Language: Italian

ISSN: 2421-440X, 2723-9004

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Focuses on the educational value of this field of experience, by claiming that play characterizes the two fundamental guidelines which are at the basis of education; the spontaneous and natural direction on the one side, and the intentional one on the other side. It is commonly assumed that pedagogy of play concerns only the latter of the two above-mentioned aspects of education, that is to say the design and management of playing experiences and materials with clear educational goals; instead, this discipline critically analyzes the whole playing experience, therefore trying to grasp its potentialities, its material conditions, and its overall meanings in the making of the subject. Moving from some considerations about the discovery of play as an emblematic index of the “discovery of childhood” at the beginning of Modern Age (Ariès, 1960), the first part of this essay underlines three aspects: the first concerns the investment on play as an educational device (from Locke to Montessori, up to Children’s Museums), pointing out the shift from the classic principle of ludendo docere to the modern ludendo discere. The second aspect focuses on the retrieval of the natural dimension of play, which finds in Rousseau its main source; the third takes into consideration toys and their identity both as pedagogical devices and as media. In the second part of the essay, the focus is on free play and its educational value, which is here interpreted especially as the first field of experience for children’s “political education”. The final remarks include some speculations the relationship between play and daily life, suggesting the idea that “life-long playing” could be defined as a meaningful aspect of long-life education.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s11245-005-5053-5

ISSN: 1572-8749

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: According to the Montessori legacy and fidelity view of authentic Montessori, children should work and not play. The Montessori prepared environment and the Montessori materials were designed to assist children with self-development, and self-development occurred when children concentrated (Montessori, 1966, p. 139). Given the circumstances of COVID-19, children's development may have been significantly disrupted by the effects of extended periods of isolation due to closed schools, locked-down communities, and quarantined families required to stay indoors (Benner & Mistry, 2020; De Araújo et al., 2021). A number of studies and literature reviews recommend play as a remedy for the negative effects of months of isolation on children's development, and submit that young children (between the ages of 2 and 8) returning to school after isolation need to first socialize and play for an extended period in order to then self-regulate and attend to academic lessons (Kourti et al., 2021; Prime et al., 2020; Nieto et al., 2021; Urbina-Garcia, 2020). Children also use the Sensorial materials and build houses, trains, rockets, and other pretend constructions.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: When emotions, thoughts, and actions align, this is referred to as “self-congruency”. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how temporal covariance of the heart and brain signals were related to self-congruency. Thirty-eight healthy adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging to obtain neural markers of variability, whereas heart rate variability (HRV) was measured using photoplethysmography. Participants were also asked to report their level of self-congruency with a graphic rating scale. A cross-covariance analysis (CCA) was performed to assess the temporal covariance of signals arising from both organs, which was then correlated with self-congruency scores. Overall, the CCA results revealed brain-to-heart-driven interplay in brain regions involved in the neurovisceral integration model (e.g., ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and in emotion regulation (e.g., anterior cingulate). However, higher self-congruency scores were related to heart-to-brain-driven interplay in brain regions involved in emotion regulation and empathy. Together, the present findings suggest that, while global brain-to-heart-driven interplay occurs on average, it is heart-to-brain-driven interplay that reflects higher self-congruency. Given the impact of heart-brain interplay and self-congruency on mental health, further investigations on each concept could be interesting in developing tools for early intervention.

Language: English

Published: Aug 30, 2023

Abstract/Notes: Cover title: You Can Be What you Want to Be: A Musical Play - Life of Maria Montessori

Language: English

Published: Oregon, Ohio: Creative Services, 1985

Language: English

ISSN: 0140-0460

Abstract/Notes: In modern childhood, free, unstructured play time is being replaced more and more by academics, lessons, competitive sports, and passive, electronic entertainment. While parents may worry that their children will be at a disadvantage if they are not engaged in constant, explicit learning or using the latest "educational" games, David Elkind's The Power of Play reassures us that unscheduled imaginative play goes far in preparing children for academic and social success. Through expert analysis of the research and powerful situational examples, Elkind shows that, indeed, creative spontaneous activity best sets the stage for academic learning in the first place: Children learn mutual respect and cooperation through role-playing and the negotiation of rules, which in turn prepare them for successful classroom learning; in simply playing with rocks, for example, a child could discover properties of counting and shapes that are the underpinnings of math; even a toddler's babbling is a necessary precursor to the acquisition of language. An important contribution to the literature about how children learn, The Power of Play suggests ways to restore play's respected place in children's lives, at home, at school, and in the larger community. In defense of unstructured "down time," it encourages parents to trust their instincts and resist the promise of the wide and dubious array of educational products on the market geared to youngsters.

Language: English

Published: New York, New York: Da Capo Press, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-7382-1053-7

Language: German

ISSN: 0722-2513