J. Bruner on Children’s Play and Their Path to Understanding Reality

With the growing recognition of the importance of children’s play in both public and academic communities, research on this topic has steadily increased. However, Jerome J. Bruner’s comprehensive interpretation of children’s play remains underexplored within the field of education. By delving into J. Bruner’s original works and his academic contributions, this article seeks to highlight J. Bruner’s core perspectives and educational practices concerning children’s play. This article first traces J. Bruner’s academic trajectory, from his studies on primate play to his explorations of children’s play, elucidating how J. Bruner drew insights from animal play research and successfully applied them to the study of children’s play. Specifically, J. Bruner illustrated how play functions as a low-risk learning mechanism, enabling children to explore skills and adapt to social rules in a safe environment. Subsequently, the article discusses J. Bruner’s theory of children’s play, emphasizing that play is not only a key medium for children’s cognitive and linguistic development, but also an essential avenue for them to engage with and understand the real world. Play serves a pivotal role in simulating daily life, fostering narrative skills and learning social norms. Furthermore, this article focuses on J. Bruner’s educational stance on practices in children’s play, including the integration of games with subject content, the principle of moderate participation by adults and peers, and approaches to stimulating creativity and problem-solving abilities through games. Finally, based on J. Bruner’s theory and the contribution of children’s play, this study recommends that the play behavior of target children should be further observed. The duration of children’s play rounds and the complexity of the play can be investigated in depth. In this way, the educational value of children’s play can be fully leveraged.