Preschool Teachers' Views on Children's Play and its Observation

There is a lack of studies about the interrelation between the quality of play support and teacher's views on it. Our aim is to study teacher's views on play and its observation; analyze the difference in views of the teachers from classrooms with different quality of play support. We conducted the survey to study teacher's views and structured observation with "Play support rating scale" (PSRS) to assess the quality of psychological and pedagogical conditions for play. The sample included 180 preschool teachers; the observation was conducted in 25 classrooms. M= 3.63, min=1.57, max=6.00. The majority of teachers consider play as a form of teaching or a context for other children's activities, but not as valuable itself. Teachers say that they observe play regularly and use their observations in planning play support. But the real quality of play support in the majority of groups is minimal. Regardless of their views on play, teachers rarely play with children as partners. There is no significant difference in teachers' views on play and its observation in the classrooms with different conditions.