Play as Part of Learning - Learning as Part of Play

Abstract

Flexible and individual learning and teaching have repeatedly been a topic of conversation in the last few years. Teachers and parents as well as pupils hope that a child would be seen as an individual in school, in such a pedagogical environment where a child's daily life and his inherent way to play and learn form a coherent whole. This research article is based on a pedagogical development project of learning environments. The research target is a school in a mid- sized town in western Finland. The school has a pre- school group and three joint 1st and 2nd grade classes. The focus of this research article is the school's way to take into account individual and flexible learning and teaching methods. The study can be defined as action research, as its aim is to open the planning and working process of the school and show how the school's practice has formed during the development project.