Learning resources in the context of play. Promoting effective learning in early childhood

SUMMARY This articles argues that there is no absolute standard for defining the quality of early childhood education and care. Current approaches to effective teaching/learning are of a very limited value for the definition of a standard for good education. In an attempt at finding an alternative definition of effective teaching in early childhood education, the article explores from a Vygotskian perspective the notion of play as a format for young children's activities. From this perspective, every activity — including play activity- is seen as a distributed form of cognition, that comprises different cultural resources that can be employed by the actors for the accomplishments of the activity. Effective learning in early childhood now can be conceived as a characteristic of a shared playful activity for children in which they are stimulated to use as many of the available resources as possible. Initial evaluations of a play-based curriculum based on these ideas, are presented and discussed.