Poster #12 - Teacher’s Perceptions of Pretend Play’s Role in the Classroom

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Background: Current educational conventions tout pretense as a learning mechanism. Research has shown that children learn facts and knowledge from pretense (van Reet, 2019). Moreover, fantastical play may facilitate the development of foundational skills, such as executive functions and socio-emotional learning (Gilpin et al., 2015; Thibodeau et al., 2016; White & Carlson, 2016). Educators play a crucial role in whether children participate in these forms of play (Robertson et al., 2020). Nonetheless, although the current zeitgeist reveres pretense, little is known about teachers’ perceptions of the role of pretend play in the classroom, and what factors may predict their perceptions. The sparse literature available provides conflicting views of teachers on the compatibility of play with learning and their intentions to implement play-based learning in the classroom (Bubikova-Moan et al., 2019; Yin et al., 2022).

Aims: The current study aims to understand teachers’ perspectives on the role of pretend play in the classroom and specifically to determine what factors influence teachers’ perceptions of pretend play.

Methods: Preschool and Elementary School Teachers (N=229) were surveyed about their beliefs of the value of pretend play and fantastical play in the classroom along with information about their classroom, curriculum, education and demographics.

Results: Although 97% of teachers endorsed pretend play as an important activity for children’s development, preschool teachers endorsed it significantly more than elementary school teachers, X2 (1) = 10.74, p < .001. Moreover, teachers endorsed the importance of realistic pretend play (97%) more than fantastical pretend play (90%) in children’s development, t (197) = -5.94, p =.04. See Figure 1. Qualitative answers demonstrate that teachers endorse the role of realistic pretend play for learning knowledge and fantastical play more so for an escape from reality. Teachers of classrooms where the racial majority was Caucasian endorsed the importance of pretend play more than others, X2 (3) = 8.43, p < .001. However, the socioeconomic status of the children’s families did not relate to teachers’ endorsement of the importance of pretend play. Moreover, neither teachers’ race, education, years of experience nor classroom curriculum relate to their endorsement of the importance of pretend play in the classroom.

Implications: Overall, these data suggest that both preschool and elementary teachers endorse pretend play as important for child development. However, preschool teachers believe that pretend play has a role in education more so than elementary school teachers suggesting that more dissemination is needed to demonstrate pretend play’s utility in elementary classrooms. Moreover, the finding that teachers value pretend play as a vehicle for learning more than fantastical play suggests that additional dissemination is needed to highlight the role of fantastical play in developing skills such as executive functions and emotion regulation. Lastly, future research should examine the value of pretend play in classrooms across cultures as the difference in its perceived value by race but not by socioeconomic status, teacher education nor teacher experience suggests that this difference may be driven by cultural preferences or norms.

Authors

• Emmy Bray, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Presenting Author

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa