(281) PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN MIXED-GENDER PAIRS ANIMATING, IMPROVISING, AND CREATING DURING DIGITAL PLAY

摘要

Gender segregation is a long-standing phenomenon is early childhood classrooms. Preschool children seldom elect to play with peers across gender lines, and when they do, opportunities for participation and resources are often unequal. Yet, less is known about how male and female children interact during play, nor the outcomes of the play, when classrooms include digital technologies.The proposed presentation reports the findings of a recent study of digital play processes and play outcomes of 4- and 5-year-olds interacting in mixed-gender pairs with open-content iPad apps. The research was informed by literature on socio-cultural perspectives on children and their environments, gendered peer play, pretense, improvisation, and the material features of digital technologies used by young children.The theoretical underpinnings of these areas of study were instrumental in conducting close examinations of the interactions of 13 mixed-gender dyadic sessions of young children (a subset of a larger study of 45 dyadic digital play sessions) engaging in digital play with a scene creation app - Puppet Pals HD.