Playfulness and the quality of classroom interactions in preschool

A high degree of playfulness in learning activities has been claimed to be more developmentally appropriate for young children than high structure and directivity. However, empirical support for this claim is limited. Most studies that analyze interactions associated to playfulness are correlational, which poses a problem for attributing differences to the degree of playfulness of activities.

The present study sought to compare, in a controlled manner, the interactions and behaviors in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms during high- and low-playfulness activities.

Participants were teachers, teacher aides, and 377 students in 12 classrooms (six prekindergarten and sic kindergarten) in six public schools from a low-income municipality in the capital city of a middle-income Latin American country.

The behavior of children and teachers during high-playfulness and low-playfulness activities was videorecorded in two visits per classroom per game. High playfulness activities consisted of games designed by our team for this study. Videos were coded for proportion of on-task children, children exhibiting high levels of involvement, and teacher language (teaching, directiveness, warmth, humor). Data were analyzed using multilevel multiple regression to account for nesting in classrooms.

Children were more likely to be on-task and show high-involvement during high-playfulness activities than low-playfulness ones. Teaching and directive verbalizations were more likely during two of the low-playfulness activities, but not the rest. Responsivity and warmth were associated only with two of the games and in the opposite direction of our hypothesis. Teachers were more likely to produce humorous remarks during high-playfulness activities.