Construction play in early childhood

This data contains all the data that was sampled from all six research sites. The data consist of semi-structured interviews, structured narratives, observations of the learning environments, play observation of participants with construction materials, Polya's problem-solving techniques and personal information regarding the participants.
All the sampling resources and documents went through a coding process. These codes were then broken down into categories, themes and sub-themes. After thematic analysis took place, the research findings were divided into three themes and nine sub-themes. The goal of these themes and sub-themes was to assist the researcher in answering the primary and secondary research questions.
The data describes what the learning environments looked like and what education material the teachers used at each research site. The data documented as the research participants participated and engaged in different construction play. The data documented what materials the participants played with as well as the stage of construction play. During the observation session at each research site, as the researcher I resumed the role of a complete observer. The researcher was a non-participant observing the construction play sessions from a distance. Researcher participated when needed and to set the problem that the young children needed to solve by use of construction materials. The researcher had drawn up a guided observation checklist to ensure the critical aspects of the phenomenon regarding construction play are fully observed.
The participants were given a problem that they needed to solve using a wide range of construction materials. The observation was documented using Poya's prblem-solving strategies. Polya believes in four stages of problem-solving. He says that young children start at the first stage, understanding the unknown problem. The second step in Polya’s four stages of problem-solving is to devise a plan. In the third step of Polya’s four stages of problem-solving, a plan needs to be carried out. Lastly, children have to look back and check their work.
Personal questions were asked to all the teachers from each research site regarding their background information and qualifications. From the analysed background information it is evident that only two teachers have more than 40 years of teaching experience; one teacher has 13 years of teaching experience, and most teachers have less than ten years of teaching experience. Importantly, none of the primary research participants has only one year of teaching experience. The researcher wanted to determine if the teachers’ years of teaching experience could influence the way they implement construction play to enhance young children’s problem-solving skills.
The photovoice section of this study is here to give a visual representation of what transpired during the construction play and research sessions at each school. Different schools with diverse criteria were visited in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces. The criteria of the schools ranked from private alone standing schools in the city, public schools joined with a primary school, public school in the inner city separate from the primary school, a public school in a rural area separate from the primary school and private alone standing schools on the outer region of the city. Photographs were used to document the construction play materials, the environment where the constructions are built and the children's different structures, for this study. The researcher adhered to the ethical considerations, and therefore, no child’s face is visible in the photographs, and received permission from all the parents to use these visual images in my research.

本数据集汇集了自六个研究站点采集的所有样本数据。数据包括半结构化访谈、结构化叙述、学习环境观察、参与者使用建构材料的游戏观察、Polya 问题解决技巧以及关于参与者的个人信息。所有采样资源和文件均经过编码处理，随后这些编码被细分为类别、主题及子主题。在主题分析完成后，研究结果被划分为三个主题和九个子主题，其目的在于协助研究人员解答主要及次要研究问题。数据描绘了学习环境的形态以及各研究站点教师所使用的教育材料。数据记录了研究参与者参与并投入到不同的建构游戏中的情况，以及参与者在建构游戏中所使用的材料和游戏阶段。在每个研究站点的观察期间，作为研究者的我扮演了完整观察者的角色，以非参与者的身份从远处观察建构游戏环节。当需要时，研究者将参与其中，并通过使用建构材料为幼儿设置需要解决的问题。研究者制定了一份引导观察清单，以确保对建构游戏现象的关键方面进行全面观察。参与者被分配了一个需要使用多种建构材料解决的问题，观察记录采用了 Poya 的问题解决策略。Polya 认为问题解决包含四个阶段。他认为幼儿从第一个阶段开始，即理解未知问题。Polya 四阶段问题解决的第二个步骤是制定计划。在第三个步骤中，需要执行计划。最后，孩子们需要回顾并检查自己的工作。对每个研究站点的所有教师进行了个人背景信息和资质的提问。从分析出的背景信息中可以明显看出，仅有两位教师拥有超过40年的教学经验；一位教师拥有13年的教学经验，而大多数教师的教学经验不足十年。重要的是，所有主要研究参与者均不具备一年的教学经验。研究者旨在确定教师的教学经验年限是否会影响他们实施建构游戏以提升幼儿问题解决技能的方式。本研究中的摄影声音部分旨在以视觉形式呈现每个学校建构游戏和研究过程中的事件。研究者访问了豪登省和姆普马兰加省内具有不同标准的学校。学校的标准从城市中的独立私立学校，到与小学联合的公立学校，再到与小学分离的市区公立学校，以及位于乡村地区的公立学校和城市外围的独立私立学校。本研究使用了照片来记录建构游戏材料、建构环境以及孩子们的各式结构。研究者遵循了伦理考量，因此照片中未出现任何孩子的面部，且已获得所有家长的许可，允许在研究中使用这些视觉图像。