Page 10 - Toy & Hobby Magazine NovDec20Jan21_Mag

STEM
PLAY-BASED LEARNING
Play to learn
Play-based learning improves girls’ access to STEM subjects, research from Monash University indicates. Imogen Bailey investigates.
GIRLS as young as four can overcome educational disadvantage and feel empowered to participate in STEM activities in Australian classrooms, through an emphasis on play- based learning, new research from Monash University suggests.
Research conducted by Professor Marilyn Fleer – Foundation Chair in Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash – shows that girls’ thoughts and actions are endorsed when engaged in STEM play and exploration in the classroom.
However, exploration opportunities presented to girls are rare, as boys occupy design and construction spaces.
Fleer’s research shows that even when teachers design spaces for STEM activity – such as an engineering setting where craft, blocks and the home corner are combined – girls appear to be as interested in being in the new space as boys.
But, when girls have access, boys have been shown to persuasively ask girls to
give up building materials or equipment,
or they take those construction products out of their hands.
In order to address this and work to change it, Fleer has created an Australian-first initiative called the ‘Conceptual PlayLab’
to investigate how play-based education can deliver cognitive and learning outcomes for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, especially young girls, in STEM.
The $3.2 million Australian Research Council-funded project will see Fleer test
a new model of teaching through a ‘Conceptual PlayWorld’ app.
The purpose-built app supports teachers and parents to create a play-based world that helps children form ideas and use their imagination to solve problems.
Fleer says that the need for more people to be
10 TOY & HOBBY RETAILER NOVEMBER / DECEMBER / JANUARY 2021