Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2000
Guiding Children’s Verbal Plan and Evaluation During Free
Play: An Application of Vygotsky’s Genetic Epistemology to
the Early Childhood Classroom
Ok Seung Yang1,2
Vygotsky advocated that a teacher’s active involvement in children’s verbalization of planning and
evaluating play activities facilitates the development of their mental processes. Through verbal
exchange, children internalize the psychological tools for thinking and move from regulation by
others to self-regulation. From this Vygotskian perspective, I have developed the Verbal Plan and
Evaluation (VPE) program, an instructional model applicable for free play time. Teaching strategies for implementing the program in an early childhood classroom are presented.
KEY WORDS: verbal plan and evaluation; Vygotskian perspective; free play; self-regulation; instructional
model.
INTRODUCTION: PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Of itself, free play is, however, never sufficient. In
a classroom setting, there must always be some practical
concerns about freedom of choice. For example, without
an adult’s guidance, preschool children between the ages
of 3 and 6 often do not pay attention to the activities
they have chosen. They tend to be repetitive, or to behave too impulsively. To promote the development of
children’s self-regulation, free play should be guided by
teachers. Children need to make choices, but teachers in
the early childhood classroom need to be involved in
children’s follow-through to ensure that they take responsibility. During free play time, teachers have the
opportunity to teach children not only how to choose
activities and play in ways that are appropriate to the
classroom situation, but also how to reflect upon their
choices. Otherwise, there is a danger that the free play
will deteriorate into anarchy.
With an emphasis on both freedom and responsibility, institutions of early childhood education have applied a three-part sequence of planning, doing, and evaluating at free play time. The High/Scope curriculum’s
daily routine, for example, uses this sequence, which involves helping children to express their intentions about
play activities, work on their plans, and review their
work (Hohmann, Banet, & Weikart, 1979; Weikart,
Hohmann, & Rhine, 1981).
Many educators believe that play is the ideal form
of instruction in the early years (Bennet, Wood, & Rogers, 1997; Bruce, 1991; Hughes, 1999; MonighanNourot, 1997; Moyles, 1994; Wood & Atfield, 1996). In
order to grant freedom of choice, institutions of early
childhood education, including kindergartens, preschools, and childcare centers, provide children with a
variety of materials, and then leave them free to choose
activities and play according to their interests, needs,
and inclinations. Of the play situations, free play has
the greatest degree of internal control and motivation
(Bergen, 1988). In a free play situation, children themselves determine what activities they will engage in,
where and how they will play, and with whom they will
play. They not only initiate but also elaborate on, withdraw, or change the activities they have chosen in response to their purposes and the way the play develops.
1
Department of Early Childhood Education, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea.
2
Correspondence should be directed to Ok Seung Yang, Duksung
Women’s University, 419 Ssangmun-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul 132714, Korea; e-mail: [email protected]
3
1082-3301/00/0900-0003$18.00/0  2000 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
4
There are, however, considerable variations in the
ways that teachers can be involved in the planning and
evaluating processes. Although the High/Scope curriculum mentions a verbal plan, it does not stress that teachers should guide children’s verbalization of their plans
and activities. This is because the curriculum is based
on Piaget’s genetic epistemology. From a Piagetian perspective, development is a process of maturation under
the control of biological laws. The environment, including the social communities, does not play a central role
in a child development. Private speech is viewed as egocentric and has little impact on the development of mental processes (Piaget, 1923/1926). For Piaget, language
in the early years plays a limited role in developing children’s self-regulation.
Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky (1934/1962, 1981) holds
the view that language in the early years plays a distinct
and important role in the development of mental processes. One of Vygotsky’s most intriguing observations
is that preschoolers use private speech to plan, guide,
and monitor their behaviors in a self-regulatory manner
(Luria, 1961, 1982; Smilansky, 1966). Private speech in
task settings serves to regulate the flow of cognitive processes. For Vygotsky, preschoolers are capable of learning to plan, to describe outcomes, and to report the results of their actions verbally.
Vygotsky (1978, 1983) contends that institutions of
early childhood education should provide an environment in which individual children are expected to participate actively in expressing their purposes, and to talk
over personally meaningful experiences. Given the importance that Vygotsky attached to language for expressing purposes, it is not surprising that he emphasized dialogue, that is, verbal exchanges. Using dialogue, adults
can link stimuli with children’s responses, and provide
the psychological tools for thinking such as posing questions, reflecting on actions, and noticing cause and effect
(Buzzelli, 1995; Malaguzzi, 1993; Nutbrown, 1994;
Williams, 1989). This allows children to respond competently and solve problems independently.
Employing research with preschool children, Vygotsky (1962) stated that what children can do with assistance today, children can do by themselves tomorrow.
When children learn a method of behavior for leading
themselves that had been used previously in relation to
another person, they are able to apply a social attitude
to themselves. This idea is well depicted by Vygotsky’s
concept of a zone of proximal development (ZPD; Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86), which is applicable in a free play
situation. During free play, children often create problems and solve them through verbal exchange with others
more capable in the matter (Yang & Shin, 1995). The
mediating role of adults in children’s ZPD is also crucial
Yang
for the development of children’s self-evaluative patterns
and tendencies (Wertsch, 1985; Williams, 1989).
In Vygotsky’s genetic epistemology, the interpersonal use of language has cognitive consequences.
Through the communicative use of language, children
are eventually able to regulate their own behaviors (Luria, 1961; Newman & Holzman, 1993; Resnick, Levine, & Teasley, 1991; Wertsch, 1985; Wertsch, Tulviste, & Hagstrom, 1993). The aim for the preschooler
is to move from regulation by others to self-regulation
and gain higher mental functions, which have a mediated structure and are qualitatively different from the
elementary ones (Brown & Ferra, 1985; Bruner, 1985;
File, 1995; Luria, 1976, 1982; Wertsch, 1985). In this
sense, the development of self-regulation processes
through verbalization forms an integral part of the free
play approach. Under the guidance of adults, children
internalize the tools for thinking and eventually regulate
their behaviors.
From this perspective, I modified the idea of the
three-part sequence of planning, doing, and evaluating
and developed an instructional model, the Verbal Plan
and Evaluation (VPE) program. To examine the effectiveness of the program, I conducted three studies. The
first study was with Head Start children in the United
States (Yang & Michael, 1986), and the other two were
with children at childcare centers and kindergartens in
Seoul, Korea (Yang, 1994; Yang & Kim, 1995). These
three studies demonstrate that the teacher’s active
involvement in children’s verbal plan and evaluation
during free play promotes the development of children’s
self-regulation. In the following section, I present the
processes involved in the VPE program and discuss the
findings of the three studies in terms of implementing
the program in early childhood classrooms.
THE VERBAL PLAN AND EVALUATION
PROCESSES
The Verbal Plan and Evaluation (VPE) program involves three phases: (a) Verbal Plan, in which a child
chooses the activities he or she wants to play and verbalizes his or her plan; (b) Action, in which a child plays
according to his or her plan; (c) Verbal Evaluation, in
which a child verbalizes what he or she did during the
action period and evaluates his or her activities in relation to his or her plan. Figure 1 shows the verbal plan
and evaluation processes.
THE TEACHER’S ROLE IN THE VPE
PROGRAM
When implementing the program in the classroom,
the teacher is responsible for creating a supportive envi-
The Verbal Plan and Evaluation Program
5
Fig. 1. An example of Verbal Plan and Evaluation (VPE) processes.
ronment and encouraging children to verbalize their
choices and actions. The teacher assumes the roles of
stimulator, facilitator, observer, and supporter throughout the verbal plan, action, and verbal evaluation processes. These roles are governed by active involvement,
openness, and a nonjudgmental attitude.
The teacher can help children by communicating
in an authentic and responsive manner during the VPE
processes. With diverse methods including open-ended
questions, direct problem statements, and encouragement, the teacher attempts to stimulate and bring out
children’s verbal reactions. What kind of question might
a teacher ask of children who have not yet grasped the
notion of planning? The most straightforward, understandable question for verbal planning is “What would
you like to do today?” Sometimes children do not say a
word when they are asked what they want to do. In this
situation, the teacher can help them feel more comfortable with the planning process by asking “Can you point
to the area where you’d like to play?” In order to elicit
children’s verbal planning, it is important for the teacher
to use appropriate language that supports their gestures.
“Oh, you’d like to play in the block area today? That’s
a good idea.” Thus, we can see how the teacher’s active
involvement in children’s verbalization guides and influences the quality of the program.
Since young children’s activities are dominated by
the physical environment, the teacher should organize
the classroom with some activity areas such as book,
block, dramatic play, science and math, manipulatives,
art, and music areas. In addition, it is useful to have the
VPE area which helps children to engage in both verbal
planning and evaluation (Fig. 3). The VPE area should
be located in a place where children can see all the activity areas and easily access them. It is also important to
place the VPE area close to the classroom entrance so
that children can make a verbal plan soon after they arrive at school.
The learning materials and resources for the VPE
processes include four kinds of items: (a) name tags for
individual children with photos, (b) area sign boards
with pictures showing core activities of each area, (c)
6
Yang
Figs. 2A and 2B. The teachers active involvement in childrens VPE processes influences the quality of the program. Under the guidance of the
teacher, children internalize the tools for thinking and eventually regulate their behavior.
The Verbal Plan and Evaluation Program
7
Fig. 3. It helps if the classroom has a VPE area as an activity area, where children can engage in verbal planning and verbal evaluation processes.
VPE sheets designed for presenting individual childrens
verbal plans and verbal evaluations, and (d) an information board showing all the activity areas in the classroom.
When applying the materials to the early childhood
classroom, the childrens age and developmental level
must be regarded. For 3-year-old children, for example,
it is useful to eliminate the information board because
the younger the children are, the more difficult it is for
them to identify symbols, such as pictures and photos,
rather than real materials.
To develop childrens ability to plan and evaluate
their activities verbally, a teacher needs to facilitate and
support children in verbalizing their thoughts and feelings freely as they use the diverse learning materials.
When individual children enter the VPE area for verbal
planning, for example, the teacher encourages them to
browse around the information board and classroom, to
choose one activity area in the verbal planning section
on the VPE sheet, and to tell what they will play, how
they will play, with whom they will play, and so on.
While the children are verbalizing their plans, the
teacher takes dictation on the verbal planning section of
the sheet. When the verbal plan has been completed,
children take their name tag from the VPE area, and go
to the activity area where they will play, posting their
name tags on the area sign board and then they proceed
to play in the area as they planned. Completing all the
activities planned, children return to the VPE area for a
verbal evaluation. Evaluating actions in relation to the
verbal plan also calls for the teacher to take dictation
while the children tell what they did. What is even more
important, however, is that the childrens verbal evaluations are accompanied by a drawing (Fig 4). It has been
my observation that many preschoolers immensely enjoy drawing their talk. They tell about their drawings,
relating them to their verbal plans and the talk, and the
drawings tend to reinforce each other.
Under the active guidance of the teacher, children
gain insight into their behavior and develop self-regulation processes. Teachers should be cautious that they do
not impede childrens free choices. As well, during the
verbal evalution period, teachers should be careful that
the evaluation is child-centered, not teacher-centered. In
my observation, some teachers tend to unwittingly impose their own intentions and evaluation criteria on the
children. A teachers self-awareness, so important in an
early childhood classroom setting, is especially central
here.
Children need to have enough time to think and
verbalize their plan while predicting the results of their
actions. To elicit childrens verbalization, the teacher
uses open-ended questions. During the first few weeks
of school, however, the teachers communication style
may be quite directive, for example, Which area would
you like to play in? Where are you going to play
today?
To gauge the individual childrens potential level
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Fig. 4. The VPE sheet can be used either for the teacher to take dictation, or for children to draw pictures of their verbal plan and verbal
evaluation.
of development, the teacher helps them relate what they
had stated they wanted to do during the verbal plan period to what they in fact did during the action period.
Listening and prompting children as they recall are good
strategies. For example, the teacher might ask how they
carried out their plans, talk briefly about what she saw
during the action period, or the teacher might read back
the plan made during the verbal planning period.
To help children verbalize and evaluate their experiences in relation to their plan, the teacher is attentive
and observes childrens behaviors carefully during the
action period. The teachers involvement in the verbal
evaluation process is based on her close observation of
the children. Furthermore, verbal evaluation is guided
by the teacher who collaborated in the childrens verbal
planning process. In this way, children link their plans
with actions.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES OF THE VPE
PROGRAM
When should the verbal plan and evaluation processes take place? To help children develop self-regula-
Yang
tion, the teacher might use the following scheduling:
Conduct the verbal plan process at the beginning of the
free play time, and the verbal evaluation process, right
after all the planned activities are done or in the final
phase of free play time. If the VPE program is conducted at the end of the free play time, it may not be
easy for children to recall all the activities they engaged
in or all the verbal plans they made at the free play time.
In general, children can make more than two verbal
planning and action processes in an hour-long free play
period. Thus, it is preferable to assign the verbal evaluation phase right after all planned activities have been
completed.
When children are offered a wide variety of options
and encouraged to choose for themselves, they learn that
choices have consequences. In learning to accept responsibility for their choices, the development of selfevaluative capabilities is crucial. To help children grow
in their self-evaluative capabilities during the verbal
evaluation period, the teacher may use questions and invite the child to respond; For example, Tell me some
of the things you liked about what you did? What
were some things you couldnt do by yourself? What
did you think you did the best of all? How did you feel
about that? Were there things you didnt try? Tell me
about them.
It has always been my observation that most 3year-olds are not capable of considering their plans and
actions as objects for evaluation. For these children, the
verbal evaluation procedures in the VPE program becomes not an evaluation process per se but rather a recall process. During the verbal evaluation, 3-year-olds
are encouraged to recall their verbal plan and actions,
and to verbalize the extent to which their verbal plan
was actually accomplished during the action period.
It is always preferable to employ verbal planning
and verbal evaluation processes on an individual basis.
In the group setting, children tend to pay little attention
and to be distracted easily because they do not have a
sufficient amount of time to describe their own interests
and experiences. Teachers, too, have a tendency to exert
more control in a group setting. For these reasons, the
program is best implemented on an individual basis.
There are, however, some exceptions when it is appropriate to introduce the program in a group setting.
The program may be carried out even in a large group,
for example, at the beginning of the school year, when
school introduces children to new activities or play materials, or when children arrive and depart from school
simultaneously so that the teacher cannot interact with
individual children.
To be more productive, the program can be con-
The Verbal Plan and Evaluation Program
ducted with a few children each day. Since it takes 3
to 5 minutes to process the verbal plan and the verbal
evaluation, respectively, it is impossible for a teacher to
deal with all the children in a class each day. The
teacher may be able to have quality interaction, which
includes getting responses and providing a supportive
environment, only with five to seven children a day. In
this way, all the children in the classroom can participate
in the program once or twice a week.
The purpose of using the VPE sheet in the program
is not for teachers to identify how well children make
verbal plans and evaluations, but for the children to visualize the verbal plan and evaluation activities. Using
the sheet actually enhances the preschoolers’ motivation
and attention to the VPE processes. Thus, the VPE sheet
should not be used for testing or for reading and writing.
Rather, the teacher uses it to take dictation, and the children use it to draw pictures while talking about their
activities. The purpose of the VPE sheet is to help children recall their plan and relate it to the results of their
actions (Fig. 5).
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To work in the program in an effective way, children should be familiar with the sequence of the verbal
planning, action, and verbal evaluation processes. During the initial period of introducing the program in the
classroom, the teacher guides individual children in
making one verbal plan and following its sequence.
After children are familiar with the VPE processes and
have experience in predicting the actual time spent on
an activity, they can choose more than one activity at a
time with ease.
CONCLUSION
Vygotsky believes that human development involves social interactions, and thus planned instruction
can play a major role in the nurturing of children’s mental processes. Instead of waiting for a child’s innate capability to shift to the next mental stage, teachers should
give instruction before this happens. He posits “the only
good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of
development and leads it; it must be aimed not so much
at the ripe as at the ripening function” (Vygotsky, 1962,
p. 104).
When interacting with individual children, the
teacher considers children’s ages, previous experiences,
and developmental levels. From a Vygotskian perspective, children in the private speech period still have
some limitations in mental ability. During the verbal
planning and verbal evaluation processes, under the active guidance of the teacher, children develop their ability to verbalize their interests and experiences and to
predict and evaluate the consequences of an event.
In facilitating these self-regulatory processes, the
teacher actively listens and questions, when children not
only tell about what they want to play but also verbalize
what they did in relation to their plan. It is through the
interactive assistance of the teacher that young children
internalize the tools for thinking and move from regulation by others toward self-regulation. As children progress in their ability to guide their own actions independent of adult guidance, their self-direction moves from
external to internal verbalization.
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Fig. 5. An example of VPE sheets.
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