on learning through play. The FGD questions are tailored to the type of teacher facilitation (free, guided, or teacher-directed) and the play characteristic selected by the teacher for their FORA observation. After the discussion with a small group of children, the CELP facilitator conveys their voices to the teacher for subsequent reflection.
The CELP tool was piloted alongside the FORA tool in three countries – Bangladesh, Colombia, and Uganda, in 2022. Each country team implemented the CELP protocol with slightly different composition of educators: teachers engaging in peer support in Uganda, play leaders and district education support officers in Bangladesh, and school coordinators in Colombia.
The initial results of the user feedback survey and interviews indicates that the majority of educators felt it was a useful component of the PALICE toolkit, helping teachers gain additional insight into the experiences of the children.

Authors

• Nikhit D'Sa, University of Notre Dame

• Martin Ariapa, Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education

• Carolina Maldonado-Carreño, Universidad de Los Andes