Browsing by Author "Pulkkinen, Mira"

Aims The aim of the study is to find out what research about play-related exercises supporting learning in litteracy has been made. In addition to the play-related exercises which can be found from the material, I classify them according to the pedagogical division of Helenius (1993), and I look at three play-related exercises in the light of national core curriculum (2014). Methods This Bachelor’s thesis is a descriptive literature review. The research material consisted of ten studies conducted in the 21st century. I used HELKA, ARTO and ERIC databases and Google Scholar search. Mainly I focused on Finnish research, but I also use English-language research. After selecting the material, I focused on play-related exercises which emerged from the material. Conclusions There was surprisingly little recent research on this topic. Furthermore, there seems to be quite a bit of research that evaluates how the play-related exercises support learning in literacy. There were considerably more exercises that were classed as rule play exercises than those classified as creative play exercises. In addition, rule play exercises were mentioned in almost every study, while creative games were mentioned in only about half of the entire material. The play-related exercises supported well the goals which are set in Finnish language and literature learning goals in grades 1-2. However, it is not possible to draw a direct conclusion that all the play-related exercises would support the goals as well.