Concept Note Formative Research to develop play curriculum for 6m -3 years and 3-5 years children:

Description

Draft Concept Note

Formative Research to develop play curriculum for 6m -3 years and 3-5 years children:

Play is a universal phenomena and a legitimate right of childhood. Play helps children learn and build skills that lay the foundation for learning to read, write and do math. Through play children learn social skills and family values and rules from early years. Thårough play children learn cognitive skills such as creativity, problem solving, divergent thinking, mathematics, and language. They learn to negotiate social relationships, regulate their emotions, and control their own behaviors through play (Elena, et al. 2013; White, 2012). Play fosters the development of motor skills. If play is fun and child-directed, children are motivated to engage in opportunities to learn (White, 2012).

Play is essential because it contributes physical, cognitive and language development and socio-emotional well-being of children in yearly years. Play offers an opportunity for parents and adults to engage fully with children. Despite of the benefit of play, time and opportunity for play has been reduced due to varieties of factors including lack of parents awareness, lack of play space, rapid urbanization/ industrialization, hurried life style , change in family structure and increased attention in academic.

Emerging evidence around the intersection of play, social and emotional learning awareness and reliance as well as development of executive function and self –regulation skills in early childhood provides a strong rationale for incorporating play as a tool for building a strong foundation in the early years.

In Bangladesh, since early 90s many NGOs and INOGs have been working in the field of ECD and have developed several ECD models. Some models focused on early learning centers or preschools, some focused on nutrition and health, and some focused on parenting education. Very recently, a Comprehensive Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy 2013 has also been approved by the Government which has targeted all children of 0-8 year old and mentioned about the holistic approach as the strategic principle for ensuring an integrated ECCD approach. Most of the ECD programs are academic focused. The scope of play in these curriculums is not adequate for children.

The BRAC Play lab Project is promoting the importance of learning through play in the developing countries like Bangladesh, Tanzania and Uganda. In this project, children, parents and caregivers will be engaged in learning through play activities and create a scalable program model. The aim of the project is to establish educational initiatives for children aged 3-5, their parents and caregivers, focusing on whole child development which incorporates component of social and emotional learning.

Overview of the Play Model

The play model is a center based play program for 3 to 5 years children. There are 30 children and 1 play facilitator in the center/ lab. The duration of the program is 2 hours 30 minutes. The main components of the model are – 1) play curriculum, 2) site and center designing/ decoration including play materials, 3) training of Play facilitators, 4) mother and community involvement, 5) monitoring and Supervision. The curriculum is developing based on ELDS of Bangladesh.

Formative research is critical step in the development of the play intervention. Formative research is a kind of action research that is intends to develop as well as improve the intervention. It entails such questions as “what is working? And how can it be improved?” (Worthen & Snders, 1987). It is helpful to develop and test the model or intervention in education. There are a number of theoretical models available that can help to conceptualize the research problem. In our study we will follow the social-ecological model (SEM) (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The SEM is based on the theory that children’s outcome are affected by the play model.

The main purpose of the formative research is to design a play model for 3 to 5 years children including curriculum, play lab/centre decoration, duration of the play activity. The specific objectives are

· To understand which play activities and methods are work well

· To know what improvements can be made to the curriculum

· To explore mothers and community attitude about activities of play lab/ centers.

Formative research will employ qualitative methods to collect data. In the study, unstructured qualitative methods such as focus group discussion (FGD), in-depth interview (IDI), and direct play session observations will be applied.