Comparative Studies of Play Practices for Children’s Learning and Development in Early Childhood Education in Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam

Play is highly valued in the early childhood curriculum framework and practices in Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam for its significant role in assisting young children’s learning and development. However, different understandings of the notion of play lead to different approaches to implement play to support children’s learning and development in these countries. Therefore, this chapter aims to discuss how play is differently conceptualised and implemented in children’s learning in the three different countries in order to support children’s development in various aspects of development. A comparative study was conducted, embracing both qualitative and quantitative methods research methods in different contexts. Dealing with societal demands on academic or cognitive outcomes in the Indonesian context, a transformational Playworld is presented to show how play supports children’s development and learning of concepts. Despite practical barriers in the Australian context, it is found that educators recognise children’s agency and use play as a pedagogical approach to afford and support children’s agency. In the Vietnamese context, play is applied in the form of games as a means to learn foreign languages in the context of voluntary English learning for pre-schoolers. It is argued that play links to children’s learning and meets the demands on different aspects of children’s development. The play implementation in these countries discussed in this chapter draws attention to the different forms of play that can be considered as strategies for teachers to develop children’s learning and support children’s development.