ABSTRAC T
Outdoor play is a basic element of child’s holistic development. And because children spent most of their time in ECD Centres, educators should understand how to provide
them with sufficient play opportunities. In Kenya, there are many studies documented on outdoor play, but these studies failed to explain the school related factors that influence children engagement in outdoor activities. Thus, this study sought to investigate personal and material factors that determines children outdoor play behaviours. The study findings may help the Ministry of Education, County Government and educators to make right decisions regarding outdoor play in ECD Centres. The study was pegged on Maria Montessori’s theory of play. The literature reviewed in this study included availability of play materials, time allocation for outdoor play, teacher involvement in children play, and nature of outdoor playgrounds. Descriptive survey design was employed to explore determinants of children’s engagement in outdoor play. As per this study, children’s engagement in outdoor play was the dependent variable while independent variables comprised of aspects such as availability of play materials, allocation of time for outdoor play, teachers’ involvement in children’s play and nature of outdoor playgrounds. The study targeted 240 ECD Centres in Kwale County. Stratified random sampling was used to generate two strata: public and private, while simple random sampling was adopted to obtain 35 ECD teachers. Head teachers were purposively selected from each sampled ECD Centres. Data were gathered using questionnaire and observation checklist. The questionnaire was administered to teachers (n=35) and head teachers (n=24) while the observation checklist was used to record researchers’ observation about the available play materials, nature of playground, teacher’s roles during outdoor play and time allocated for children’s play activities. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis procedures were employed. Data were presented using frequency distribution tables, pie-charts and graphs. Chi-square was used to test the correlation between dependent and independent variables at level of significant of 0.05(P<0.05). The results of this study established that available play materials, teachers’ involvement, allocated time, and the characteristics of play spaces encourages children participation in outdoor play activities. Based on these findings, the study recommended that; educators should invent ways of acquiring more play equipment, KICD should increase time for outdoor lesson, the County Government should ensure schools are registered and they comply with ministry guideline on playgrounds, and school management should fence the playgrounds to keep unwanted guests at bay.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Introduction
This section discusses the background of the study. It also covers sub-topics that include statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research objectives, research questions, significance, limitations and delimitations of the study. The section also presents basic assumptions of the study, theoretical and conceptual framework, and operational definition of terms.
Background to the Study
Children all over the world including those living in wealthy families in cities and those that live in remote villages in developing countries have a right to play. Since 1989, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been enshrining this right with the aim of ensuring that all children across the world get the full benefits of play (Brown & Freeman, 2001). Moreover, children have the right to play, to rest and to engage in cultural and artistic activities (ACRW article12, 1999).
Play is an integral part of early childhood curriculum. Through play, children have better opportunity to acquire self-confidence, self-independence, physical and social skills (Muthoni, 2016). For preschool children to grow and reach their full potential, educators should provide them with safe and sufficient outdoor play opportunities. This is because a child’s holistic development is promoted through play (Bergen, 2002).
In the modern school environment, children engagement in play has been hampered by the emphasis the preschool management put on academic assessments, standards and accountability. For instance, some schools around the world play abolished play activities
with the aim of ensuring a quiet school environment for academic learning (Stipek, 2006). In particular, public preschools and kindergartens in America have set strict system that is teacher-centered with the aim of improving literacy and numeracy of the pre-schoolers at the expense of play time (Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, & Eyer, 2004). And as a result, children in these schools have less time to play.
Play and children’s engagement in spontaneous activities have diminished in the last two decades as a result of some factors such as the emergence of computer games, television and modern technological products. Other factors that have led to the depletion of children’s engagement in play activities include fears for parents about the safety of their children, inadequate quality outdoor play spaces and limited time for children play activities in schools (Singer, 2005).
Some people across different parts of the world believe that play is a waste of time and has little value, however; Clement and Sarama (2009) asserts that play is the great time to build new knowledge from the previous experience. Preschool teachers in some regions of the world have recognized the significance of play in children’s development. Outdoor play not only provides children with a multitude of learning benefits but it helps improves the child’s health, too (Heather, Melinda , Ahn, & Fedewa, 2014; Park & Riley, 2015). Due to this fact, educators are now providing children with opportunities for both structured and spontaneous play.
A study by (Smilansky, 1990) shows that children play is enriched and stimulated by teachers’ involvement. Teachers may be involved in preschool children play via providing materials, supervising and guiding children on some play activities. The
presence of educators during children outdoor play is associated with positive child development, but Christie and Wardle report (1992) revealed that teachers and adults need not to interfere with children free play. The idea of teachers supervising and watching children as they play during may hinder them from socializing freely and alter their willingness to solve individual conflicts (Pellegrini, 1984).
Children need a reasonable amount of time to play (Christie & Wardle, 1992). When insufficient time is provided to them, they get discouraged on sophisticated forms of play. Christie and Wardle proposed for 30-60 minutes for both children’s indoor and outdoor play activities. Cullen (1993) points out that adult restrict children to participate in play via their organization and management of timetables. He also draws the attention on the fact that teachers’ participation limits the occurrence of stereotype forms of play among children. This means that it is important to provide enough time in order to satisfy children’s interest for play.
Abbott and Nutbrown (2001) maintain that environment is pivotal for play to develop and flourish. Both outdoor and indoor environments are crucial and they have to be well structured. The zones within the outdoor space should be designed with the aim of helping children to satisfy their individual interest (Esbensen, 1987). Play equipment and objects within school playgrounds should reflect the cultural diversity and have to be readily available and accessible to children. Play is either supported or hindered by the manner in which the play materials are stored and available to children (Sylva & Sammon, 1999).
A study done in Nigeria on teacher’s perceptions and provisions on outdoor play for children revealed that outdoor play offers many benefits to children. According to this study, teachers believed that children who spent more time playing fall ill less often than others, who stays inactive. Further, the findings of this study found that 50 per cent of sampled teachers perceive their roles during children’s outdoors as supervising, coaching and instructing children on how to play (Okoruwa, 2017).
Kenya through the MoEST adopted a preschool curriculum that emphasis on play as an integral element in preschool teaching and learning. Preschool syllabus in Kenya encourages teachers to use play and play materials in teaching and learning process at the preschool level (KICD, 2008). Regardless of the preschool syllabus requirement about play, teachers still focus more on improving children’s literacy and numeracy performance at the expense of play. It has even gone to an extent of pre-schoolers getting remedial lessons during weekends to improve their numeracy and literacy skills. Teachers of Kenyan preschools are encouraging rote learning instead of including play as a method of teaching-learning process.
Kenya has introduced a new curriculum across all the levels of education. At the preschool level, psychomotor and creative activities are among the key components of the new curriculum. According to the new preschool curriculum, children gross and fine motor skills development is essential as it helps them to control and coordinate their body parts. Currently, the preschool curriculum points out that play and physical activities give children opportunity for physical exercise, thus facilitating proper blood and oxygen circulation in their body (KICD, 2017).
Recent studies conducted in Kenya on children’s outdoor play seem not to focus on the factors that determine children’s engagement in play, but rather they appear to emphasis on outdoor play and children development as well as other aspects. These studies include; determinants of quality outdoor play environment in early childhood development centres (Wanjiku, 2016), effects of outdoor activities on development of preschool physical skills (Akoth, 2016), influence of preschool children safety in their participation in outdoor play (Macharia, 2012) and Ochanda (2015) on impact of play equipment on children participation in outdoor play. The above studies fail to explore factors that determine children engagement in outdoor play. Thus, the present study sought to explore determinants of children’s engagement in outdoor play in ECD Centres of Kwale County, Kenya.
Statement of the Problem
Outdoor play is a fundamental right as well as a vehicle for learning for all children. Globally, researchers such as (Muthoni, 2016; Brown & Freeman, 2001) have found that outdoor play has many benefits to children such as social, emotional, cognitive and physical. This implies that children should be provided with enough time for play in order to enjoy learning. Unfortunately, some preschools do not give outdoor play the attention it deserves, but rather keep emphasizing on academic improvement. Thus, it is necessary to find out whether teachers in Kwale County provide enough time for children to engage in outdoors.
There is scanty of information on factors that determines children engagement in outdoors play in Kenya. Because of this, the study retrieved its literature from developed countries like USA and UK where children’s outdoors activities are extremely treasured.
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has been in the frontline in educating teachers on the importance of bringing children out of classroom for outdoor play. Taking the lead of showing the significance of outdoor for preschool children, KICD through the preschool syllabus recommend that outdoor activities should be scheduled on a daily basis within a duration of 30 minutes. Furthermore, in the new curriculum, KICD has greatly emphasised on play and learning.
Some international researchers such as (Smilansky, 1990; Christie & Wardle, 1992) have indicated that playgrounds play materials and teachers’ roles influence children engagement in outdoor play. Conversely, research studies that have been done in various counties in Kenya in the past one decade did not reveal exactly the factors that determine children outdoor play. Thus, the study sought to establish school factors that influence children engagement in outdoor play.
