PLAY-BASED LEARNING IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS: CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROCESS FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE

In 2018, The Western Australian Department of Education announced that Play-Based Learning was their number one priority for 2019. This policy declaration joins an existing strong policy platform for Play-Based Learning within Australia. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework also speaks to Play-Based Learning and Teaching within educational settings for children aged 0-8. In addition, there is an indisputable body of evidence that Play is the developing child’s natural system for learning and as such should be supported by early years’ educators, settings and systems. As such, one might assume that the presence of Play-Based Learning within the early year’s classrooms of Western Australian (WA) Schools is assured. Unfortunately, no such assumption would be correct. In 2016, a discussion paper was produced by the organisation - Early Childhood Australia, which calls for the development of a WA play strategy. The call is premised with a statement that Play-Based Learning is not the dominant pedagogy within early childhood classrooms in WA. In an effort to contribute to the debate and play an active role in the advocacy for Play-Based Learning within our schools, the authors have distilled the evidence for Play-Based Learning within the context of both policy and curriculum frameworks which school based kindergarten teachers are answerable to: The Australian Early Years Learning Framework and The Australian Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines. The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, to produce a resource for Kindergarten teachers in relation to how they can knowledgeably position themselves as teachers within this debate. Secondly, to participate in the debate itself by using both the evidence base for Play-Based learning and the policy framework to produce a potential draft definition of Play-Based Learning in WA. In this way, we hope to contribute to the development of a true shared language within this important pedagogical debate.