Ο ρόλος του παιχνιδιού στην απόκτηση κοινωνικών δεξιοτήτων των παιδιών: Απόψεις εκπαιδευτικών και πρακτικές.

Abstract

Although there are numerous studies on play and its contribution to children’s learning conducted in other countries (Brewer, 2004; Broadhead, 2004; Degotardi, 2005; Wood, 2007), there has been little research done inGreeceinvestigating how Greek nursery teachers’ perceive play in relation to children’s learning and development of their social skills.

For that reason the fundamental reason for conducting this study was to investigate teachers' understanding of the value of play in children’s learning and to examine teachers’ perspectives on the contribution of play in the acquisition of social abilities.

The present study has been based on a bibliographic review as well as on six interviews with pre-school teachers who had classes with 5-6 years old children. The analysis of the data has highlighted the thematises, which are:

The teachers’ role in classroom,

Perceptions about the value of play,

The relationship between play and social development,

The types of play that educators consider as important for social development and

The types of play which are used by educators,

Finally, the initial hypothesis if play helps children in social development was confirmed by this study.