Students Talk to Each Other:

Master Players

Play is a developmental task of early childhood. Stretching their skills in construction play and dramatic play, children play to get better at it and they play to learn. "To become a master player is the height of developmental achievement for children ages three to five. Master players are skilled at representing their experiences symbolically in self-initiated improvisational drama. Sometimes alone, sometimes in collaboration with others, they play out their fantasies and the events of their daily lives" (Jones & Reynolds, 1992, p.1).

It is not intended that the term "master player" be used as a label to identify a group of gifted four-year-olds. Play is the young child's expertise -- children are most comfortable and most competent when they are playing. The day's routines and adult-directed activities are the times when children become "behaviour problems." Children thrive on play. Every child has the potential to become a "master player" -- they just need time to play and a little help from their teachers. Despite what some teachers think, play time is not when the teacher can turn her or his back to accomplish a few chores. Distinct teaching skills are required to support children's competence in play. Teachers must have a repertoire of roles to facilitate "master play," including teacher-as-stage manager, teacher-as-player, teacher-as-mediator, teacher-as-scribe, teacher-as-assessor-and-communicator, and teacher-as-planner (Jones & Reynolds, 1992). Teachers in these roles know if their interventions in children's play have been supportive of children's growth when they see competence, sustained involvement and mastery of play.

Teacher as Mediator

This article discusses the teacher-as-mediator. A mediator makes use of problem-solving strategies to sustain rather than interrupt play. Although the teacher-as-mediator is a basic role, it is one of the most challenging because conflicts between children often erupt quickly and unexpectedly, and teachers may not see what events lead up to the conflict. When there is a conflict, teachers may tell a child to go to a quiet corner or chair to cool off. However, even if the teacher-as-mediator does not see the cause of the conflict, she intervenes with the goal of supporting the children's mutual problem-solving.

ECE Students Learn Mediation

Learning to mediate children's conflicts can range from "a piece of cake" to "tough." As a college ECE instructor, I cannot very effectively "tell" students how a mediator behaves. I want my students to construct their own understanding of the concept. To facilitate this experience, I provide several opportunities for students to bring meaning to the ideas, understand them and internalize them. In class, we "try on" the role of mediator in two steps: first we discuss it, then we try it out in role plays.

Recently in class, I showed a seven-minute video of two four-year-olds' blockbuilding play (recorded during preschoolers' free play). The script in the play began as cleaning-up-after-the-party, a benign theme that changed abruptly when two children invented a game of block-snatching. The episode on video has been transcribed and edited, and appears below as "The House Needs Fixing." After viewing the video, I asked my students to discuss these questions:

• Is this play a valuable way for the child to be spending his/her time?
• What is the role of the teacher in supporting the child's play?

If the reader wishes to think about the children's play or discuss it with a friend, I suggest you stop reading after the story, before going on to the students' perspectives which follow.

The House Needs Fixing

Luanda and Laverne are in the blockbuilding area adding finishing touches to a large, L-shaped block structure. The plastic and large hollow blocks have been stacked as high as their shoulders. As she builds, Luanda chats with Jamie, a high school student who visits the program regularly for her child development class.

Wearing a homemade superhero cape, Ricardo helps himself to two small blocks from the girls' structure and carries them off. Luanda dashes after him and picks up one from the floor and the other from a shelf. Placing the blocks back in place in the house, Luanda begins running a carpet sweeper back and forth. Ricardo returns. This time he knocks over two blocks. Luanda chases after him and then returns to her house.

Luanda looks up to see that Ricardo is back, and with him is Maria. Together they are knocking over the tallest wall of the house. Luanda pushes Maria, who breaks out in a loud wail.

Jamie: What happened?
Maria points at Luanda.
Jamie: What did you do, Luanda?
Luanda (sounding upset): She knocked down my house.
Jamie (to Maria): Did you knock down her house?

Gradually, Maria quiets down. Laverne has left the area entirely. Blocks are scattered all over. Luanda half-heartedly rights two blocks. She calls for Laverne across the room. A frustrated Luanda tosses a hollow block behind her across the floor. She randomly tosses several more blocks around the block area.

Jamie: Luanda!
Luanda: I don' want it! I can't fix it!
Jamie: You can fix it. Just don't throw them.
Luanda: I need somebody to help me!

When no one responds to her requests for help, Luanda leaves the shattered block house and begins plunking aimlessly at the keys of a nearby toy cash register (Adapted from Reynolds & Jones, 1997).

The Students' Discussion

Dani: The teacher didn't see what happened, and I think it was best to stay out of the conflict.
James: I think it was an opportunity for the teacher to talk with Ricardo and Maria and to let them know that Luanda had worked on this.
Dani: Did Maria admit to knocking down the house?
Jennifer: She just whined the whole time.
Ronnie: But she didn't knock down as much as Ricardo did. It's difficult to know whom to blame.
James: I'm not saying that they should be laying blame. They should be talking, "Let's see what the problem is here and what happened, and get the opinions from all sides." The teacher should be asking, "What exactly did happen?"
Vicki: I wonder how constructive it is for a teacher to go back to a situation after it's over to try to figure out what happened.
James: But what have the children learned from this situation? Luanda has learned that when somebody knocks her blockbuilding over, the first thing she can do is push them.
Vicki: She may have learned that pushing didn't get her house built back up.
James: Obviously something occurred, and whatever the teacher sees or doesn't see, she needs to put the problem back into the children's hands, "Tell me what happened, and how are we going to resolve it?"
Dani: How do you get a clear picture of the situation without assigning blame?
Vicki: Instead of blaming anyone, I think the teacher needs to think about, "What are we going to do now? Does anyone want to help Luanda rebuild it?"
Gretchen: What do you think is the big issue here?
Ronnie: I think respect is the big issue.
Dawna: Children who are knocking stuff down aren't showing respect for the children who are building. Pushing people is not a way of showing respect either.
Tania: I don't think the pushing was that big of a deal. Realistically, it happens so many times in a day.
Jennifer: I think the push was justified. The house was something that Luanda was making, and in a sense belonged to her and her friend, and someone came in and trashed it. I can understand where the anger would come from.
Dani: I wonder if the class would benefit from some kind of group discussion on shoving as a way to solve problems. Maybe it's time to let the "community" talk about how to resolve the problems.
Ronnie: I don't think that every time a child pushes or shoves there should be a community discussion.
Gretchen: Put yourself in Luanda's shoes. If you were Luanda, playing with your friend, how would you feel if somebody knocked over your house? Is it okay to knock over her block structure? Or is shoving worse than knocking over a blockbuilding?
Ronnie: The anger was justified. Luanda should try to resolve the anger.
Vicki: I'm thinking now, that I would say to Luanda, "You're really angry. Can you tell the others that you're really angry about the blocks?"
Dawna: You're acknowledging her feelings too, by saying "You seem really frustrated, how can you solve this, without shoving?"
Vicki: And you're not taking it upon yourself to discipline the other children, you're empowering her to verbalize. I think you need to empower them to deal with each other as peers.
Gretchen: Do people like the idea of asking Luanda to reflect on her feelings?
Dani: I think Vicki's solution would work in this case, even though the teacher didn't see everything that happened.
Dawna: That way you're teaching children to think and problem solve for themselves. I think the teacher should intervene, not necessarily to say "that's bad," but the issue of violence needs to be dealt with. And the issue of respect, too!
Gretchen: Do you feel that it is okay to knock over other people's blockbuildings at day care?
Dani: That to me is like saying that when you grow up, you can smash into somebody's car. It's not respecting somebody else's property. If Luanda could say, "That makes me angry," the boy would be helped to understand. I don't think he did it to hurt her feelings or to be mean. I think, in some cases, children might build just to knock down. And then it would be okay.
Jennifer: Tearing down your own blockbuilding is okay.

The students spent a long time in this discussion. As is true of most sociodramatic play, the play was very complex. There was a lot happening for the children, and a lot for the students to unravel in reflecting on the observation. The students needed to understand the value of the play for the child, and to come to terms with what was unfair in this situation for Luanda, before knowing what action a teacher should take. I intervened in their discussion minimally, because I wanted them to get to the point in their discussion where they became aware of the possibility that a teacher intervention might change the outcome of the play.

Role Plays

Later, when we tried the role plays in small groups, I gave the students my perspective. The teacher's request to stop throwing the blocks was an assertion of "school rules" that completely missed the point. A teacher needs to look at the underlying reasons for a child's behaviour, and in this case, Luanda was undoubtably feeling very frustrated that all her hard work had been destroyed by another child's mischief-making. She called out that she needed some help, and she did. The blocks were in total disarray.

I feel that the adult missed an opportunity to mediate some shared problem-solving by the children. The teacher-as-mediator could have stepped in immediately when the blocks were toppled to ask Luanda, Ricardo and Maria to describe what happened, encouraging each child to listen to the other. When each child expressed her or his concerns, then the mediator could ask if they had any ideas for how to restore Luanda's blockbuilding. This is an important point; the teacher-as-mediator needs to let the children come up with the ideas for the solution to the problem. Giving them her own ideas does not support children's abilities to be self-reliant problem-solvers in future conflicts. I agree with the students' concerns that it is okay to knock over one's own blockbuilding, but it is not okay to knock over other children's block structures.

I do not think, even at the discussion's end, that there was complete agreement among the students about the specific role of the teacher-as-mediator. My goal was not convergence. I wanted the students to have the experience of discussing observed play to learn that through dialogue, adults can collaboratively construct understandings about children's needs, and strategies for teaching interventions.

Learning Theory and Teacher Preparation

We teach our ECE students that young children learn through action and hands-on experiences with objects and materials, and through interaction with peers and adults, because that is how children construct understanding of their experience. This position is grounded in the theory of L.S. Vygotsky who, in describing the communal nature of learning, suggested that social interaction is essential in the construction of knowledge (Fosnot, 1996).

Early childhood educators will teach children the way they have been taught. If knowledge is a construction, then curriculum in teacher training programs must ensure that students have hands-on experience with materials, and opportunities for learning through collaborative problem-solving and dialogue with each other and with faculty. Educators who believe in learning through dialogue must rethink how they use power in the classroom. Traditional education, based in behaviourism, espouses teacher use of power "on" the child to control what is learned and how. The learner is viewed as a passive recipient of information. Traditional education is not a suitable environment for constructivism.

Teacher use of power "for" and "with" supports active participation by the student in her or his own learning. Power "for" means that the learner is provided with experiences that promote self-esteem and confidence. Power "with" means that the student and teacher are equals learning together (Trook, 1983). Early childhood education, because it is rooted in a philosophy of care, frequently employs more authoritative uses of power. It is, therefore, pragmatically necessary in ECE training programs to use power "for" and "with" whenever possible. An environment of shared power between teachers and students supports dialogue and collaborative problem-solving -- practices we hope early childhood graduates will take with them into the field, where through teamwork, teachers develop curriculum, discuss differences of perspective, and work with children and families.

At Algonquin College, we have been working to transform our teaching practices so that our ECE students become active participants in the construction of knowledge. As a faculty member, I still lecture. However, I am much more pleased with the learning I see happening when students engage with children and materials, and take part in discussions with each other, my colleagues and me. Yes, it means I share power, but that is not very difficult if I want students, as future teachers, to use power "for" and "with" children.

The teacher-as-mediator is a teaching role suited to using power "for" and power "with" the child. Children as young as three or four, when encouraged by a skilled teacher, can begin to describe their needs and discuss solutions to problems with each other. An authoritarian, no-nonsense approach which says, "I'm the grown up here and you do as I say," does not support children's master play or their willingness to work together when problems develop.

Dr. Gretchen Reynolds is full-time faculty in the Early Childhood Education program at Algonquin College.

References

Trook, E. (1983). "Understanding Teachers' Uses of Power: A Role-Playing Activity." In E. Jones (Ed.), On the Growing Edge: Notes by College Teachers Making Changes (pp. 15-22). Pasadena, CA: Pacific Oaks College.

This article appeared in Interaction (Spring 1997), published by the Canadian Child Care Federation.

Posted by the Canadian Child Care Federation, August 1997.

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