The evolution of play in public school kindergarten classrooms

The purpose of this study is to portray kindergarten teachers' developmentally appropriate practices in order to authenticate the essential component of play. Recently, student achievement has been the primary focus in Early Childhood Education, and play is seen as an action that precludes academic learning. This is a qualitative study of teachers' perceptions and teaching practices through observations, interviews, surveys, and journal reflections. The study found that participant kindergarten teachers: (1) have a developing understanding of the positive impact play has on student development, yet they are not aware of how to successfully implement play in their classroom; (2) tend to be more work driven than play driven in their daily activities; and (3) perceive play occurrs when manipulatives are made available for student use, however, the activities are largely teacher-directed in contrast to student initiated play. In summary, participant kindergarten teachers were found to be hesitant to let their control shift to child-initiated learning. There are gaps between teacher knowledge of how child initiated play impacts learning and the actual classroom implementation of child initiated play. Teachers need further development to understand how to use materials to integrate play into daily lessons. It is important to widely disseminate and support the use of Early Childhood National Board Standards regarding play in kindergarten classrooms. Kindergarten teachers require professional development that permits the integration of knowledge of play and the implementation of play in an increasingly accountability driven environment. Keywords: Play; Perceptions of play; Learner-Centered; Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP); National Board Certification National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT); National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS); English Language Learners (ELL); English Language Development (ELD)