Playing and working in kindergarten: cognitive co-construction in two educational situations

Abstract The sociocultural model of learning and development is proposed as a comprehensive framework to study and evaluate practice in early childhood education (ECE). In order to explore the sociocultural concept of cognitive coconstruction, two characteristic educational situations in Dutch kindergartens were compared, namely, free play and work lessons, the first as an instantiation of a child-run and the second as an instantiation of a teacher-run model of ECE. Measures concerned the active participation, intersubjective cooperation, and cognitive distancing of four- to five-year-old children. The study involved 40 target children (mean age 53 months) in seven kindergarten classrooms. Both child-related factors (personality characteristics, cognitive ability, SES of the family) and situation-related factors (peer and teacher behavior, situation characteristics) were found to influence children’s cognitive coconstruction processes. Within the constraints of the Dutch kindergarten curriculum, free play was found to be superior from the sociocultural point of view.

[1]  Anthony D. Pellegrini,et al.  Applied Child Study: A Developmental Approach , 1991 .

[2]  W. Barnett,et al.  Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Cognitive and School Outcomes. , 1995 .

[3]  D. Phillips,et al.  From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development , 2000 .

[4]  Kurt W. Fischer,et al.  Development in context : acting and thinking in specific environments , 1993 .

[5]  T. Musatti,et al.  Meaning Between Peers: The Meaning of the Peer , 1993 .

[6]  C. Ramey,et al.  Early intervention and early experience. , 1998, The American psychologist.

[7]  R. Gersten.  THE CONTINUED IMPACT OF THE DIRECT INSTRUCTION MODEL: LONGITUDINAL STUDIES OF FOLLOW THROUGH STUDENTS , 1988 .

[8]  L. Schweinhart,et al.  The High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Comparison study through age 23. , 1997 .

[9]  R. Cocking,et al.  Psychological Distance As A Unifying Theory Of Development , 1993 .

[10]  R. Cocking,et al.  The Development and Meaning of Psychological Distance , 1993 .

[11]  J. Dunn,et al.  Understanding Others, and Individual Differences in Friendship Interactions in Young Children , 2001 .

[12]  M. Verba.  Cooperative Formats in Pretend Play Among Young Children , 1993 .

[13]  K. Fischer,et al.  Dynamic development of psychological structures in action and thought. , 1998 .

[14]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. SAGE Studies in Social and Educational Change, Volume 5. , 1977 .

[15]  C. Howes,et al.  Relations among child care quality, teacher behavior, children's play activities, emotional security, and cognitive activity in child care , 1995 .

[16]  A. Nicolopoulou,et al.  Play, Cognitive Development, and the Social World: Piaget, Vygotsky, and Beyond , 1993 .

[17]  C. Ramey,et al.  Cognitive and School Outcomes for High-Risk African-American Students at Middle Adolescence: Positive Effects of Early Intervention , 1995 .

[18]  S. Neuman,et al.  Access to Print for Children of Poverty: Differential Effects of Adult Mediation and Literacy-Enriched Play Settings on Environmental and Functional Print Tasks , 1993 .

[19]  Paul P.M. Leseman,et al.  Effects of quantity and quality of home proximal processes on Dutch, Surinamese–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch pre‐schoolers’ cognitive development , 1999 .

[20]  D. Stipek,et al.  Effects of Different Instructional Approaches on Young Children's Achievement and Motivation , 1995 .

[21]  R. Slavin.  Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice , 1990 .

[22]  J. Bates,et al.  Temperament in childhood. , 1989 .

[23]  R. Charlesworth,et al.  Observed activities and stress behaviors of children in developmentally appropriate and inappropriate kindergarten classrooms , 1992 .

[24]  S. Kontos,et al.  An ecobehavioral analysis of early childhood classrooms , 1999 .

[25]  Dale C. Farran,et al.  Handbook of Early Childhood Intervention: Another Decade of Intervention for Children Who Are Low Income or Disabled: What Do We Know Now? , 2000 .

[26]  David R. Olson,et al.  The Handbook of Education and Human Development , 1998 .

[27]  D. Olson,et al.  The Handbook of education and human development : new models of learning, teaching, and schooling , 1996 .

[28]  P. Bourdieu,et al.  Reproduction in education, society and culture , 1970 .

[29]  R. Marcon,et al.  Differential impact of preschool models on development and early learning of inner-city children: a three-cohort study. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[30]  L. Vygotsky.  Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[31]  Paul P.M. Leseman,et al.  Home Literacy: Opportunity, Instruction, Cooperation and Social-Emotional Quality Predicting Early Reading Achievement , 1998 .