Preservice teachers’ perspectives of play in early childhood education

Identifying preservice teachers' perspectives about play and their role as a teacher in play is critical because their perspectives are related to how they organise and involve play in early childhood education. However, very few empirical studies have been conducted to examine how preservice teachers view play. In the present study, 46 preservice teachers' perspectives of play after they took a semester-long play course were uncovered. Content analysis results revealed that preservice teachers reaffirmed the developmental benefits of play they learned about in this course through observing and documenting children's play. Many preservice teachers in this study viewed play from multiple developmental perspectives, including physical, social and emotional, cognitive and language development. Additionally, preservice teachers developed active roles as teachers in play. The play course contributed to forming preservice teachers' perspectives about play. Discussions are provided.