Teachers’ Approach to Playfulness in the Process of Education/Learning in Lithuania and Greece

Playfulness is an integral part of pedagogy of play and includes elements such as humour, teasing, mimicry, riddles and rhymes, singing and chanting, shared activity in different contexts and with different resources (human and material), laughter, clowning, fooling around, inventing rules and rituals to begin, maintain and end play, wit, spontaneity, telling and laughing at jokes. Development of pre-school education in Lithuania and Greece has similarities and differences. The research was carried out in February/September, 2014 in pre-school education institutions of Lithuania and Greece. The chosen method of a research is a questionnaire, which was quantitatively analysed. 186 teachers in Lithuania and 197 teachers in Greece filled in a questionnaire. When analysing the data regarding the playful atmosphere teachers attempted to foster in kindergarten, the differences between the countries were statistically highly significant in all cases but one. In order to understand and maintain a playful education/learning, it is very important to observe children’s reactions, moods during both spontaneous and teacher-initiated activities for children (Broadhead, Wood, Howard, 2010). Teacher-initiated activities must be not less playful than the children’s spontaneous activity.