Part I
Play is important in lives of children because it leads to cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development. Therefore, the narrative is about play among pre-aged children who are aged between 3 and 5 years. The play involved 16 children, both male and female, who were guided by lead teacher and assistant teacher. However, the nature of play was expected to be unstructured to enable children to freely play.
The lead teacher and the assistant were involved in giving direction to children when they were playing. They gave verbal directions such as walk forward, walk 2 steps backward, turn left, turn right, and other directions such as make small steps. The teachers also get involved by giving guidance. They gave guidance by mainly illustrating to children what they should do while playing. At the same time, they suggest moves to be made by children, which made the play interesting.
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Teachers were actively involved in the play, as they were part of the participants. Apart from giving direction and guidance to children, they were also active participants in the play. For instance, they could jump and make similar moves with children. The move by teachers encouraged and motivated children to actively participate in the play. Besides, teachers spent time to observe children when they played. They used keen observation to correct mistakes made by children and to improve the play.
There was enough evidence to show that teachers had planned and were prepared to support spontaneous play. For example, they brought all the required materials to the play station. At the same time, they had prepared rules to guide the play. The teachers were highly effective in playing their roles as they interacted. They were able to effectively guide and correct children when they made mistakes.
In addition, I think the teachers on the supportive level. They allowed children to freely play and only came in to support them when necessary. Even though teachers were involved in giving direction, they were mainly keen to support children when they were playing. At the same time, the directions they gave were majorly aimed at supporting children. Therefore, teachers functioned more on the supportive levels.
Part II
I believe that supportive teacher is more likely to encourage creativity and imaginative play that a directive teacher. In order to be creative, children should be given the opportunity to take control of what they are doing, which can best be achieved when a teacher is supportive rather than giving directions. Students are able to come up with creative ideas and activities when they are free to make their own decisions (Davies, 2015). At the same time, supportive teacher gives children a chance to make mistakes and learn from them, which leads to creativity and imaginative play. In addition, supportive teacher enables children to work collaboratively. Productive collaboration among children is important, as it leads to creative ideas and imaginative play (Davies et al., 2013). Therefore, I feel that supportive teacher can spur creativity and imaginative play among children.
However, children also need the direction and guidance from their teachers. Children are likely to make many mistakes when they are given a lot of freedom and independence. As a result, as much as a teacher should be supportive, they should also give some direction to children. Hence, limited direction is needed to encourage creativity and imaginative play among children. Teachers should find effective ways of encouraging creativity and imaginative play among children (Davies et al., 2013).
References
Davies, D. (2015, December 17). How to promote creativity in the classroom. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/how-to-promote-creativity-in-the-classroom-51838
Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P., & Howe, A. (2013). Creative learning environments in education—A systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity , 8(1) , 80-91.
