Stories in building block play: four-year-old children's building block play at a preschool.

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K14183
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 09030:Childhood and nursery/pre-school education-related
• Research Institution: Shiraume Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: Miyata Mariko 白梅学園大学, 子ども学部, 准教授 (50350343)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 積み木 / 物語生成 / 相互行為 / 4歳児 / 幼稚園

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between the manipulation of building blocks and the accompanying changes in the constructs and the generation of play narratives that support the continuation and development of the scene in four-year-old class building block scenes.The method consisted of participant observation of a building block scene in the nursery of a four-year-old child in a preschool.Data on the manipulation of building blocks, constructs and interactions were collected and analysed with a focus on the function of stories.The results confirmed the need for objects that visualise images.It was also suggested that building blocks alone, which are unsuitable for image visualisation, have little potential for story generation.
Future research is needed to examine the relationship between the generation and repetition of stories starting from 4-year-old children's building block scenes and the continuation of building block scenes in 5-year-old children.

Free Research Field

保育学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究における学術的な意義は、様々な事象が存在する園における4歳児の育ちの中での社会性の発達について、効果測定では捉えにくい現象に迫ったこと、特に園において世界的に普及率が高く歴史的にも長きにわたって存在している積み木との関係からそれらを捉えたことにある。また本研究の社会的意義は、幼保小や小中などの「移行」が課題となる中で、4歳児から幼稚園最終学年である5歳児への移行期の育ちにある「繰り返しの経験」の重要性を明らかにした点にある。