TEACHERS' MEANINGS ABOUT PLAY AND THE IMPLICATIONS IN THE PROCESSES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

This article brought a discussion about the activity of playing in the child's psychic development. For this purpose, we seek to answer the following question: What meanings about play permeate teachers' discourses and practices and what are the implications of such meanings in the teaching and learning processes? With the intention of answering the question, we highlight the general goal of investigating the meanings expressed by teachers about play and its implications in the teaching and learning processes. The methodology used for the research was qualitative and descriptive. As a research method, it was used an action research way. To produce the data, we used an open questionnaire using Google Forms, semi-structured interviews and continuing education meetings. The research was carried out in a municipal public school located in Balsas in the State of Maranhão and involved 26 teachers who worked with classes of preschool children. The data produced were organized considering the theoretical assumptions of Discursive Textual Analysis and the interpretation was made with theoretical support from authors from the historical-cultural perspective. The results indicate that, through play, children can appropriate from the social meanings, expand their worldview and develop their higher psychological functions and personality. This work made it possible to build reflections on the need and importance for the Early Childhood Education teacher to know and understand how the child's psychic development occurs from the Socio-Historical-Cultural theoretical perspective, and the important place that play assumes in the development processes of children. higher psychological functions and cultural appropriation.