Within-Classroom Play: Cultivating Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness During the Transition to Kindergarten

Abstract

AbstractPlay, of varied type and form, provides opportunities for children to acquire a sense of competence and belonging when engaging in classroom life. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways that the inclusion of play as a curricular component eased academic stressors and supported motivation during the transition to kindergarten. In this qualitative case study, the researcher documented the within-classroom play of one child who had no prior-to-kindergarten schooling experience during her transition. Four months of ethnographic data collection (e.g., participant observation, artifact collection) allowed for a strong narrative to emerge that showed changes and progressions in the child over time. The data were compiled chronologically and analyzed using tenets of Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) to illuminate ways that her psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness were satisfied through play. The data were also open-coded and analyzed using the constant comparison method of multi-cycle coding to identify broad themes (Saldaña, 2016). The findings were written in a narrative style to tell a story of the focal child’s transition period, while illustrating the salient themes: that the child needed (1) structure during play times in order to find a rhythm in kindergarten and (2) time to engage in self-motivated work in order to access and develop autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study supports scholarship that promotes the integration of play and academics, and contributes to the need for research that illustrates how curricula in early childhood settings work for the people experiencing it.