Play, Exploration, and the Learning of Science (Part 1): A Preliminary Survey of the Interrelationship between Play and Exploration and its Implications for the Learning of Science

Abstract

By reviewing research literatures on play activities and related research areas, this study was intended to give a tentative outline of the interrelationship between play and exploration, and thereby to make clear the possible contribution of play activities to the learning of science. The research literatures suggest in abundance that play is a behavioral entity conceptually distinct from exploration and that it is very unlikely the child playing with an object learns much about any new features of that object other than by pure accident. But in the actual behavior sequence of the child, play activities seem to constitue together with exploration an activity cycle, i.e. a play/exploration cycle. The play/exploration cycle may function in the child's learning of science as a learning activity unit, in which play activities may effectively promote learning by their functioning as an intrinsically motivating agent.