The Playful Curriculum: Making Sense of Purposeful Play in the Twenty-First-Century Preschool Classroom

Abstract

For the past three decades, the significance of the early years in a child’s development has taken a global prime seat in the social and educational landscapes. In tandem with this surge of interest in preschool education, driven by the increasing body of knowledge and research studies that posit its inestimable value to our social tapestry and economic entomology, Singapore’s preschool landscape experienced a new awakening towards the turn of the new century. In an attempt to mitigate the quality control in teaching and learning, the Ministry of Education (MOE) developed the Kindergarten Curriculum Framework (KCF) in 2003 to give broad strokes on the learning goals of preschool education, so as to standardize and delineate the learning outcomes desired of preschool education. Furthermore, the Singapore government has advocated for all preschool industry players to provide a curriculum that is age-appropriate, holistic and child-centred and encompasses active learning through purposeful play. This chapter discusses how, in the light of developing competencies for the twenty-first century at the preschool level, ‘learning through play’ inevitably becomes a central tenet in preschool curriculum because of the vast opportunities that play imbues in developing children socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively. It explores the possibility of how play can be interpreted and enacted in the preschool classrooms.