Abstract
This study aims to clarify the commonality between “play” and “learning” by qualitatively analyzing the process by which the experience and interest of “play involving formative activities” in early childhood is connected to “subject learning” in the early elementary school years. Thus, a longitudinal observational study of children's early childhood and childhood was conducted over a two-year period, and examined from two perspectives: “scenes of reception and inspiration” and “ways of interacting with others in ‘sharing’ and ‘imitation’”. The results suggest that situations in which children are inspired by others tend to be similar in early childhood and childhood, whereas the ways in which they interact with others may change from the perspective of their social development. Additionally, children may become aware of the meaning of the knowledge they are taught by comparing it with their own experiences, as they are inspired by occurrences in the outside world while learning academic subjects. Furthermore, when a perceiver attempts to establish a new relationship with the outside world, this act can be considered both “play” and “active learning (exploration),” suggesting that the structure beginning from sensing and inspiring is a mechanism common to “play” and active “subject learning.”
