Abstract

This study documented one primary teacherís thinking as she integrated unit-block play into her class. What did she think about and how did she go about implementing block play were two questions which guided the thirteen month study. The interpretive design was effective in guiding the analysis. Findings are portrayed in her words as she thought about and solved a series of problems related to issues of management, children, and curriculum. Findings also showed that the teacher expressed changes in her confidence levels when she perceived a lack of support from colleagues or administrators. Watching the children improve their negotiation skills, having the children learn from each other in "morning share time," and comparing and contrasting the block center to other centers are highlights which helped this teacher become convinced of the merit of block play in primary grades.

Background

Many are promoting school change, yet few voices have been heard about what actually happens when a primary grade teacher decides to make a change, plans, implements, and assesses what goes on within the walls of her classroom (Ayers, 1993). Integrating play in primary grades is considered developmentally appropriate by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (Bredekamp, 1987; Bredekamp & Copple, 1997.) However, few studies have documented play (Pellegrini & Dressden, 1992; Goldstein, 1997), and especially block play, in primary grades (Himel, 1994; Garlikov, 1990). This paper describes: what the teacher thought about as she implemented a play center in her classroom, how she integrated block play into her curriculum, the projects developed, and how the findings are relevant in teacher education programs.

Classroom as Community: Bronfenbrennerís Systems Theory (1977) provided the framework in that teachers and learners are affected by many factors both in and out of school. This experienced, constructivist teacher became a novice when she decided to incorporate block play into her primary class (Brooks & Brooks, 1993.) The interpretive design was valuable because it allowed the participant and researcher to be actively involved in the process of documenting what she thought about and interpreting those findings.

Setting: Ann, an experienced early childhood teacher, taught in a campus laboratory multiage classroom with eight to ten year old children. This elementary school was part of a large urban school system. Annís schedule included individual, small group, and large group activities with most of the "morning work" completed during two hour blocks of time. The children were given choices in the order of achieving their assignments and responsibilities in classroom duties. She used a whole language approach with literacy activities interwoven throughout subjects. She used the project approach (Katz & Chard, 1989), highlighted authors and illustrators through Author of the Month, and encouraged children to become publishers of individual and class books. She added a unit block play center to her center based classroom which then became the focus of this naturalistic study.

From Within: The voice from within the class describes her journey as she accommodated and learned why she believed block play was valuable for the children. The methods used to document the teacherís voice included: 55 scheduled and impromptu interviews, dialogue in 20 weekly team meetings, personal journals, and three teacher concept webs. Weekly classroom observations increased the researcherís accessibility and allowed the researcher to validate connections between teacherís thoughts and behavior. Slides of the childrenís constructions also helped the teacher to reflect repeatedly on aspects of her class community life. Hyper Research (Qualitative Research Management, 1973) was the computer program used in analysis.

Findings

This teacher wanted ". . . other teachers to know what it is really like to implement block play." She used trial-and-error in an on-going cycle of plan/ implement/ assess/ plan. Integrating block play was "always on her mind" as she thought about ways to make it more meaningful. Her focus changed during the year with issues about management, childrenís interests and building skills, and curricular concerns. These issues surfaced at various times and reappeared in different questions to be answered. For example, "Where to put the blocks?" was on her mind from the beginning of May when we first met and was the topic throughout the summer. This remained the key problem until the day the blocks and bookshelves arrived when the decision about where to place the blocks was made. She never mentioned that problem again, while what kind of props the children of this age needed and wanted became the next problems to solve. While she mentioned several problems at once as questions she needed to solve, it was more of a "one thing at a time" for her. How to manage the rotation to provide equal access, how to adjust her studies to include block play, and how to schedule their "morning work" to relieve them of their other class tasks were questions which she solved early in the year.

Later in the year, her questions focused more on curricular issues after the children became accustomed to their new routines. Ann observed the children closely and used a sense of intuition and reported, "Now, theyíre ready for the next step." The next step was not clear to her because this "was uncharted territory in primary grades," but she knew she could give them more.

Her Feelings Changed: She accommodated easily to this on going series of management, children, and curricular decisions she and the children had to make. These findings related to other studies on teacher thinking. However, she seemed to be surprised when she expressed discomfort when morning interruptions occurred and when she perceived a lack of support from colleagues. Affective thoughts were expressed often; she was well aware that these feelings affected her decision making abilities at times. "I just couldnít deal with this today" was used often to express discomfort and lack of confidence in dealing with day to day life in the classroom. During one Friday interview, she related, "This was [a week of] four bad days and one good day " after a week of parent conferences, meetings, and preparing the classroom for an Open House. What made the good day was when a child remarked, "Building with the blocks must be what God felt like, when he created the world." Ann said that this comment helped to show her the practical side, what the children thought was most important.

Ann found block play to be a valuable addition to her primary classroom. She was convinced early on of the benefits of block play for the children and was committed to providing meaningful curricular experiences. The children showed high interests and abilities in construction and their parents became involved through a variety of ways. Annís confidence increased as she watched the children develop their decision making skills, negotiation strategies, and team planning efforts. The baseball stadium and castle month long projects were highly regarded by her children. Ann found that both boys and girls were heavily involved and interested in block play throughout the year.

She Compared and Contrasted: Ann noted that her thinking seemed to reach higher levels of complexity during the year. She vacillated between the "block center was just another center" and "the block center was a beast of its own" or "a volcano ready to erupt at times." This comparing and contrasting helped her as she expressed her thoughts about what was on her mind. Two revelations helped in adjusting to her new routine. After several weeks she realized that the children were really learning from each otherís mistakes when they reported the morning work during sharing time. If a group had failed to bring special materials from home, the next group seemed to have more items from home. Another group had not planned much prior to their turn in the block center and used much of their building time in the center in deciding what to build. The following group seemed to plan better prior to their turn, and thanked the group before them because of having "more time to build what we wanted." Ann was proud to report that the childrenís negotiation and problem solving skills improved with each project and actually carried over to other areas of class life. They decided that with the class construction projects, any changes had to be cleared with the group who had first created that part. This seemed to work well for the group.

Ann also noted that the childrenís observation and reflection skills improved when she showed the slides of their developing projects. This happened by accident, yet served as a tool for documenting the entire project. "They noted things they hadnít seen before, and went back immediately to make it look more like the (real) stadium." She was also amazed at some of their comments in watching the slides from children who missed out on discussions and decisions about a particular item. For example, one child asked about the little round things on the banquet table in the castle. The other children echoed, "Thatís the plates" and were surprised because it had been a class discussion about how meals were eaten in the banquet hall as guards stood at the entrance. Another group noticed the white strips of masking tape which stood out on the blue waters of the mote around the castle. Two children immediately started coloring in the tape to match the blue paper. Ann said, "Itís neat how they see their work in a different light in the slides, and I can see how we should have our own projector so they could see it anytime they want to."

Negotiations Improved In the final evaluation of what they had learned from their baseball unit, the children noted "how the buildings were neat," and "showed they learned a lot," but they learned in building the stadium "how to work better together" and that "together they could make something beautiful." Ann found the social climate of her classroom changed for the better because of the block center and the decisions they had to make together.

"You Have to Take All Of It":  Lessons from Revisiting the Data

What surprised the researcher were changes in the teacherís confidence level, her decision making abilities, and feelings related to adding block play. She often related feelings of isolation because she had no colleagues she could go to who understood what she was going through. Ann related often,

What we learned from her experiences is helpful in planning early childhood professional development classes. The climate within Annís classroom was one of support and understanding. The children were allowed to engage in decision making; therefore, their skills improved. The teacher watched the childrenís engagement in block constructions and made comparisons to her own level of thinking. Findings support:

Conclusion

This is a story of one teacher who incorporated block play into her primary classroom and was convinced of the merit for her children. More stories are needed to add to what we know about teacher change. Stories from within the classroom help in telling the rest of the story.

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