Play-Based Learning in Kindergarten Is Making a Comeback.

By Elizabeth Heubeck for EducationWeek

Parents visiting their children’s kindergarten class for the first time may think they’ve arrived at the wrong room, especially if they expect it to resemble the kindergarten they attended as 5-year-olds.

Imaginative play areas that once occupied a dominant part of the kindergarten landscape—think dress-up corners, easels and paints, stacks of blocks—have, in many instances, been replaced with literacy corners and science centers. Getting along with classmates and learning to follow simple instructions from a teacher also have been sidelined as the primary goals of kindergarten. Now, most kindergarten teachers are focused primarily on preparing young learners for future academic success.

The changes have not gone unnoticed by educators, parents, and policymakers.

“What I was noticing as a kindergarten teacher is that the opportunities for kids to come in and have chances to play, to experiment and test how the world works, were being pushed out for more academic instruction that wasn’t necessarily aligned with where their skill levels were or the experiences they had,” said Christopher Brown, the associate dean for teacher education at the University of Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education and a former kindergarten teacher who taught in the late 1990s. “That’s continued to be a concern with teachers that I’ve talked to for the past 20 years.”

Decisionmakers in some states and districts have begun to heed concerns raised by Brown and other education experts about the direction kindergarten has taken. As a result, some schools are returning play to its prominent role in kindergarten.

Here’s a closer look at why the pendulum of play in kindergarten has begun to swing again and how it looks different today.

Continue reading here.

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