Skip to Main Content

Library Resources for CE215

Books of Interest

These resources can be a great starting point for your research.

Finding Information about Play in the Classroom

In this assignment, you must create a flyer defending play in the classroom. Your flyer must be research-based and you must find at least two of your citations from the Library.  

We'll first look at how to find research and sources about play in education. See the box below titled Keyword Bank: Developmental Domains & Play for additional tips about focusing your research on a particular developmental domain or learning style.

Starting Out

Gale eBooks is a great database to begin researching. This database consists of reliable reference encyclopedias and handbooks, giving you an overview of the topic.

Suggested search phrases to try include

  • classroom play
  • "classroom play" "skill development"

Finding Journal Articles and other Publications

To search for reputable journal articles, search ProQuest Education, a subset of ProQuest Central that focuses just on the education-related journals provided by ProQuest. This helps focus your research and cuts out publication types unlikely to have good info on this topic like newspapers.

 

Keyword Bank: Play in the Classroom

Your strategy will be to combine words and phrases related to play with words and phrases related to things you need to know about it - like its use in the classroom.  

Here are some keyword examples you can use to mix-and-match within ProQuest Education and other sources:

  • play in early childhood classrooms

  • "play-based learning" "early childhood classroom" 

  • "play-based curriculum" "early childhood education"

  • "classroom play" learning

This isn't a comprehensive list of every option, but it should help you start your research.  Remember that research is a process and you may need to try a few searches before you start finding exactly what you need. 

Also note that Proquest, EBSCO, and most of our other databases automatically assume the word AND between words and phrases, and using quotation marks tells databases to search exact words and phrases. Joining words and phrases will target (or narrow) the search to more specific results.  In other words, the more words and phrases you type in, the fewer results you'll see, but they'll be more specific.  

Need more?

You can also try expanding your search by using the search box on the Find of this research guide.  This box, powered by EBSCO Discovery Service, will expand the resources beyond just ProQuest Education's and include everything EBSCO and our other databases has to offer.  

A suggested search to try may be "play-based learning" "early childhood classroom" 

Keyword Bank: Developmental Domains & Play

It's unlikely you will find one single article about how play addresses learning in all of the developmental domains and learning styles. The best approach is to search specific domains and individual learning styles. Below are examples of what combining a search about play with a specific developmental domain or learning style could look like:

  • "cognitive development" play
  • "communication skills development" play
  • "adaptive development" play
  • "social-emotional development" play
  • "physical development" play

There may also be alike-phrases someone writing an article would use to describe developmental domain or learning style.  For example, "physical development" can also be modified like this:

  • "gross motor skills" play
  • "fine motor skills" play

The term play can also be replaced with play-based learning and/or play-based curriculum. For example:

  • "social-emotional development" "play-based learning"
  • "physical development" "play-based curriculum"