2011/07/01 by Glenda Walsh, Liz Sproule, Carol McGuinness +1 · 26 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Child Development and Digital Technology #Education and Technology Integration #Dichotomy #Curriculum #Psychology #Pedagogy #Perspective (graphical) #Task (project management) #Process (computing) #Mathematics education #Epistemology #Visual arts #Art #Computer science #Management
paper · doi:10.1080/09575146.2011.579070
published in Early Years Journal of International Research and Development 31(2), 107-119 (Routledge)
openalex publication_date 2011/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Playful structure is a new pedagogic image representing a more balanced and integrated perspective on early years pedagogy, aiming to blend apparent dichotomies and contradictions and to sustain and evolve play-based practice beyond Year 1. Playful structure invites teachers and children to initiate and maintain a degree of playfulness in the child’s whole learning experience, even when the learning intentions demand a supportive structure. Thus, playfulness becomes characteristic of the interaction between adult and the child and not just characteristic of child-initiated versus adult-initiated activities, or of play-time versus task-time. The paper is based on intensive observations and interviews with teachers in Northern Ireland who participated in a play-based and informal curriculum. This paper explains how playful structure rests on complementary processes of infusion of structure into play-based activities and infusion of playfulness into more structured activities, illustrated by cameos. ‘Infusion’ suggests the subtle blending process that allows apparent dichotomies and contradictions to be resolved in practice.