Play in Reception Classes: Factors influencing teacher’s intentions to foster child initiated play

While children's play is clearly mandated in the early years foundation stage statutory framework, there is also acknowledgement that there is an ongoing judgement to be made by practitioners on the balance between child led play and adult led activities.

This thesis applies Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a framework for exploring factors influencing the extent to which teachers implement child initiated play in their classes.

The review paper systematically evaluates the association between play and metacognition, which adds to the evidence base on the value of children's play. A total of 12 studies were identified and evaluated.

The review concludes that the development of children's play appears to play an important role in the development of metacognition, however, a number of methodological weaknesses compromise the strength of this finding.

These are discussed in relation to the study of play and recommendations are provided with regards to further research.

The empirical paper explores factors influencing the extent to which reception teachers implement a curriculum of child initiated play in their classes and assesses the predictive capacity of the TPB to account for teacher behaviour.

The study involved 56 reception teachers who completed a questionnaire that was derived using TPB criteria as outlined by Ajzen.

Results indicated that the TPB explained a significant amount of the variance in teacher behaviour with the factor 'Perceived Behavioural Control' being the most powerful predictor of teachers' implementation of child initiated play.

Implications for teachers, school leaders and educational psychologists are discussed and guidance for further research is provided.

The thesis concludes with a discussion of the possible paths to maximise the academic and practice impact for the research findings and provides a dissemination strategy and plan.