Fleer’s Conceptual Playworld is an innovative play based model integrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) concepts. Journalist Elise Cuthbertson talked with the program designer Marilyn Fleer (pictured), Monash University Laureate Professor of Early Childhood Education and Development.
A group of five year olds is reimagining the classic Robin Hood story. The heroic outlaw of English folklore becomes an engineer, so do his merry friends in Nottingham. Robin and the engineers hit the books and search through some child friendly YouTube videos. They devise a pulley system to break into a castle where Robin’s perennial rival, the Sheriff of Nottingham, is hoarding wealth he has stolen from citizens. In the end, through their engineering nous, Robin and friends win and share the wealth evenly among Nottingham’s inhabitants.
This is just one example of how the Conceptual Playworld can be implemented in an early childhood education setting, with the intersection of story, science and play.
“What we’ve learnt from our research is that imagination and play and imagination and learning are hand in glove,” Fleer said.
Imagination, she said, is central to children’s understanding of STEM concepts.
“If you develop children’s imagination through play, you are actually developing their foundational capacity to be thinking abstractly and to imagine concepts – because a lot of concepts are very imaginary.”
The strength of the Conceptual Playworld model is in its adaptability and synergy with teachers’ talents. Fleer said the model’s success pushes back against previous academic literature which claims early childhood teachers are not teaching STEM effectively.
“Early childhood teachers are terrific with children’s literature. They’re wonderful with dramatisation and storytelling… so this Conceptual Playworld model draws on all of their strengths and what’s unique about it is that early childhood teachers and the children create the Conceptual Playworld together.
“It takes what teachers are already doing but it positions them very powerfully into the play and it provides the vehicle… the children are so motivated to solve problems. They’re learning STEM concepts in the service of their play [and] the children are so engaged.”
Fleer said young children were naturally curious about STEM concepts in coming to terms with the world around them.
“The infant is already exploring gravity when they throw things from their high chair, they’re feeling the wind on their face and wondering what it might be and how balloons float… children are already super curious and we know this from the research.”