The current study examined the impact of experiencing either a guided play or direct instruction learning environment on causal learning, curiosity, and divergent thinking. Forty-three children (age 4- to 6-years) participated in an online experiment in which they completed a causal learning task in either guided play or direct instruction condition. Children also completed measures of curiosity and divergent thinking and a second causal learning free exploration task after which they were tested on their causal learning. It was predicted that children in the guided play condition would perform better than children in the direct instruction condition on a test of causal learning because guided play provides a balance of child agency and adult guidance that is optimal for supporting learning. Contrary to the hypothesis, children in the direct instruction condition performed better on the test of causal learning. This finding is likely due to the cognitive demands placed on children in the guided play condition. These demands were likely the result of completing the task in an online environment, and the current study has implications for learning and conducting research online. Based on prior research, it was also predicted that children in the guided play condition would outperform children in the direct instruction condition on measures of curiosity and divergent thinking, and that curiosity would also predict children’s causal learning. There were no effects of condition on either curiosity or divergent thinking, but curiosity did predict children’s scores on the test of causal learning. This finding suggests that curiosity is a powerful driver of children’s learning and deserves further investigation. / Psychology

Parents’ perceptions of how their children learn most effectively are crucial drivers in shaping both how they interact with their children and the broader educational landscape in which their children are raised. Recent shifts in educational policy reflect an increasing acceptance of playful learning principles, but methodological gaps have made it challenging to determine which principles drive parents’ attitudes, and how widely shared these perceptions may be across the globe. In the present set of studies, we surveyed parents in the United States and China – countries with purportedly very different cultural attitudes toward education – to assess parent’s perceptions of the connection between common childhood activities and playful learning. Study 1, in the United States, and Study 3, in China, used a between-subjects design to examine parents’ perceptions of 37 common childhood activities across play and learning conditions. Study 2, in the United States, and 4, in China, used a within-subjects design to dig deeper into parents’ perceptions of the overlap between play and learning in these same activities and how this overlap was associated with the characteristics of playful learning (Zosh et al., 2018). We found similarities between both cultures in their categorization of childhood activities as playful and learning. Furthermore, parents in both the United States and China positively associated most characteristics of playful learning with activities that they categorized as both play and learning and that joyful was associated with play, either alone or in conjunction with learning, while joyful was not associated with learning alone. / Psychology

This study explored human-robot interaction where children got to play with the interactive social robot Romo. The focus of the study was to explore if children experienced the interactions with the robot differently depending on two parameters. The parameters used were thought to measure differences in experiences, attitudes and expectations towards the robot depending on whether the children were co-creators of the robot or merely had playful interaction with the robot. The results indicated that the children in both activity parameter groups had similar pleasurable experiences apart from four additional categories that were detected in the co-creation group. Something that indicates that the group of children that were given the opportunity to manipulate and form Romo’s behavior had a richer user experience compared to the group of children that only played with Romo. It was also noticeable that none of the children that manipulated and formed Romo’s behavior experienced it as direct learning. They saw the learning process more as being a playful experience and many of them expressed that they had taught Romo to do various things. The ability to edit Romo’s robotic motions and behavior, through an easy contextual-sign interface, inevitably allowed the children to understand physical and computational models through play. / Denna studie undersökte människa-robot interaktion där barnen fick leka med interaktiva sociala roboten Romo. Målet med studien var att undersöka om barnen upplevde interaktioner med roboten på olika sätt beroende på två parametrar. De parametrar som användes var avsedda att mäta skillnader i upplevelser, attityder och förväntningar till roboten beroende på om barnen var medskapare av roboten eller enbart hade en lekfull interaktion med det. Resultatet visade att barnen i båda aktivitets parameter grupperna hade liknande upplevelser av interaktionen med roboten förutom att gruppen som var medskapare av roboten hade ytterligare fyra njutbar upplevelser. Något som tyder på att den grupp barn som fick möjlighet att manipulera och forma Romos beteende hade en rikare användarupplevelse jämfört med den grupp av barn som bara lekte med Romo. Det var också anmärkningsvärt att ingen av barnen som manipulerade och formade Romos beteende upplevde det som direkt inlärning. De såg inlärningsprocessen mer som en lekfull upplevelse och många av dem uttryckte att de hade lärt Romo att göra olika saker. Möjligheten att redigera Romos rörelser och beteenden, genom en enkel kontextuellt gränssnitt, oundvikligen tillät barnen att förstå fysisk- och beräkningsbaserad modellering genom lek.

O desenvolvimento da competência leitora e escritora nem sempre ocorre na escola de modo pleno. Desse modo, os níveis de letramento, no ensino fundamental II, avançam lentamente. O estudante nem sempre consegue utilizar os recursos linguísticos para escrever textos e/ou interpretá-los. A presente pesquisa justifica-se pela intenção de sugerir atividades didáticas que de fato promovam o desenvolvimento das competências em leitura e escrita. Assim, foi estudado o letramento mediante as propostas que empregam os gêneros textuais como estratégia didática no ensino de língua materna. Por meio da elaboração e aplicação de atividades, o objetivo é verificar se a leitura e comentários orais decorrentes, bem como as atividades de escrita, auxiliam o estudante (sexto ano) a confeccionar poemas. A hipótese estabelecida é a de que uma proposta fundamentada na leitura (silenciosa, compartilhada) e nas rodas de conversa corrobora com a apropriação das características do gênero poema e, por conseguinte, viabiliza indivíduos agentes, que conseguem escrever textos com autonomia. A metodologia desta pesquisa organizou-se em cinco etapas: percurso histórico dos processos de aprendizagem em Língua Portuguesa, apresentação do gênero poema e suas especificidades, aplicação da proposta didática, coleta de dados (textos escritos pelos alunos individual e coletivamente) e, por fim, análise qualitativa dos dados. Fundamentou esta pesquisa os conceitos de letramento (Antunes, 2009; Kleiman, 1998, 2007; Rojo 2004, 2005; Soares 2002, 2004), os conceitos de dialogismo no texto literário (Bakthin, 2016; Fiorin, 2006), os conceitos do gênero poema (Bosi, 2000; Goldstein, 1999, 2006, 2007; Martins, 2008), os conceitos de agência (Bazerman, 2006), os conceitos de autoria (Possenti, 2007; Tfouni, 2015) e os conceitos de éthos (Amoussy, 2011; Discini, 2014). Concluiu-se que uma proposta didática bem fundamentada conduz o estudante a apropriar-se das características do gênero e a escrever poemas com traços de autoria. / The development of the reading and writing competences not always happen fully at school. Thus, levels of literacy at Middle School in Brazil, progress slowly. The student not always can use the linguistic resources to write texts and/or decode them. This research justifies itself through the intention of suggesting teaching activities, that, indeed, promote development of competences in reading and writing. Therefore, it has been studied the literacy through proposals that apply the textual genres as didactic strategies in the mother tongues teaching. By the means of elaborating and applying activities, the aim is to verify if the reading and resulting oral comments, as well writing activities, aid the student (6th grade) to write poems. The established hypothesis is that a proposal based on the reading (silent, shared) and on chat groups support the appropriation of the poem features and consequently facilitates agent individuals who can write texts with autonomy. The methodology of this research is organized in five steps: historical path of the Portuguese language learning process, presentation of the poem genre and its specificities, an application of the didactic proposed, gathering of data (texts written by students individually and collectively), and, finally, the quality analysis of data. Concepts of literacy based this research (Antunes, 2009; Kleiman, 1998, 2007; Rojo 2004, 2005; Soares 2002, 2004), concepts of dialogism in literary text (Bakthin, 2016; Fiorin, 2006), concepts of poem (Bosi, 2000; Goldstein, 1999, 2007; Martins, 2008), concepts of agency (Bazerman, 2006), concepts of authorship (Possenti, 2007; Tfouni, 2015) and concepts of ethos (Amoussy, 2011; Discini, 2014). To conclude, a didactic proposal well based conducts the student to appropriate oneself of the genre features and to write poems with traces of authorship.

O desenvolvimento da competência leitora e escritora nem sempre ocorre na escola de modo pleno. Desse modo, os níveis de letramento, no ensino fundamental II, avançam lentamente. O estudante nem sempre consegue utilizar os recursos linguísticos para escrever textos e/ou interpretá-los. A presente pesquisa justifica-se pela intenção de sugerir atividades didáticas que de fato promovam o desenvolvimento das competências em leitura e escrita. Assim, foi estudado o letramento mediante as propostas que empregam os gêneros textuais como estratégia didática no ensino de língua materna. Por meio da elaboração e aplicação de atividades, o objetivo é verificar se a leitura e comentários orais decorrentes, bem como as atividades de escrita, auxiliam o estudante (sexto ano) a confeccionar poemas. A hipótese estabelecida é a de que uma proposta fundamentada na leitura (silenciosa, compartilhada) e nas rodas de conversa corrobora com a apropriação das características do gênero poema e, por conseguinte, viabiliza indivíduos agentes, que conseguem escrever textos com autonomia. A metodologia desta pesquisa organizou-se em cinco etapas: percurso histórico dos processos de aprendizagem em Língua Portuguesa, apresentação do gênero poema e suas especificidades, aplicação da proposta didática, coleta de dados (textos escritos pelos alunos individual e coletivamente) e, por fim, análise qualitativa dos dados. Fundamentou esta pesquisa os conceitos de letramento (Antunes, 2009; Kleiman, 1998, 2007; Rojo 2004, 2005; Soares 2002, 2004), os conceitos de dialogismo no texto literário (Bakthin, 2016; Fiorin, 2006), os conceitos do gênero poema (Bosi, 2000; Goldstein, 1999, 2006, 2007; Martins, 2008), os conceitos de agência (Bazerman, 2006), os conceitos de autoria (Possenti, 2007; Tfouni, 2015) e os conceitos de éthos (Amoussy, 2011; Discini, 2014). Concluiu-se que uma proposta didática bem fundamentada conduz o estudante a apropriar-se das características do gênero e a escrever poemas com traços de autoria. / The development of the reading and writing competences not always happen fully at school. Thus, levels of literacy at Middle School in Brazil, progress slowly. The student not always can use the linguistic resources to write texts and/or decode them. This research justifies itself through the intention of suggesting teaching activities, that, indeed, promote development of competences in reading and writing. Therefore, it has been studied the literacy through proposals that apply the textual genres as didactic strategies in the mother tongues teaching. By the means of elaborating and applying activities, the aim is to verify if the reading and resulting oral comments, as well writing activities, aid the student (6th grade) to write poems. The established hypothesis is that a proposal based on the reading (silent, shared) and on chat groups support the appropriation of the poem features and consequently facilitates agent individuals who can write texts with autonomy. The methodology of this research is organized in five steps: historical path of the Portuguese language learning process, presentation of the poem genre and its specificities, an application of the didactic proposed, gathering of data (texts written by students individually and collectively), and, finally, the quality analysis of data. Concepts of literacy based this research (Antunes, 2009; Kleiman, 1998, 2007; Rojo 2004, 2005; Soares 2002, 2004), concepts of dialogism in literary text (Bakthin, 2016; Fiorin, 2006), concepts of poem (Bosi, 2000; Goldstein, 1999, 2007; Martins, 2008), concepts of agency (Bazerman, 2006), concepts of authorship (Possenti, 2007; Tfouni, 2015) and concepts of ethos (Amoussy, 2011; Discini, 2014). To conclude, a didactic proposal well based conducts the student to appropriate oneself of the genre features and to write poems with traces of authorship.

Early childhood educators in the United States and worldwide face the growing challenge of “schoolification,” - the imposition of conventional academic content from later grade levels into their classrooms (e.g., Ring & O’Sullivan, 2018). The science of learning offers a different approach with evidence to support more active, engaging, and inclusive educational environments for all students (e.g., Darling-Hammond et al., 2020, Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2020, Nasir et al., 2021). The Active Playful Learning framework is one promising model that combines principles of how children learn through play, and particularly adult-initiated, child-directed guided play (e.g., Weisberg et al., 2013), with the “6 Cs,” a set of skills for success in the classroom and beyond. A preliminary, mixed methods evaluation of an intervention to promote guided play in kindergarten classrooms through instructional coaching was conducted by Nesbitt et al. (under review) across New Hampshire. This study builds on the prior research, first by attempting to replicate the positive effects of the intervention for teachers and students, as provided by teacher reports. It then advances beyond the previous study to determine if teacher and student behaviors shaped by guided play and the playful learning principles are detectable through independent classroom observations. Lastly, it incorporates a preliminary comparison between intervention and business as usual control classrooms. Results support a replication of the previous teacher reports. Other results are mixed, but they indicate significant behavior changes consistent with adoption of playful learning, even if not yet guided play. This study represents a considerable advance in our implementation and evaluation of Active Playful Learning for educators and students. / Psychology

Der Lehrer Karl Prelle (1895- 1975) ist den Wenigsten ein Begriff, aber auch er hatte sich der Lehre und Erziehung im Besonderen gewidmet und eine Vielzahl von Aufzeichnungen, Bildern und Texten hinterlassen.Ein Schlüsselthema seiner Arbeit war, dass Kinder am besten lernen, wenn sie Spaß daran haben und nicht durch Drill und Strafen dazu gezwungen werden. Hierfür entwickelte Prelle eine ganze Reihe von „Lernspielen“. Daneben zielte sein Wirken auf Heimatverbundenheit, Gesamtunterricht, religiöse Erziehung, sowie frühzeitige kindliche Förderung ab. Bei der Betrachtung des Wirkens und Schaffens von Karl Prelle ist es von zentraler Bedeutung, die von ihm angestrebten und notwendigen Veränderungen im historischen Kontext von Bildung und Erziehung zu verstehen. Zum einen war der Unterricht der damaligen Zeit wenig kindgerecht. Zum anderen war es die Not des einklassigen Landschullehrers, die Prelle veranlasste, neue Wege zu gehen. Er war als Lehrer allein für Kinder in acht Klassenstufen und unterschiedlicher Wissensprägung verantwortlich. Die Schüler einer Dorfschule mussten ihren vorwiegend in der Landwirtschaft tätigen Eltern bei der Hof- und Feldarbeit helfen. Diese Umstände galt es, ebenfalls zu bedenken. Wie also konnten alle Kinder in der begrenzten Zeit sinnvoll unterrichten? Hierfür wurden die Schüler in Abteilungen eingliedert aber die anderen Schüler mussten in der Zeit ruhig und sinnvoll beschäftigt werden. Die Kinder sollten die Möglichkeit haben, sich selbst im Stillen Inhalte zu erarbeiten und zu wiederholen. Hierbei traut Prelle den Kindern zu, eigenverantwortlich und selbständig arbeiten zu können. Auch wenn dies von vielen Zeitgenossen angezweifelt wurde. Seine Konzeption orientiert sich an dem Jenaplan und der Montessoripädagogik. Ihre Grundgedanken passte er an die Gegebenheiten einer ländlichen Volksschule an. / Karl Prelle (1895—1975) is a Lower Saxon educational reformer. A key theme of his work was, that children learn best when they enjoy it and when they are not forced by means of drills or sanctions. For this Prelle developed a whole series of "educational games". Additionally, his work is aimed onto local ties, total education, religious education, and early childhood education. When looking at the work and creation of Karl Prelle it is crucial to understand the intended and necessary from him changes in the historical context of education. Firstly, the school-lessons of that time were not suitable for children. Secondly he was the only teacher for more than 100 children, so he had to find new ways for a meaningful lesson. Their design is based on the Jenaplan and the Montessori method. The concepts he created were implemented in the realities of a rural primary school.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo descrever e analisar atividades do Projeto de Extensão “Repensando o UNIALFAS: propostas alternativas para séries iniciais - o que pode ser mais interessante na escola que a hora do recreio?” Atividades essas propostas sob a forma de oficinas inseridas no Projeto dos Anos Iniciais do Colégio de Aplicação da UFRGS, denominado UNIALFAS. Tal prática configura-se como uma proposta pedagógica que inclui em seus objetivos, ações que visam desenvolver aprendizagens diferenciadas, de forma mais lúdica, entre crianças de diferentes faixas etárias reunidas em um mesmo espaço. Para tanto, esta investigação centrou-se no estudo das oficinas o qual resultou nas seguintes considerações possíveis: o espaço do prazer na aprendizagem; a proposição de temáticas diversificadas, vistas como saberes “não escolares”; e o agrupamento de crianças reunidas por interesse e não por faixa etária, forma de organização diferente da habitual presente nos processos escolares modernos. O estudo inscreve-se numa abordagem qualitativa de inspiração etnográfica, apoiando-se, para suas reflexões, nas observações realizadas nas oficinas, nas análises de materiais produzidos nas referidas oficinas e nos depoimentos de professores e de alunos sobre o referido projeto. Utiliza-se dos aportes teóricos ligados aos Estudos Culturais em Educação e busca tecer reflexões acerca da instituição escolar que ainda demonstra estar centrada nos moldes concebidos na Modernidade conflitando com as necessidades e os interesses dos alunos da Contemporaneidade. / This dissertation aims at describing and analyzing the activities promoted by the Extension Project Rethinking UNIALFAS: Alternative Proposals for Initial Grades – what can be more interesting in school than break time?, which were performed in the form of workshops during UNIALFAS, a project involving the initial grades of Colégio de Aplicação, a school associated to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). This practice consists of a teaching proposal whose goals include actions aimed at developing distinct learning processes, in a more playful manner, among children in different age brackets gathered in the same place. To this end, this investigation focused on studying said workshops and arrived at the following possible considerations: the importance of joy in the learning process; the proposition of distinct themes known as “non-school” knowledge; and the grouping of children according to interest, not age bracket, an organization form that goes against the methods employed in modern schooling. This study adopts a qualitative ethnographic approach, and its reflections are based on the observations made during the workshops, analyses of material produced in said workshops, and the opinion of teachers and students about the project in question. It also uses the Cultural Studies in Education theoretical framework and seeks to discuss the school establishment which remains centered on Modern models, thus denying the needs and interests of Contemporary students.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo descrever e analisar atividades do Projeto de Extensão “Repensando o UNIALFAS: propostas alternativas para séries iniciais - o que pode ser mais interessante na escola que a hora do recreio?” Atividades essas propostas sob a forma de oficinas inseridas no Projeto dos Anos Iniciais do Colégio de Aplicação da UFRGS, denominado UNIALFAS. Tal prática configura-se como uma proposta pedagógica que inclui em seus objetivos, ações que visam desenvolver aprendizagens diferenciadas, de forma mais lúdica, entre crianças de diferentes faixas etárias reunidas em um mesmo espaço. Para tanto, esta investigação centrou-se no estudo das oficinas o qual resultou nas seguintes considerações possíveis: o espaço do prazer na aprendizagem; a proposição de temáticas diversificadas, vistas como saberes “não escolares”; e o agrupamento de crianças reunidas por interesse e não por faixa etária, forma de organização diferente da habitual presente nos processos escolares modernos. O estudo inscreve-se numa abordagem qualitativa de inspiração etnográfica, apoiando-se, para suas reflexões, nas observações realizadas nas oficinas, nas análises de materiais produzidos nas referidas oficinas e nos depoimentos de professores e de alunos sobre o referido projeto. Utiliza-se dos aportes teóricos ligados aos Estudos Culturais em Educação e busca tecer reflexões acerca da instituição escolar que ainda demonstra estar centrada nos moldes concebidos na Modernidade conflitando com as necessidades e os interesses dos alunos da Contemporaneidade. / This dissertation aims at describing and analyzing the activities promoted by the Extension Project Rethinking UNIALFAS: Alternative Proposals for Initial Grades – what can be more interesting in school than break time?, which were performed in the form of workshops during UNIALFAS, a project involving the initial grades of Colégio de Aplicação, a school associated to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). This practice consists of a teaching proposal whose goals include actions aimed at developing distinct learning processes, in a more playful manner, among children in different age brackets gathered in the same place. To this end, this investigation focused on studying said workshops and arrived at the following possible considerations: the importance of joy in the learning process; the proposition of distinct themes known as “non-school” knowledge; and the grouping of children according to interest, not age bracket, an organization form that goes against the methods employed in modern schooling. This study adopts a qualitative ethnographic approach, and its reflections are based on the observations made during the workshops, analyses of material produced in said workshops, and the opinion of teachers and students about the project in question. It also uses the Cultural Studies in Education theoretical framework and seeks to discuss the school establishment which remains centered on Modern models, thus denying the needs and interests of Contemporary students.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo descrever e analisar atividades do Projeto de Extensão “Repensando o UNIALFAS: propostas alternativas para séries iniciais - o que pode ser mais interessante na escola que a hora do recreio?” Atividades essas propostas sob a forma de oficinas inseridas no Projeto dos Anos Iniciais do Colégio de Aplicação da UFRGS, denominado UNIALFAS. Tal prática configura-se como uma proposta pedagógica que inclui em seus objetivos, ações que visam desenvolver aprendizagens diferenciadas, de forma mais lúdica, entre crianças de diferentes faixas etárias reunidas em um mesmo espaço. Para tanto, esta investigação centrou-se no estudo das oficinas o qual resultou nas seguintes considerações possíveis: o espaço do prazer na aprendizagem; a proposição de temáticas diversificadas, vistas como saberes “não escolares”; e o agrupamento de crianças reunidas por interesse e não por faixa etária, forma de organização diferente da habitual presente nos processos escolares modernos. O estudo inscreve-se numa abordagem qualitativa de inspiração etnográfica, apoiando-se, para suas reflexões, nas observações realizadas nas oficinas, nas análises de materiais produzidos nas referidas oficinas e nos depoimentos de professores e de alunos sobre o referido projeto. Utiliza-se dos aportes teóricos ligados aos Estudos Culturais em Educação e busca tecer reflexões acerca da instituição escolar que ainda demonstra estar centrada nos moldes concebidos na Modernidade conflitando com as necessidades e os interesses dos alunos da Contemporaneidade. / This dissertation aims at describing and analyzing the activities promoted by the Extension Project Rethinking UNIALFAS: Alternative Proposals for Initial Grades – what can be more interesting in school than break time?, which were performed in the form of workshops during UNIALFAS, a project involving the initial grades of Colégio de Aplicação, a school associated to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). This practice consists of a teaching proposal whose goals include actions aimed at developing distinct learning processes, in a more playful manner, among children in different age brackets gathered in the same place. To this end, this investigation focused on studying said workshops and arrived at the following possible considerations: the importance of joy in the learning process; the proposition of distinct themes known as “non-school” knowledge; and the grouping of children according to interest, not age bracket, an organization form that goes against the methods employed in modern schooling. This study adopts a qualitative ethnographic approach, and its reflections are based on the observations made during the workshops, analyses of material produced in said workshops, and the opinion of teachers and students about the project in question. It also uses the Cultural Studies in Education theoretical framework and seeks to discuss the school establishment which remains centered on Modern models, thus denying the needs and interests of Contemporary students.