Co-creating Playful Environments That Support Children’s Science and Mathematics Learning as Cultural Activity

Insights from Home-Educating Families

Abstract

Decades of research support the importance of open-ended, self-directed play in children’s cognitive, socio-emotional, and academic development. However, a “demise of play” is influencing science education, although such exploration is critical to building science identity and agency. An ethnographic study of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning practices of home-educating families documents the importance of negotiated, co-created, playful learning events. We posit these events emerge from an inherent flexibility within homeschool family systems, and because facilitators and learners have strong emotional ties to one another and value play in learning. Three specific situations highlight flexible and co-creative playful STEM learning activity: (1) an adult and child play and learn together through an intentionally designed “playlesson”; (2) play emerges from an intentionally designed academic lesson; and, (3) a lesson emerges during play. Although the context is home-education, we believe these examples offer insights for how to support the culturally relevant and natural tendencies of children to engage in play-based STEM learning and how to design, or co-create, science and mathematics play-learning environments.