ABSTRACT

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the education of 91% of students worldwide. As a critical process in supporting young children’s resilience, play is increasingly recognised as a valuable pedagogical strategy within a shifting educational landscape during the pandemic. This study reports on findings from a survey on play in early childhood education of 310 early childhood teachers during primary school closures in Ireland. Eighty-two per cent of teachers recommended play strategies to parents during remote teaching and home schooling and almost all teachers (99%) intended to use play as a pedagogical strategy upon school reopening. Teachers believed play was an especially important pedagogical tool in supporting young children’s social-emotional development, learning and transition back to school. Over a third highlighted uncertainty surrounding capacity to use play upon school reopening given COVID-19 regulations, emphasising the need for greater guidance to support teachers’ commitment to play-based pedagogical strategies.

摘要

因COVID-19大流行而导致的学校停课中断了全球91％学生的教育。在大流行期间，不断变化的教育环境中，游戏是支持幼儿恢复能力的关键过程，它日益被视为一种有价值的教学策略。这项研究报告了对爱尔兰310名幼儿教师在关闭小学期间的幼儿教育游戏进行调查的结果。82％的教师在远程教学和家庭学习期间向父母推荐了游戏策略，几乎所有教师（99％）都打算在学校重新开放时将游戏作为一种教学策略。老师们认为游戏是支持幼儿社会情感发展，学习和重返学校的一种特别重要的教学工具。