Abstract
This chapter addresses the use of play-based learning as a means to boost meaningful learning. This work aims to provide reasons to back up the suitability of motor games as a pedagogical resource in early childhood education. By this means, the authors aspire to help teaching students and actual teachers to become aware of the importance of getting familiar with the pedagogical basis of motor games in order to apply them effectively from the early education stages. A systematic review has been performed to tackle this objective, and it has revealed cognitive, linguistic, physical, and socio-affective benefits of implementing games for instructive purposes. Apart from that, both teachers and university teaching students have completed a survey to measure their opinion on this issue, and the results show that they regard motor games as powerful pedagogical tools.
TopTheoretical Framework
The etymological origin of the concept of game point to dynamics of jokes and amusement. Thus, games refer to easy-going activities that are commonly regarded as ludic activities (Rodríguez & Montúfar, 2017). Children have the ability to socialize and are naturally interested in it. They tend to make the most of the environment that is laid out before them. Moreover, they intrinsically need to move and engage in activities and relationships with the elements and individuals around them. Games allow children, on the one hand, to know themselves and to express their ideas, and, on the other hand, to explore their context with the aid of their senses and their movement (Garaigordobil, 2008).
From what has been stated, it follows that the upbringing of the child must be focused on what he/she is and what is around him/her (family, friends, school, society, personal characteristics, basic needs, and so on.). The best tool to attain this goal is the game. Minerva (2002) advocates for this kind of activity in the classroom and she highlights the implication of effort, time, concentration, and expectation in the development of games.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Physical Functions/Abilities: The movement abilities developed through the perfect of the fine and gross motor skills. They include, among others, coordination, balance, locomotive and manipulative skills, and breath and postural skills.
Holistic Development: Developmental process in which all the spheres of the individual (cognitive, linguistic, motor, social and emotional) grow harmoniously and by benefiting from each other’s evolution.
Motor Game: A natural and spontaneous activity children do based on the experience and exploration of the world around them through their senses, movement, and imagination.
Game: An amusing activity that is both an end in itself and a means to the attainment of goals. This activity involves the interaction with the context around the child and frequently with other participants.
Pedagogical Basis/Foundations (of a Teaching Method): The set of theoretical and practical knowledge that underpins a particular teaching method and ensures its efficacy.
Pedagogical Tool: An instrument or mechanism that is used in the educational context to serve to the teaching-learning process.
Ludic Learning/Play-Based Learning: Discovery and internalization of concepts, abilities, and attitudes through games and by reason of the motivation they produce.