Playful learning: Towards a More Intentional Practice in Norwegian Preschool Groups

ENGELSK The aim of the project was to study whether kindergartens can strengthen children's development before school entry through the preschool program called Playful learning which was already developed in the Agder project (AP). The AP found immediate gains from Playful learning on a sum score of preschool skills, as well as in self-regulation. The effect on the sum score and on math lasted 9 months after the preschool program was finished, when children were in school. Kindergartens with weak learning from before benefited most from using Playful learning (Rege et al., 2021). Knowledge from implementation theory and developmental psychology contributed to high implementation quality and positive results (Størksen, Ertesvåg, & Rege, 2021). There was a need to study whether Playful learning could be scaled up and still provide benefits for the children. The main study in Playful learning is in a publication process and has also been accepted for The AERA 2022 Annual Meeting. In this study, we examined the effect of Playful learning on children's (1,313 children aged 4-6 years) preschool skills in 96 Norwegian kindergartens that were randomly divided into an intervention group (8 hours Playful learning per week) or control group. Playful learning had a significant effect on children's math, measured with two different instruments (ABMT: d = .079, p = .03, and PENS: d = .104, p = .01). No effects were found for vocabulary (d = -.01, p = .65) or working memory (d = .07, p = .13) (Størksen et al., In progress). The kindergartens in the intervention group only received the Playful learning book and an associated website (www.lekbasert.no). The study shows that even a very moderate implementation of playful learning can have important implications for children's development before school entry. Several sub-studies were conducted. A study indicated that children's levels of self-regulation in Norway and the USA are the same, but that the influence of mother's education on the children's self-regulation was higher in the USA sample compared to the Norwegian sample. Girls showed a higher degree of self-regulation than boys in Norway, but not in the USA (Lenes, Gonzales, Størksen, & McClelland, 2020). Children's early skills in self-regulation, language and mathematics have an influence on learning in first grade (ten Braak, Størksen, Idsoe, & McClelland, 2019). Early learning in the mentioned areas also had an influence on the children's reading comprehension and math skills in fifth grade (Lenes, McClelland, ten Braak, Idsoe, & Størksen, 2020). The researchers found that increased self-regulation in 1st grade (executive functions) could explain why mathematics in kindergarten was such an important explanatory variable for math skills and reading comprehension in 5th grade (ten Braak, Lenes, Purpura, Schmitt, & Størksen, 2022). The significance of various aspects of self-regulation has been studied (ten Braak, Kleemans, Størksen, Verhoeven, & Segers, 2018). Large variations were found between kindergartens when it comes to children's development in these important areas (early mathematics, self-regulation and language) (Rege, Solli, Størksen, & Votruba, 2018). Through the research project Playful learning and other projects, it has been possible to investigate the psychometric properties of child assessments in the study (Idsøe, Campbell, Idsøe, & Størksen, 2021; ten Braak & Størksen, 2021). Two doctoral dissertations have been completed in the project. Thijssen et al. (2022) found that the improvements in children's executive functions in kindergarten age caused by participation in Playful learning, improved the children's learning in first grade. Thijssen (2022) has also studied the statistical consequences of failing to study different time intervals between measurement points in longitudinal research. Thijssen et al. (2022) found that student-teacher relationships vary between classrooms in primary school, and that this relationship is crucial for children's learning. Fidjeland focused on various transitions in the educational process. A study examined whether and how kindergartens can reduce gender differences in early learning. The results showed that the whole effect of having participated in Playful learning can be linked to increased learning among the boys (Fidjeland et al., 2021). These findings suggest that giving boys extra stimulation in kindergarten can help reduce gender differences in children in the transition to school. Fidjeland et al. (2021) have further studied the effect of grade-based admission to high school, and the findings show that this is important for students' academic results in compulsory school. In a recent work, Fidjeland (2021) studied students' choices when enrolling in higher education.

Forskning og utviklingsarbeid i prosjektet har og vil ha stor nytteverdi for praksisfeltet. Førskoleopplegget Lekbasert læring (Størksen, ten Braak, Breive, et al., 2018) er tatt i bruk i mange kommuner og barnehager, og flere bruker materiellet både i barnehage, skole, og SFO for å sikre en god og sammenhengende overgang til skolen for barna. Flere kommuner og barnehager har mottatt kurs og videreutdanning. Førskoleopplegget er oversatt og brukes også i Sverige og Danmark. Gjennom forskingsformidling har barnehagefeltet i Norge fått ny kunnskap om betydningen av barns tidlige utvikling, blant annet om betydningen av tidlig selvregulering (eksekutive funksjoner) som tidligere kan ha vært oversett i sektoren som en følge av fravær av dette temaet i Rammeplan for barnehager. Videreutdanning for kommuner og barnehager er under stadig utvikling.

Norway's gaps in learning outcomes between children of advantaged and disadvantaged families are substantial. Norway may be missing a key opportunity to narrow these gaps because the Framework plan of Norwegian ECEC centers does not fully reflect international empirical evidence from the ECEC literature, linking an intentional practice with key curricular foci to successful child development. The last year of ECEC is a critical period for creating a smooth transition to school, and currently the framework plan describes no specific curricular foci for this group. Moreover, there are limited scientifically based tools and resources, on which teachers in the Norwegian ECEC context can rely when creating an intentional practice with a curricular foci. This project aims to help Norwegian ECEC teachers develop a more intentional and systematic practice stimulating skills that are critical for adjusting to school and for later-life success, and investigate how this change in practice affects child development. We will implement a large-scale randomized field experiment where ECEC teachers engage with the 5-year-olds in playful learning activities. The teacher-child interaction will be warm and playful, and with an intention to stimulate socio-emotional, self-regulatory, language and math skills, which numerous studies have identified as foundational for future learning and development. About 150 ECEC centers will participate, with 75 randomly selected centers in the treatment group. Researchers will collaborate with ECEC centers in producing knowledge, products and services for ECEC teachers, directors and owners, in addition to universities and colleges responsible for ECEC teacher education. Important objectives are to disseminate international and national cutting-edge research on a more intentional practice with curricular foci to all these target groups, and to create a scientifically based playful learning curriculum for 5-year-olds in ECEC.