1. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Temple University Exploring evidence-based approaches to early learning and education

2. Preschool education in on the international agenda England Singapore Canada USA China Finland Japan

3. Research suggests that high quality preschool programs  Offer society economical advantages  Saved $912 per child for the 601, 4 to 8 year olds in the Better Beginnings, Better Futures Project (DeV. Peters et al, 2010)  Saved roughly $10.00 for every $1.00 spent in enriched early education in widely cited US programs (Galinksy, 2006; Heckman, 2004)  And they partially inoculate low income children from poor developmental trajectories  Perry Preschool Program – ch followed to age 40  Abecedarian – ch followed through age 22  Chicago Child-Parent Centers – ch followed through age 21

4. In fact, mountains of evidence suggest that… Preschool experiences rich in cognitive and social stimulation, dramatically increase children’s: Collaboration > Social skills by as much as 62% <Problem behaviors Communication > Language skills by 25% Content > Reading by 59% >Writing >Math by 50% US Head Start Data, 2002, 2005; High scope data Schweinhart, 2004; NIERR State reports, 2008, see also special issue of SCIENCE. 2011

5. This evidence… Rightly supports a strong curricular approach for early education

6. But also spawned a “learning industry” that …  Led to a plethora of more academically enriched preschools around the globe with a focus only on mastery of content  With a vibrant testing industry  Endorsed a 20 billion dollar educational toy market for the under 5 set  Produced a new crop of international tutoring companies that offer tailored worksheets for 3 and 4 year olds who want to “get ahead”  Enter SCORE, Junior Kumon, Kaplan

7.  A scripted content-focused kindergarten classroom in Philadelphia lost its reading corner when “walkthrough teams” deemed it “too chaotic” if students left their desks  The Alliance for Childhood 2009 survey of 142 NY classrooms and 112 LA classrooms found that  25% of teachers had no time for play  61% of NY teachers have no choice time  79% of NY teachers do test preparation every day On the ground in schools…

8. In the US, the new look of kindergarten is all work and no play, Bodrova, 2010

9. In this climate, Kagan and Lowenstein (2004) urge us not to confuse curricula with pedagogy…  “Of critical importance…is to understand what constitutes exciting curriculum and effective pedagogy” (p. 64)  The link connecting children’s play, children’s overall development and school readiness is irrefutable” (p. 70) In other words, playful learning needs to be back on the table of options for preschoolers as a pedagogical tool

10. A talk in 3 parts  How you learn is as important as what you learn  Where curricula meets pedagogy  Making the empirical case for “playful learning” as a pedagogical “middle of the road”  In social development  In cognitive development  Why guided play works: Some speculation

11. The Preschool literature often casts the education debate as the Capulets vs the Montagues Direct instruction (vs) playful learning But in this talk I would like to suggest that there is no single best practice and that Learning can occur (via) play? Further, it is critical that we not confound curricula and pedagogy

12. The case for a core curriculum is strong, especially for low income children !  Early cognitive skills in language, preliteracy, numeracy, executive function and emotion regulation predict later elementary school achievements.  NICHD, Early Child Care Research Network, 2005; Scarborough, 2001; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; NELP Report, 2009; Dickinson & Freiberg, in press; Baroody & Dowker, 2003; Raver, 2002 ; Melhuish, 2011)  Interventions in these skills make a big difference in later outcomes -- they are malleable  Diamond, Barnett, Thomas, & Munro, 2007; Reynolds, Temple, Ou, Arteaga & White, 2011)  Interventions have have both short and long term effects on outcomes.  Campbell, Pungello, Miller-Johnson, Burchinal, & Ramey, 2001; Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling, & Miller- Johnson, 2002; Campbell & Ramey, 1995; Schweinhart, 2004; Weikart, 1998; Reynolds, Ou, & Topitzes, 2004; Zigler & Bishop-Josef, 2006

13.  But this same literature is somewhat agnostic on the question of pedagogy  A strong curricular agenda need not be taught solely through direct instruction methods

14. In caricature the two pedagogical approaches in the literature Developmentally Appropriate (DA) Have active learners More playful learning (guided play) Whole child approach Integrated curricula Discoverer/Explorer metaphor Direct Instruction (DI) More passive learners Learning is more compartmentalized Paper-and-pencil, worksheet learning and test-taking are emphasized Empty vessel metaphor

15. Comparisons between developmentally appropriate pedagogies (DA) and more traditional “academic” direct instruction (DI) pedagogies tell the story. Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk, & Singer. (2009). A mandate for playful learning in preschool: Presenting the evidence. Oxford University Press.

16. DAP schools offer advantages in  Social emotional development  > Emotional regulation  < Child stress Burts, Hart, Charlesworth, Fleege, Mosley & Thomasson, 1992  < Behavior problems Marcon, 1994, 1999, 2003  > Motivation for school Hirsh-Pasek, 1991; Stipek et al., 1998  Academically  > Reading and math scores Stipek, Feiler, Byler, Ryan, Milburn, and Salmon (1998); Marcon (1999, 2003) These advantages lasted into the primary grades

17. DI Classrooms? Inattention, restlessness, stress behaviors (wiggling and rocking) Confidence in own abilities Enjoyment of challenging tasks End-of-year progress in motor, language, and social skills Compared with agemates in DAP settings. Lasting effects through elementary school: poorer study habits and achievement; greater distractibility, hyperactivity, and peer aggression. Burts et al., 1992; Hart et al., 1998, 2003; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2003; Singer & Singer, 2005.

18. One recent study… Celebrated a Montessori education over the more traditional education. Montessori classrooms are more developmentally appropriate. They embrace a metaphor of learning that is more more playful in which children are active and less passively involved in learning. --Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006

19. The results suggested that… Children in Montessori classrooms at age 5 yrs. did… Better in academic tasks like reading and math Better in social tasks that required positive peer play Better in tasks that required attention to another person’s beliefs At age 12 years these children… Liked school more Were more creative in their writing Did better in reading and math

20. And yet another recent study (Diamond, Barnett, Thomas & Munro, Science, 2007) Found that playful learning through the Tools of the Mind Program helped children develop executive function skills (EF) like inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. These skills are highly correlated with fluid intelligence and outcomes in math and reading. When teachers promote these skills through playful -- planful learning throughout the day, children’s outcomes on standardized tests increase -- even for poor children.

21. The evidence supporting a playful pedagogy is fairly strong!  From free play  Math and science  Sarama & Clements, 2009a, 2009b; Tamis- LeMonda, Uzgiris, & Bornstein, 2002; Ginsburg, Pappas, and Seo,2001  Literacy and language  Dickinson, Cote, & Smith, 1993; Nicolopoulou, McDowell, & Brockmeyer, 2006; Pellegrini & Galda, 1990; Dickinson & Moreton, 1991; Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; Bergen & Mauer, 200  Social-emotional skills  Birch & Ladd, 1997; Ladd, Birch, & Buhs, 1999; Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1997  Executive function  Krafft & Berk, 1998; Elias & Berk, 2002; Fantuzzo, Sekino, & Cohen, 2004; Lemche, Lennertz, Orthmann, Ari, Grote, Hafker, et al., 2003  From guided play  Math  Arnold, Fisher, Ginsburg, Inoue, & Seo, 1999; Doctoroff, & Dobbs, 2002; Griffin & Case, 1996; Griffin, Case, & Siegler, 1994; Whyte & Bull, 2008; Clements & Sarama, 2007; Fisher, 2009; Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006  Literacy and language  Christie & Enz, 1992; Christi & Roskos, 2006; Einarsdottir, 2000; Kavanaugh & Engel, 1998; Roskos & Christie, 2004; Saracho & Spodek, 2006; Nicolopoulou et al. 2006; Lillard & Else- Quest, 2006  Social-emotional skills  Brackett, Rivers & Salovey, in press; Ashiabi, 2007); Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006; Burts et al., 1990; Burts et al., 1992; Hirsh-Pasek, 1991; Love, Ryer, & Faddeis, 1992  Executive function  Bodrova & Leong, 2007; Diamond, Barnett, Thomas, & Munroe, 2007 ; Blair & Razza, 2007; Duncan, Dowsett, Claessens, Magnuson, Huston, Klebanov, et al., 2007; Gathercole, Tiffany, Briscoe, Thorn, & ALSPAC Team, 2005; Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006 While most of these published studies are correlational, a surprising number also use random assignment (see Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2010;Fisher et al., 2011, and Kagan & Lowenstein, 2004, for reviews )

22. Further, a recent meta- study  Reviewed 164 studies of young children, (along with studies of adults and adolescents) revealed that assisted discovery learning (playful learning) trumped both explicit instruction and unassisted discovery learning pedagogies! Alfieri et al., 2010

23. And, for some subjects like physics  This appeal to hands-on discovery learning is optimal even for college age students. NPR January 2012 Lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and now that information is everywhere, some say it’s a waste of time. Indeed, physicists have the data to prove it. …students have to be active in developing their knowledge…They can’t passively assimilate it (Mazur) Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur

24. A caveate….  This does NOT mean that there is no place for direct instruction  You still have to learn the multiplication tables  Experiments show that  Direct instruction methods trump free play when there is no instructio n Chein et al., 2010  Direct instruction might be particularly important….in early science learning when the material is delivered in a playful way (Klahr et al, 2011; Chi, 2009 for a review)

25. A talk in 3 parts  How you learn is as important as what you learn  Where curricula meets pedagogy  Making the case for “playful learning” as a pedagogical approach  In social development  In cognitive development  Why guided play works: Some speculation

26. A definition: Playful Learning contains time for free and guided play: Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk & Singer, 2011 So what do we mean by playful learning?

27. WHERE…..  Free play  whether with objects, fantasy and make believe, or physical, is 1) pleasurable and enjoyable, 2) has no extrinsic goals, 3) is spontaneous, 4) involves active engagement, 5) is generally all- engrossing, 6) often has a private reality, 7) is non-literal, and 8) can contain a certain element of make-believe (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2009; Garvey, 1977; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2003; Christie & Johnsen, 1983)

28. And GUIDED PLAY is …. A planned play environment, enriched with objects/toys that provide experiential learning opportunities, infused with curricular content (Berger, 2008). Montessori’s “freedom within a prepared environment” Teachers enhancing children’s exploration and learning by: -- co-playing with children -- asking open-ended questions -- suggesting novel ways for children to explore materials Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk & Singer, 2009 See also Chi, 2009; Ash & Wells, 2007; Berk & Winsler, 1995; Callanan & Braswell, 2006; Callanan & Oakes, 1992 Copple, Siegel, & Saunders, 1979; Rogoff, 2003

29. Importantly  In guided play  Children take the lead but with adult support and scaffolding  Children are active and engaged  The curricular aim is meaningful to the children See Chi, 2009

30. Evidence from social development Focus on social and emotional regulation

31. The case of self-regulation? Impulse and emotion control Self-guidance of thought and behavior (private speech) Planning Self-reliance Socially responsible behavior (Bronson, 2001; Kopp, 1991; Rothbart & Bates, 2006)

32. And a new book suggests that in the US, we are particularly bad at imparting social regulation And that the French parents are better

33. Measures of self-regulation predict? Favorable development and adjustment in cultures as different as the United States and China! Beginning in early childhood, positive outcomes include: -- persistence -- task mastery -- academic achievement -- social cooperation -- moral maturity (concern about wrongdoing and willingness to apologize) -- sharing and helpfulness Eisenberg, 2010; Harris et al., 2007; Kochanska & Asksan, 2006; Posner & Rothbart, 2007; Zhou, Lengua, & Wang, 2009; and many others.

34. Vygotsky on Make-Believe Play and Self-Regulation By creating imaginary situations, children learn to use internal ideas to guide and control their thinking and behavior. By following rules in make-believe, children come to understand and uphold social norms and expectations.

35. Tools of the Mind Elena Bedrova & Deb Leong Encouragement of complex sociodramatic play Promoting children’s use of language and other symbolic tools to regulate behavior

36. Self regulation tasks Diamond et al., 2007 Scores on tests like this at 3 to 5 years predict reading and math achievement from kindergarten through high school. (Blair & Razza, 2007; Duncan et al., 2007; Gathercole et al., 2005 )

37. Self regulation findings Diamond et al., 2007

38. Play intervention: in children from low-income families Ogan & Berk (2009) Head Start Study Half the children (n=50, 4 and 5 yrs) are in direct instruction play and half in a supported play condition 2 times per week 14 min per session followed by 5 min free play Pre- and post-testing on battery of self-regulation tasks Assessment of free-play behavior A lab-based random assignment design

39. Self-Regulation Findings Support/Encouragement group advantaged over Directed Training group in: Tasks requiring suppressing, initiating, and controlling behavior Planning skills

40. Free Play Findings Ogan & Berk, 2009 Support/Encouragement group spent more time engaged in make- believe and less time unoccupied

41. Reviewing programs (including Tools) designed to stimulate social regulation and executive function, Diamond & Lee write… …programs shown to enhance EFs have many commonalities. We’d like to highlight two: They do not expect young children to sit still for long. Such expectations are not developmentally appropriate, increase teacher-student tensions, and lead some children to dread school and/or to be wrongly labeled as having ADHD. Second, the programs tend to reduce stress in the classroom; cultivate joy, pride, and self-confidence; and foster social bonding ; all of which support efforts to improve EFs and academic achievement. Diamond & Lee, 2011

42. Evidence from academic development Focus on reading, math, spatial development, creativity and hypothesis testing

43. Focus on reading… Telling stories Word play (what rhymes with “hat”?) Singing songs Dramatic play (Christie)

44. One recent example: Vocabulary learning: Han, Vulkelich and Buell (2011)  49, low-performing 4- and 5- year olds from Head Start Classroom  Random assignment study: Half in Explicit Instruction Vocabulary Protocol (EIVP); Half in EIVP + play  30 min, 2 X per week for 4 mo  Teach 64 new words (16 per week w/ 4 target words per week) Results! Target words better in EIVP + play

45. In progress Dickinson, Golinkoff & Hirsh-Pasek

46. In math and spatial skills Finding patterns Dividing candy and sharing Squire & Bryant, 2002 Playing with blocks & trains Playing board games Ramani & Siegler, 2008

47. Spatial Skills and STEM Disciplines The Spatial skills used in blocks are basic to human intelligence (e.g., packing a trunk, reading a map) Spatial skills are also related to later mathematical outcomes Pruden, Levine, Ginsburg

48. Research supported in part by Mega Bloks Ferrara, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe & Golinkoff (2011) See also Levine, Huttenlocher, Cannon, Pruden, Ratliff & Saunders, 2008

49. Research Questions Do we talk more about space when we play with blocks? Do we talk more about space in certain play situations over others? (using words like above, on top of, beside…)

50. Our design….  3-5 year olds participated in 2 play conditions with their parent, either:  Free play ( here are some blocks, do what you will) then guided play (can you build a heliport/ garage)?  Guided play a then guided play b ( build a heliport, build a garage)  Preassembled play (here’s a heliport) then guided play

51. Play Situations Pre-assembled Play Free Play Guided Play

52.  So what condition prompted the most spatial language?  Above, around, over, through….  And did playing with blocks offer any advantage over playing with other toys?

53. YES!! Spatial Language Results First, the play context makes a difference! In guided play, 10% or 1 in 10 words were spatial Second, block play made a difference In non-block play contexts, parents use only 3 to 6% of spatial terms

54. Focus on geometry: Children learn the defining features of shape in guided play Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe and Golinkoff, submitted

55. Which of these are real triangles?

56. How shape concepts develop? The shift from similarity- to rule-based classification systems Environmental exposure & interaction with shapes plays a formative role (Kuhn, 1961; Piaget, 1970; Vygotsky, 1978) Physical, visual, & verbal exploration Interactive ‘guided’ exploration with adult Exposure to variations of shape (e.g., typical - atypical shape forms)

57. We asked Whether guided play might be a better way to learn than is direct instruction or free, exploratory play for learning shape concepts (triangles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons)?

58. 3 Conditions Guided Play (+ DI, + AE ) : Children were taught rule-based classification systems for shapes in a playful, exploratory manner (they were “detectives” discovering the secret of the shapes) Direct Instruction (- DI, - AE ) : Children were taught rule-based classification systems for shapes in a passive learning manner (children watched the experimenter act as a detective discovering the secret of the shapes) Exploratory/Free Play (- DI, +AE) : Children played with shape cut-outs (same as training cards) and wax sticks for approximately the same amount of time as the training conditions.

59. Shape Sorting Task Shape Cards: 40 cards, 10 per shape (3 typical, 3 atypical, 4 non-valid) Procedure: Children introduced to “Leelu the Picky Ladybug” who only liked REAL shapes. She needed help sorting some shape cards she found (40 cards; 10 per shape). ‘Real’ shapes were placed in her ladybug box, while ‘fake’ shapes were thrown in a trashcan

60. Wanna guess where they learned the best?

61. Results Acceptance rates of typical, atypical, and non-valid shapes (sorted as ‘real shapes’) by group. NOTE: Adult data was not collected for this study. Data is presented for comparison only. * p <.05, ** p <.01, *** p <.001 **** *****

62. And recent results suggest that guided play …. Might also foster creative thinking! Fisher, Glazek, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, in preparation, With support from the Mattell Corporation

63. Finally, results from Bonowitz, Shafto, Gweon,Goodman, Spelke & Schultz (2010) Suggests that direct instruction (while effective), “limits spontaneous exploration and discovery.” See also Sobel & Summerville, 2010 for a related finding

64. Key points and directions forward  A strong core curriculum and playful pedagogy are NOT incompatible  Data suggest playful learning offers a midground position to foster high quality preschool education  We need more research to secure the operational definition of playful learning and guided play  We need more high quality research to examine the impact of playful learning on academic and social outcomes  Random assignment studies comparing playful learning to free play alone and to direct instruction. (We are conducting a number of these studies in math and reading.)  We need research that goes beyond the claim for an association and that looks at the mechanisms that drive the association between play and learning.

65. A talk in 3 parts  How you learn is as important as what you learn  Where curricula meets pedagogy  Making the empirical case for “playful learning” as a pedagogical “middle of the road”  In social development  In cognitive development  Why guided play works: Some speculation

66. Four big ideas  Guided play keeps children engaged and optimizes on best developmental principles of learning  Guided play organically focuses children on the right dimensions  Guided play offers a mise en place that sets the stage for learning and exploring  Guided play is really a metaphor for all active, engaged learning that command a learner’s time and attention

67. Children learn best in active, engaged, constructive and interactive environments (Chi, 2009) when the material they are learning is meaningful Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk and Singer, 2009 Big Idea #1

68.  Guided play forces attention to the dimensions of interest  The shape study  The block study  In so doing, guided play reduces distraction  Tare, Chiong, Ganea & DeLoache (2010) on pop up books  Parish-Morris, Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff & Mahajan, submitted on e-books  Barr et al., 2010 studying music backgrounds on children’s TV shows  Uttal et al. 1997 on manipulatives Big Idea #2

69. These findings in part  Explain why children do not learn as well in free play as they do in guided play when there is a learning goal! And begin but do not fully explain findings by Klahr comparing three pedagogies for science learning. From Klahr et al., 2011

70.  Guided play creates a mise en place or disposition for learning that sets children up for discovery, exploration and questioning  The Creativity Study (Fisher et al., in preparation)  Bonowitz et al., 2010 Big Idea #3 Thanks to Jerry Bruner for naming for this potential construct

71. Big Idea #4 Playful learning is a metaphor for the learning that happens when you are active and engaged and attentive ! e.g., Research finds gains in executive function through: yoga vs physical exercise tae-kwon-do vs physical exercise aerobics vs no exercize musical training vs no musical training

72. In sum, The evidence suggests that… Children –especially poor children – benefit from a curriculum that is rich in social and cognitive stimulation But this curricular goal must not be trumped by a singular pedagogy that is dominated by passive direct instruction The evidence suggests that playful learning – in particular – guided play is developmental appropriate and confers social and academic benefits to children Such an approach is also largely consistent with the data on how children learn best! It is time to reconsider the value of a playful pedagogy

73. Kagan summarizes: The literature is clear: Diverse strategies that combine play and more structured efforts are effective accelerators of children’s readiness for school and long term development…The challenge is knowing which strategy to use for which children, for how long and under what conditions (Kagan & Lowernstein 2004 p.72). This challenge points the way to a new frontier of evidence- based practice in early education and suggests that research on playful learning must be a part of that agenda.