Keywords
unstructured activities
play
dynamic ecological pedagogy
nursery
How to Cite
Abstract
In unstructured activities, children freely explore self-regulated behaviors. The loose parts model proposes non-functional mobile materials in children's spaces, without adult interference; with pre-school studies revealing it potential; however, we did not find studies in nursery. Eight babies (11.5±1.32 months old, 7 non-walkers) had free access, in the nursery, for 18 minutes, to 12 cardboard boxes of different colors with prehensible dimensions, 6 with content to produce sound, and 1 large movable and scaled box. Babies spent ≈70% of their time standing still or moving without contact with boxes; but, all interacted with them, with an average frequency of 9.88(±4.78) different behaviors per child. Three children established a sequential interaction, in pairs, around the exploration of a small and a large box. Thus, the cardboard boxes allowed babies to engage in autonomous exploratory and physical play, through fine and gross motor skills, revealing some positive and negative non-verbal interaction; also providing episodes of parallel play. Apparently, passive behaviors may have played an important role in their free play. Therefore, there is motor and playful potential in the loose parts model with babies, in an unstructured large group activity, with just one type of object. The pedagogical strategy implemented, a combination of unstructured activity and loose materials, is an example of dynamic ecological pedagogy, with the expression of expected phenomena, such as non-proportionality and multistability, both for motor and playful behaviors, through the regulation of the dimension of card boxes.
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