Social - Emotional Learning and Development Through Play

This book is for those who have often wondered what social-emotional learning and development (SELD) practice can offer in early years. It explores important findings behind the practices and policies in ECE to help professionals and students develop a fuller understanding of the children with whom they work.
This book created from PhD thesis that examines the pre-school teachers' beliefs in Turkey about SELD in children's freely chosen and planned play activities by using video recordings and interviews with the teachers. Beginning with psychological and pedagogical perspectives, this research considers the pedagogical theories, which are underpinned by psychological aspects of play. This multiple case study explored the understandings of four teachers from two different schools in different cities in Turkey. The data was collected twice in one academic year through videotapes and interviews, once at the beginning of term and once at the end of term, to understand how social and emotional development (SED) in the curriculum is implemented in practice. Challenges of understanding, challenges of playful pedagogy and challenges of planning and curriculum, and finally challenges of assessment and teachers' roles were discovered and discussed in the relevant literature.