“A problem of versions” : laying down the law in the school playground

Purpose This chapter investigates an episode where a supervising teacher on playground duty asks two boys to each give an account of their actions over an incident that had just occurred on some climbing equipment in the playground. Methodology This paper employs an ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis. The data are taken from a corpus of video recorded interactions of children, aged 7-9 years, and the teacher, in school playgrounds during the lunch recess. Findings The findings show the ways that children work up accounts of their playground practices when asked by the teacher. The teacher initially provided interactional space for each child to give their version of the events. Ultimately, the teacher’s version of how to act in the playground became the sanctioned one. The children and the teacher formulated particular social orders of behavior in the playground through multi-modal devices, direct reported speech and scripts. Such public displays of talk work as socialization practices that frame teacher-sanctioned morally appropriate actions in the playground. Value of paper This chapter shows the pervasiveness of the teacher’s social order, as she presented an institutional social order of how to interact in the playground, showing clearly the disjunction of adult-child orders between the teacher and children.

"Well, now I'm upset": Moral and social orders in the playground

There is much still to learn about how young children’s membership with peers shapes their constructions of moral and social obligations within everyday activities in the school playground. This paper investigates how a small group of girls, aged four to six years, account for their everyday social interactions in the playground. They were video-recorded as they participated in a pretend game of school. Several days later, a video-recorded excerpt of the interaction was shown to them and invited to comment on what was happening in the video. This conversation was audio-recorded. Drawing on a conversation analysis approach, this chapter shows that, despite their discontent and complaining about playing the game of school, the girls’ actions showed their continued orientation to the particular codes of the game, of ‘no going away’ and ‘no telling’. By making relevant these codes, jointly constructed by the girls during the interview, they managed each other’s continued participation within two arenas of action: the pretend, as a player in a pretend game of school; and the real, as a classroom member of a peer group. Through inferences to explicit and implicit codes of conduct, moral obligations were invoked as the girls attempted to socially exclude or build alliances with others, and enforce their own social position. As well, a shared history that the girls re-constructed has moral implications for present and future relationships. The girls oriented to the history as an interactional resource for accounting for their actions in the pretend game. This paper uncovers how children both participate in, and shape, their everyday social worlds through talk and interaction and the consequences a taken-for-granted activity such as playing school has for their moral and social positions in the peer group.

Participation and social order in the playground

This study investigates the everyday practices of young children acting in their social worlds within the context of the school playground. It employs an ethnographic ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis. In the context of child participation rights advanced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and childhood studies, the study considers children’s social worlds and their participation agendas. The participants of the study were a group of young children in a preparatory year setting in a Queensland school. These children, aged 4 to 6 years, were videorecorded as they participated in their day-to-day activities in the classroom and in the playground. Data collection took place over a period of three months, with a total of 26 hours of video data. Episodes of the video-recordings were shown to small groups of children and to the teacher to stimulate conversations about what they saw on the video. The conversations were audio-recorded. This method acknowledged the child’s standpoint and positioned children as active participants in accounting for their relationships with others. These accounts are discussed as interactionally built comments on past joint experiences and provided a starting place for analysis of the video-recorded interaction. Four data chapters are presented in this thesis. Each data chapter investigates a different topic of interaction. The topics include how children use “telling” as a tactical tool in the management of interactional trouble, how children use their “ideas” as possessables to gain ownership of a game and the interactional matters that follow, how children account for interactional matters and bid for ownership of “whose idea” for the game and finally, how a small group of girls orientated to a particular code of conduct when accounting for their actions in a pretend game of “school”. Four key themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme addresses two arenas of action operating in the social world of children, pretend and real: the “pretend”, as a player in a pretend game, and the “real”, as a classroom member. These two arenas are intertwined. Through inferences to explicit and implicit “codes of conduct”, moral obligations are invoked as children attempt to socially exclude one another, build alliances and enforce their own social positions. The second theme is the notion of shared history. This theme addresses the history that the children reconstructed, and acts as a thread that weaves through their interactions, with implications for present and future relationships. The third theme is around ownership. In a shared context, such as the playground, ownership is a highly contested issue. Children draw on resources such as rules, their ideas as possessables, and codes of behaviour as devices to construct particular social and moral orders around owners of the game. These themes have consequences for children’s participation in a social group. The fourth theme, methodological in nature, shows how the researcher was viewed as an outsider and novice and was used as a resource by the children. This theme is used to inform adult-child relationships. The study was situated within an interest in participation rights for children and perspectives of children as competent beings. Asking children to account for their participation in playground activities situates children as analysers of their own social worlds and offers adults further information for understanding how children themselves construct their social interactions. While reporting on the experiences of one group of children, this study opens up theoretical questions about children’s social orders and these influences on their everyday practices. This thesis uncovers how children both participate in, and shape, their everyday social worlds through talk and interaction. It investigates the consequences that taken-for-granted activities of “playing the game” have for their social participation in the wider culture of the classroom. Consideration of this significance may assist adults to better understand and appreciate the social worlds of young children in the school playground.

Ideas as "possessitives" : claims and counter claims in a playground dispute

In the shared space of a school playground, matters of ownership and possession are seriously attended to by children in their everyday encounters with others. The study reported here uses conversation analysis and an ethnomethodological approach to investigate a dispute between two children, aged four to six years, as they decide whose idea for the game will be used. Drawing on Sacks’ (1995a) notion of possession, and Sharrock’s (1974) paper “on owning knowledge”, this paper demonstrates how children draw on the phrase, “that’s my idea”, to claim ownership. Analysis of their video-recorded interaction shows how the children used physical actions, gaze and talk to invoke their own intellectual property as a commodity in the dispute. Whilst invoking ownership, analysis highlights that entitlement over people, objects and the decisions of the shared interactional space did not occur unproblematically. Material objects were used to counter claims to ideas, and it was the uptake of the game and the use of play objects by others that led to whether the idea of game category was upheld. This analysis enables adults a glimpse into the complex social organisation of children’s peer group.

Statistical literacy in the elementary school: Opportunities for problem posing

This chapter addresses opportunities for problem posing in developing young children’s statistical literacy, with a focus on student-directed investigations. Although the notion of problem posing has broadened in recent years, there nevertheless remains limited research on how problem posing can be integrated within the regular mathematics curriculum, especially in the areas of statistics and probability. The chapter first reviews briefly aspects of problem posing that have featured in the literature over the years. Consideration is next given to the importance of developing children’s statistical literacy in which problem posing is an inherent feature. Some findings from a school playground investigation conducted in four, fourth-grade classes illustrate the different ways in which children posed investigative questions, how they made predictions about their outcomes and compared these with their findings, and the ways in which they chose to represent their findings.

Children's sociospatial (re)production of disability within primary school playgrounds

There is a contemporary shift in the institutional context of 'disabled' children's education in the United Kingdom from segregated special to mainstream schools. This change is tied to wider deinstitutionalised or reinstitutionalised geographies of disabled people, fragile globalised educational 'inclusion' agendas, and broader concerns about social cohesiveness. Although coeducating children is expected to transform negative representations of (dis)ability in future society, there are few detailed explorations of how children's everyday sociospatial practices (re)produce or transform dominant representations of (dis)ability. With this in mind, children's contextual and shifting performances of (dis)ability in two case study school playground (recreational) spaces are explored. The findings demonstrate that children with mind-body differences are variously (dis)abled, in comparison with sociospatially shifting norms of ability, which have body, learning, and emotional-social facets. The discussion therefore places an emphasis on the need to incorporate 'intellectual' and 'emotional' differences more fully into geographical studies of disability and identity. The paper has wider resonance for transformative expectations placed on colocating children with a variety of 'axes of difference' (such as gender, 'race, ethnicity, and social class) in schools.

Módulo Activo Recreo Activo -MARA: una estrategia para incrementar la actividad física en niños y niñas de 5º grado en Bogotá.

Objetivo: Evaluar la efectividad de MARA (Modulo Activo Recreo Activo), sobre el tiempo de actividad física moderada vigorosa (AFMV) y de comportamiento sedentario de niños y niñas de 5º grado en 2 instituciones educativas oficiales de la ciudad de Bogotá. Materiales y métodos: Los participantes fueron 128 niños entre 10 y 12 años de edad, de 5to grado que asisten a dos colegios públicos en la localidad de San Cristóbal en Bogotá. La actividad física de los niños fue medida con acelerómetro GT3X+, durante 7 días entre julio y octubre de 2013. Uno de los colegios fue seleccionado aleatoriamente para ser intervenido por Muévete Escolar y su Módulo Activo Recreo Activo (MARA), (CIM) y otro colegio fue el grupo control (CC). El tiempo gastado en actividad física durante el día y en el momento de recreo fue medido antes y en la semana 10 después de la intervención: sedentario ( SED), actividad física leve ( AFL), actividad física moderada(AFM), actividad física vigorosa(AFV) y actividad física moderada a vigorosa (AFMV). Resultados: Posterior al análisis estadístico a través de modelos mixtos multinivel para ajustar por el efecto de conglomerado, se observó diferencia significativa entre CIM y CC (p < 0.0049) representado por incremento en los minutos de AFMV en CIM. Después de la intervención, los CMI disminuyeron los minutos de comportamiento sedentario (p= 0.0029), comparativamente con los CC. Conclusiones: El presente estudio contribuye a investigar sobre los efectos a corto plazo de modificar el momento del recreo, mediante la implementación de actividades guiadas, supervisadas y con el uso de materiales y equipos de juego. Los resultados del estudio sugieren que los efectos de la intervención con MARA fueron significativos especialmente en promover la práctica de AF diaria logrando incrementar los minutos de AFMV diaria, y así mismo disminuyendo comportamiento sedentario en el día. .

Ocorrência de larva migrans na areia de áreas de lazer das escolas municipais de ensino infantil, Araçatuba, SP, Brasil

A areia das áreas de lazer de escolas podem constituir vias de transmissão para várias zoonoses parasitárias, representando risco potencial para as crianças que brincam nesses locais. Foi avaliada a ocorrência de agentes de larva migrans em 28 escolas municipais de ensino infantil de Araçatuba, SP. Foram colhidas 535 amostras de areia das áreas de lazer dessas escolas nos meses de janeiro (verão) e julho (inverno) de 1997 para estabelecimento da freqüência de isolamento de larvas e/ou ovos de Ancylostoma spp. e de ovos de Toxocara spp., pelos métodos de centrífugo-flutuação e de Baermann, respectivamente. A presença de larvas de Ancylostoma spp. foi observada, em pelo menos uma das amostras, em 35,7% (10/28) das amostras da primeira colheita (verão) e em 46,4% (13/28) quando da segunda colheita (inverno). Ovos de Toxocara spp. não foram encontrados e a presença de ovos de Ancylostoma spp. foi observada em 0,56% (3/535) das amostras.

Brincadeiras no recreio: uma reflexão sobre as relações de gênero e sexualidade

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

Interações criança-criança no pátio da escola e no abrigo: o comportamento de cuidado entre pares

Estudos mostram que ao interagir a criança tem a oportunidade de desenvolver suas habilidades sociais. Dentre elas, o comportamento de cuidado se destaca como açoes diversas que se assemelham ao cuidado parental, que têm por objetivo dar suporte físico ou afetivo ao outro a partir de atitudes como ajudar, compartilhar e brincar de cuidar. No caso de crianças que estão vivendo e crescendo em instituições de Abrigo, estudos consideram que devido à sua condição peculiar de vulnerabilidade pessoal e social, elas podem se beneficiar da presença deste comportamento nas interações estabelecidas nesse tipo de ambiente e ou em outros, como o escola. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar aspectos físicos e sociais do ambiente que concorrem para a manifestação do comportamento de cuidado entre pares observados em suas interações nos pátios da Escola e do Abrigo. Assim como, verificar e analisar características físicas e socioais dos sujeitos que participaram da pesquisa que podem igualmente ter influenciado a manifestação desta modalidade de comportamento pró-social. Participaram do estudo cinco crianças, entre quatro e seis anos, que moravam há mais de um ano no Abrigo e freqüentavam regularmente a Escola. Para a coleta de dados, cada sujeito focal e suas interações com outras crianças foram filmados ao longo de dez sessões de observação, durante cinqüenta minutos, em ambos os ambientes. Ao todo, foram 500 minutos de observação dos participantes da pesquisa. Quanto aos resultados derivados da observação dos sujeitos focais, constatou-se que todos os cinco participantes manifestaram comportamentos de cuidado nos ambientes da pesquisa. Ao todo, foram registrados 43 eventos comportamentais (sendo 26 na Escola e 17 no Abrigo), organizados em torno das seguintes subcategorias: Estabelecer Contato Afetuoso, Ajudar, Brincar de Cuidar e Entreter. A avaliação intragrupal mostrou que não houve diferença estatística na diferença dos percentuais do comportamento de cuidado observados nos pátios da Escola e do Abrigo. Quando se considera para análise o desempenho de uma a uma das categorias do cuidado, percebe-se que o comportamento de Ajudar quando emitido na Escola (n=14; 53.8%) apresentou freqüências maiores que no Abrigo (n=7; 41,2%). Contudo, o Teste Binomial indica que esta diferença não é estatisticamente significativa (p>0,05), sendo semelhantes os percentuais referentes a ações de ajuda em ambos os ambientes. O mesmo constata-se em relação ao comportamento Brincar de Cuidar, que em termos percentuais foi mais presente no Abrigo (n=4; 23.5%) do que na Escola (n= 2;7.7%). Entretanto, a análise estatística aponta que não houve variação estatística significativa entre os ambientes. A descrição da freqüência do comportamento Estabelecer Contato Afetuoso mostra que apresenta uma maior ocorrência na Escola (n=7; 26.9%) do que no Abrigo (n=6 ; 35.3%), porém, o teste mostra que não houve diferença estatística entre as médias quando se compara os ambientes. E por fim, verificou-se que o comportamento Entreter não teve nenhuma ocorrência no Abrigo, tendo sido observado somente no ambiente da Escola (n=3, 11.5%), não sendo possível assim a aplicação do teste estatístico. Os dados mostraram que cada ambiente predominou uma forma de cuidado, devido as características físicas e sociais de cada instituição. Bem como, as características dos participantes (a idade e o tempo de permanência dos sujeitos focais) e o sexo do receptores e o cuidado oferecido.

Serious playground : using Second Life to engage high school students in urban planning

Virtual world platforms such as Second Life have been successfully used in educational contexts to motivate and engage learners. This article reports on an exploratory workshop involving a group of high school students using Second Life for an urban planning project. Young people are traditionally an under-represented demographic when it comes to participating in urban planning and decision making processes. The research team developed activities that combined technology with a constructivist approach to learning. Real world experiences and purposes ensured that the workshop enabled students to see the relevance of their learning. Our design also ensured that play remained an important part of the learning. By conceiving of the workshop as a ‘serious playground’ we investigated the ludic potential of learning in a virtual world.

Serious playground : using Second Life to engage high school students in urban planning

Virtual world platforms such as Second Life have been successfully used in educational contexts to motivate and engage learners. This article reports on an exploratory workshop involving a group of high school students using Second Life for an urban planning project. Young people are traditionally an under-represented demographic when it comes to participating in urban planning and decision making processes. The research team developed activities that combined technology with a constructivist approach to learning. Real world experiences and purposes ensured that the workshop enabled students to see the relevance of their learning. Our design also ensured that play remained an important part of the learning. By conceiving of the workshop as a ‘serious playground’ we investigated the ludic potential of learning in a virtual world.

The effect of playground and nature-based interventions on physical activity and self-esteem in UK school children

School playtime provides opportunities for children to engage in physical activity (PA). Playground playtime interventions designed to increase PA have produced differing results. However, nature can also promote PA, through the provision of large open spaces for activity. The purpose of this study is to determine which playtime interventions are most effective at increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and if this varies by school location. Fifty-two children from an urban and rural school participated in a playground sports (PS) and nature-based orienteering intervention during playtime for one week. MVPA was assessed the day before and on the final day of the interventions using accelerometers. Intervention type (p < 0.05) and school location (p < 0.001) significantly influenced MVPA; with PS increasing MVPA more than nature-based orienteering. Urban children seemed to respond to the interventions more positively; however, differences in baseline MVPA might influence these changes. There was a positive correlation for fitness and MVPA during PS (r = 0.32; p < 0.05), but not nature-based orienteering (p > 0.05). The provision of PS influences PA the most; however, a variety of interventions are required to engage less fit children in PA.

Group contests for the playground and school /

First published in 1918 under title: 325 group contests for the army, navy, and school.

Old English and American games for school and playground. [music] /

"Foreword" by Emily M. Burbank.