Play-based art activities in early years: teachers’ thinking and practice

The present study reports findings on pre-service teachers’ thinking during planning and implementing play-based art activities. ‘Thinking’ (in the present study) is informed by discourses emphasising art teaching and learning in relation to play and theoretical assumptions conceptualising planning as ‘practice of knowing’. Pre-service teachers’ thinking was explored through: (a) a tool ‘skĕptiko’ (a series of questions), created by the researchers to initiate inquiry during planning and provide evidence about participants’ ‘practice of knowing’, and (b) a semi-structured interview using the method of photo-elicitation. Classroom observation, researchers’ reflective notes, document analysis (‘skĕptiko’) and photographs were used in conjunction with data gathered from semi-structured interviews to confirm the findings. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between pre-service early childhood teachers’ thinking (planning) and practice (implementation). The rationale behind their decision...