Playing - Medium for Understanding, Interpreting and Transforming Immediate Reality / Igra – medij razumijevanja, interpretacije i transformacije neposredne stvarnosti

Abstract

Abstract
The fundamental study or conceptualization of the development and learning of early and preschool aged children necessarily takes into consideration children's play as a medium that allows imaginative transformation of the child's observation and understanding of immediate reality. While playing, the reality is metaphorically interpreted and presented with the help of alternative scenarios, while the actual events and experiences are being re-transformed and they vary from the child's perspective. Playing is a social practice (it occurs in cooperation with others and/or with the help of conditions that others create), and as such it is a specific mode of a socio-cultural reality in which the child, due to its incapability of total understanding and only partial participation, objectively reflects its real space and it interprets and ‘'changes‘' it a lot more. A child reconstructs its experience and day to day reality in an imaginary world of play, but almost always including recognizable social rules and under control of events.
The daily authentic institutional context should be arranged in a way that it allows free elaboration and expression of children's experiences and which builds and develops social capacities that will allow better participation in various social groups. Playing - the medium for understanding, interpreting and transforming immediate reality

Key words: context of a preschool institution; early and preschool aged children's play; learning and playing

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Sažetak
Fundamentalno proučavanje ili konceptualizacija razvoja i učenja djece rane i predškolske dobi nužno uzima u obzir dječju igru kao medij koji dopušta imaginarnu transformaciju djetetovih opservacija i razumijevanja neposredne stvarnosti. U igri se stvarnost metaforički interpretira i prezentira uz pomoć alternativnih scenarija, a aktualna događanja i iskustva djeca nanovo se transformiraju i variraju. Igra je socijalna praksa (događa se u kooperaciji s drugima ili uz pomoć uvjeta koje drugi stvaraju) i kao takva specifičan je oblik socio-kulturne stvarnosti u kojoj dijete zbog nemogućnosti potpunog razumijevanja i participiranja samo djelomično objektivno reflektira svoj realni prostor, a više ga interpretira i „mijenja". Dijete restrukturira iskustvo i svakodnevnu stvarnost u imaginarnom svijetu igre, ali gotovo uvijek s prepoznatljivim socijalnim pravilima i uz kontrolu događanja.
Svakodnevni realni kontekst ustanove trebao bi biti uređen tako da omogućuje slobodno izražavanje i ekspresiju dječjih iskustava, kao i izgrađivanje socijalnih kapaciteta koji će omogućiti bolju participaciju u različitim socijalnim grupama.

Ključne riječi: igra djece rane i predškolske dobi; kontekst predškolske ustanove; učenje i igra