The pretend play as an activity of creation of a ZPD in the construction of disciplinary knowledge

Abstract

Our paper focuses on the analysis of child-initiated play activities in which play and curriculum learning are potentially articulated (Pramling Samuelson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Specifically, we seek to identify play situations that generate a ZPD in the construction of disciplinary knowledge. In their pretend play, children recapture past experiences or knowledge under construction in order to test, transform and understand them. At the preschool age, children experiment with cultural tools according to their own interests (Vygotski, 1934/1995) and what they have understood (Vygotski, 1928-1931/2014). Development cannot be seen only a result of a maturation process or discovery of knowledge established by children (Pramling, Doverborg & Pramling Samuelsson, 2017). The value of child-initiated pretend play is dependent on the quality of knowledge offered elsewhere (final forms) and the interactions conducted by teachers in and around the play. Thus, we aim for teaching that attempts to maintain a dialectic between play and curriculum (Clerc-Georgy, Maire Sardi & Martin, 2019; Fleer, 2009). This leads us to consider that knowledge benefits the development of play as much as the development of children's play is conducive to generating the need for new learning. In this presentation, based on two situations that emerged from child-initiated play, one with and one without direct adult intervention, we will attempt to show how play is an activity that can generate an area of potential development also from the point of view of the construction of semiotic tools proposed in the curriculum.