"Perceptions of play based learning among early childhood practitioners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia"

Abstract

Play has been recognized to be integral to the developmental process of children. It is no wonder then that modern early childhood education curricula are increasingly adopting a play-based learning paradigm. This is sometimes referred to as a child-centered approach to learning, in which the child is central to the learning process. A version of the child-centered learning curriculum has been replicated in many countries with myriad variations of it. Saudi Arabia’s version does not focus on the individuality of every child parse, and therefore leads to a standardized one-size-fits-all curriculum that is teacher-led. This study investigated the perceptions of Saudi ECE teachers towards play-based learning as it relates to child development. The study also investigated the perceptions of Saudi teachers towards the ECE curriculum of the kingdom. The main objective of the study was to find out whether Saudi teachers’ perceptions aligned more with those of the Saudi authorities that advocate for a teacher-centered approach, or with the majority of the scholarship on play-based learning that calls for child-centered learning. This study followed an interpretivist paradigm to guide the research process. Fourteen kindergarten teachers from seventeen schools participated in this study. Thematic analysis was the data analysis method used in this study and it was facilitated by NVivo software. The majority of the participants were of the opinion that play that encourages free expression, i.e. that is led by children, ought to be encouraged in schools. Despite many teachers saying that the government ought to design the curriculum and that the curriculum met its targets, all the teachers were of the opinion that teachers should have leeway to modify the curriculum as they saw fit in order to meet individual children’s needs. The conclusion therefore followed that despite some Saudi teachers being in support of the ECE curriculum, all of them subconsciously espoused the ideals of Western scholarship on play-based learning that considered each child to be an individual with unique needs and desires, and therefore preferred a curriculum that was truly child-centered.