“Learning is Hard Even in Play”: Do Today’s Preschoolers Want to Play School?

Background. Since the most active research of play was conducted during the Soviet period in the context of a different social and cultural reality, the theory of play developed in the context of the cultural-historical approach might require updating in some aspects. Identifying qualitative and quantitative regularities in preschool children's desire or unwillingness to play can be useful both in conducting practical work with children and in clarifying scientific ideas about modern play along with improving the methodology of subsequent research work in this area. Objective. The study was primarily aimed at determining the role of age, gender, self-regulation and children's preferred toys in the likelihood of their desire to play school. The second scope was to develop a rich description of the key themes resounding in children's justifications for wanting or not wanting to play school, based on children's statements. Study Participants. The study involved 178 pupils of middle and preparatory groups of kindergartens located in dormitory districts of Moscow. At the time of the study the age of the children ranged from 4 to 7 full years (M = 5.55, SD = 0.78). The overall ratio of girls to boys in the sample was close to equal (106 boys and 118 girls). Methods. The study implemented individual diagnostics of the main components of self-regulation, as well as experimental procedures to study children's preferences when choosing toys. Results. A positive statistically significant relationship between the child's preference for highly realistic toys and the desire to play school was revealed. It is shown that the probability of interest in playing school is 36% higher in girls as compared to boys. The assumptions about the increasing interest in playing school as school age approaches and the self-regulation is better developed were not confirmed. As a result of thematic analysis of children's statements, it was shown that the desire to play school was most often associated with children's interest in learning activities, positive attitude to school and positive characteristics of the toy; the reluctance to play school was associated with the need to make effort in the game, with the fear of their own failure and dissatisfaction with the child's preferences regarding the toy or the type of game it suggested. Conclusions. The identified patterns and themes in children's answers can be useful in pedagogical work with children as well as in creating conditions for story-role play in kindergarten, as well as in improving the methodology of subsequent research work in this area.