The Importance of Play in Pedagogy in Curriculum Delivery and Play Provision for Young Children’s Learning and Development

In this study, play, play pedagogy, play provision and teachers’ roles in play in early childhood in accordance with England’s Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) will be discussed critically and commented with reference to evidence from the literature. Before examining these points in detail, it will be briefly explained what high-quality experience is and what the EYFS document includes about children’s learning and development. Following this, firstly, it will be discussed and explained how play can contribute to children’s development and learning. Secondly, the consideration will take attention on how play pedagogy and play provision might be used effectively. Finally, it will be examined role of teachers in play pedagogy and provision in order to provide the children with high quality experience. In conclusion, by examining how play, play pedagogy, play provision and roles of practitioners in the early years should be valued and implemented for children’s learning and development with a high-quality experience in EYFS. However, there is a surprisingly little research about critical review of playful pedagogy from other countries’ early years education system in Turkish related literature. Therefore, this study will contribute to the growing Turkish early childhood education literature about a sample of implementation of early years’ period in English education system especially from the playful pedagogy perspective.


INTRODUCTION
Early childhood education is a required period which helps young children's academic achievements and school readiness (Oers & Dujkers, 2012). In this period, promoting quality learning is important to provide high quality experiences for the children. Play in a high-quality setting can provide children with an excellent learning and teaching environment where they can make sense of and explore the world and might experience the real practices in the first hand as well (Wood, 2010;Duncan and Lockwood, 2008). Play must be purposely enabled by skilled teachers who are well trained in pedagogy and can observe children's play and how it can contribute to children's development and skills to provide the fullest outcomes (Nourot, 2007).
Play is the developmental and educational tool that children spend their lots of time in their life (Smith, 2010). According to the dictionary of Turkish Language Society (TDK), play defined as a fun that develops skills and intelligence, with rules. In consideration of this definition, it is possible to put a functional perspective that play is a kind of activity that supports development and helps to have fun. Progression of development and learning appear as outcomes of play. Therefore, play does not only provide a development atmosphere but also creates a learning zone. Children can practice, reinforce, and have an opportunity to learn what is right or/and wrong during their play (Yorukoglu, 2004). Speaking from pedagogical perspectives, discussions on the meaning of pedagogy with play in early years education, divides into two sharply contrasting perspectives (Fisher et al, 2010;Hyvonen, 2011;Pramling-Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). As Office for Standards in Education in England (OFSTED) emphasised that teaching is associated with methods and techniques of direct instruction, including the transfer of knowledge based on learning goals in the curriculum (OFSTED, 2015). The consequences of this approach have been identified as "anathema" to early years education from the perspective of the pioneers (Walsh, McGuinnes & Sproule, 2017, p. 2). Learning and teaching via play have a tenuous place in pedagogy (Wood, 2010a) where many debates focus on what approaches to learning and teaching in early childhood education (ECE) are appropriate. Siraj-Blatchford (1999) stated early years educators lacked a clearly articulated discourse of pedagogy which they seemed to associate with direct teaching. Stephen (2010) repeated that practitioners displayed their unwillingness to engage with pedagogical debates which might seem to challenge the characteristic traditional early years focus on holistic development and care. Indeed, a review by OFSTED (2015) about teaching and play in early childhood indicated the reluctance of early childhood practitioners to use the term 'teaching' as expressed by a practitioner in their survey: "I do not teach because teaching is about the transmission of knowledge, and while children learn new things when I am with them, it is not because I am providing them with the facts to remember but because I am affording them with the experiences that allow them to learn for themselves" (OFSTED, 2015, p. 10).
However, Walsh et al (2017) discussed that such inhibitions as mentioned previously to engage in debates about pedagogy in early childhood and undertaking traditional implementation of early childhood provision have an effect on the optimal learning experiences for young children in practice. Even though according to Walsh et al (2010) "an over-emphasis on formal instruction and behavioural approaches to teaching and learning have been empirically dismissed as inappropriate for young children's learning and development" (cited in Walsh et al, 2017, p. 2), there is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that the practice of play where children gain Karaoğlu Erciyes Journal of Education 2020, Vol 4, No 2, 18-34 experience is controversial and problematical (Hunter and Walsh, 2014;Wood, 2014a;Stephen, 2012;Walsh et al, 2010). From the light of related literature, it will be argued in this paper firstly it will be shortly clarified what a high-quality experience in early years and the curriculum in England as known as Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) documents about children's learning and development. Followingly, how play can encourage children's learning and development will be discussed. Later, there will be an emphasis on how play pedagogy and play provision can help to support children, and how teachers can use effectively play pedagogy in order to encourage children with high-quality experiences. Lastly, in accordance with the discussed components that the importance of play in pedagogy and play provision for young children's learning and development should be valued and accomplished in high-quality experiences in the ground of EYFS.

A High-Quality Experience and the Purpose of Early Years Foundation Stage
EYFS aims demonstrate how to support children from birth to five years old. The programme operates within four principles a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments and learning and development (Canning, 2010). According to the regulation of EYFS, all early years providers must emphasise the foundation learning and development of the children through broad based learning and school life experiences in preparation for pre-school without compromising the safety and health of the children (Department for Education and Skills, 2007). Also, the document highlighted that young child can learn with enjoyment, make sense of the world and improve their social and emotional development. When developmental areas are underpinned with play, this can make children more competent. EYFS is a play-based programme and in this perspective, play can help children's development naturally and it can be spontaneous which means that children's play activities can incorporate child initiated as well as some adult led activities (Rogers & Lapping, 2012). Implementation of play in the early years helps children's "discipline-based learning, adding detail to intended, possible and actual learning outcomes" (Wood & Attfield, 2005, p .119).
According to EYFS there are seven areas, which are connected in each other's, of learning and development and they ought to be present in the early years education curriculum. These areas are especially important to capture the child's attention and exuberance for learning and to build up their capability for learning, socialising and growing. The areas can be divided two parts: firstly, the prime areas; communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development. The second part includes specific areas that can help and develop the above areas; literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design." (Department for Education and Skills, 2007).
According to Vygotsky play creates a zone of proximal development (ZPD) and children's brain development can be improved within high level (Fleer, 2009). Zone of proximal development defined by Vygotsky that "difference between 'actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving' and 'the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers' " (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). In concordance with this point, Vygotsky highlighted that when children are interacting with their social environment and in cooperation with their peers, learning disposition awaken (Holzman, 2009). Play fulfils children's learning through exploring, imitating and discovering and it is a crucial work for children development and learning (White et al, 2009). Children use both their brain and body in their play; it makes them more active and brings them positive outcomes (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). Therefore, early childhood education should be underpinned with play to provide a solid foundation for all the developmental areas.
Before examining play, play pedagogy, play provision and teachers' roles, one should first define what a high-quality experience is. Ball (1999) stated high quality experience for children refers to providing them with the opportunity to develop independent personalities and accomplished behaviours. This also helps to make a solid basis for children's future learning. In order to gain these skills effectively, education for young children is necessary and it should be underpinned with 'high quality' experiences. Booren and Downer (2012) have argued that in order to develop children's skills and attitudes a purposeful environment and structured settings might help to foster their development. According to Ball (1999), quality pre-school education experience leads to permanent social and educational gains for those children who receive it. The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) research (2003) indicated that pre-schools can play a crucial role in challenging social exclusion and preparing children well for primary schools. Schools have an immediate impact on children's scholastic success, their learning of language, mathematics and science. Additionally, children who initially present with anti-social and anxious behaviours can have such behaviours decreased by experience of high-quality early childhood education (Taggart et al, 2003, p. 4).
EYFS is a programme which provides play-based learning and developmental features to combine education as well as care (Roberts-Holmes, 2012). Understanding children's action, their bodily and verbal communication with their peers, their ideas can reveal through play (Löfdhal, 2006). Therefore, play is a crucial tool to understand of children thoughts and relationships of them. Even though children have not any interaction with any person, they can communicate with any object or fictitious person (Samuelsson & Johansson, 2007). Interacting with objects and pretending being social with some fictional characters in play could reveal children's creativity. Young children need rich experiences to become more creative, therefore play is an important way to promote that (Prentice et al, 2007). Play is an arena where children can be more creative and become more sociably with their peers (Löfdhal, 2006). Play and learning are grifted in each other and play might be effectively used to support high quality education and high-level development through the pedagogy, provision and the role of teachers.

Play and its Effects upon Children's Development and Learning
Play is suitable for children's learning in early childhood education and it has a deep-rooted history in the literature (Rogers, 2011). Play had been a significant role of early childhood programmes since the first pre-school was founded by Frobel more than 150 years ago (Saracho & Spodek, 1998). From psychoanalytic literature, according to Sigmund Freud, plays enable children to get in touch with their feelings and resolve their troubles and anxieties by forcing those troubles and anxieties to level of consciousness and later articulating them in their play (Saracho & Spodek, 1998). From the examples, in the brief history, play has a considerable place in early childhood education. Through play, children's development can be supported and also each child's general learning and developmental characteristics can be understood by practitioners who may provide more specific programmes to provide high quality experience tailored to the individual's needs.
Even though schools are known traditional learning place and children do not play at school to learn, preschools are more often collaborated with play to provide learning and development . Both learning and development areas might be underpinned with play. Play is a crucial tool for stimulating children's developmental areas, making them more selfconfident and giving them the impetus to explore, to find things out for themselves and develop problem solving skills. The natural learning methods of young children are appreciated such as learning through play, activity, socialisation and investigating the world (Whitebread & Bingham, 2011). Furthermore, it is essential in children's lives because they can make meaning of the world though play. Activities and learning practices that are situated in an early years education setting may allow children to improve their ability to learn and they can make sense the world (Drake, 2001). Play gives children an opportunity to gain more complex experiences, to become thoughtful and master skills; so, it makes sense for children (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). Also, children could enjoy in their play and joyful learning in play can stimulate and support learning skills about communication, symbolic thinking, problem solving and collaboration with peers (Samuelsson & Johansson, 2007). EYFS advocates that is important to use play in early settings to provide a powerful and lasting effect on children's educational life.
In EYFS, to gain maximum benefit from play there are three points. The first one is playing and exploring which can be described as the point where play and learning come together and children investigate in play. The second characteristic is active learning; through active, exploratory play children can gain knowledge. The last one is creating and thinking critically (Department for Education and Skills, 2007). Play is a disposition includes internal motivation, interest, discovery, body language and it allows children to discharge their energies (Bennet et al, 1997). That means every child has their own ideas and can develop their ideas, make connection between ideas and can create their own tactics, solutions for doing something or when they face a problem. Samuelsson and Johansson (2006, p. 62) pointed out that "play and learning are dimensions that stimulate each other and could be seen as an indivisible entirely, which is a part of children's experiencing, and which helps them create an understanding of their surrounding world in a life-long process". This view implies that a reciprocal connection between learning and play is vital in early childhood education. Early childhood education term is an initial stage for children and children's comprehension, cognitive process like attention, memory, thinking skills develop in this period (Bodrava & Leong, 2005). These considerable points about place of play in early childhood education might be combined and revealed in learning in high quality early years education. It is crucial to use EYFS in play perspective so that it could be used as an efficacy method.
Meaningful learning can be provided through real life experiences and that promoting play has an impact on children's lasting term in their academic life. Play enables children to make connections within many areas of learning and experience in childhood education (Broadhead, 2010). Therefore, play activities make sense to children and completely embrace children's learning dispositions and environments. Play is a natural way and it provides positive acquirements through interactions in children's social environment, thus Vygotsky thought that these interactions are basic source of children's development (Bodrova & Leong, 2005). Also, we know from the studies by Piaget and Vygotsky that children learn effectively when they are active rather than being passive (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). To be active in play make it easier to learn in the early years. As a result, more meaningful learning and making connections in play occur though play within high quality early childhood education and it could be helpful for improving developmental areas.
A clear connection between play and learning is found in high quality early childhood education settings (Moyles, 1994). Vygotsky pointed out that high quality early years education which promotes development of children in preschools (Bodrova & Leong, 2010). Providing high Karaoğlu Erciyes Journal of Education 2020, Vol 4, No 2, 18-34 quality experiences in schools could be possible that when children are playing cooperatively, they consider other friends' ideas about how they might organise the activity (Department for Education and Skills, 2007). Hence, play is a step to making friends; they learn how to interact with their peers as a step towards their general social development. Smith (1994) highlighted that being playful, taking part in a game develops children's communication skills whether it be through their interactions, either independently with one other child or adult or in small groups. Hence, play also helps children's sociability to thriving and to increase. Play provides not only social development but also emotional development (Bodrova & Leong, 2010). Social development also plays a crucial role in personal and emotional development providing selfesteem, self-confidence and respect for others' ideas and learning to live with others. Play can help to provide personal and emotional development by creating a social environment (Broadhead, 2004). Play activities make it possible for children to develop and improve their ideas naturally as well as to explore the ideas of others. In particular, taking role in a play allows children to explore the feelings of others in a given situation and understand others' emotional expressions. This indicates that support to highest level in all the developmental areas is important for a child's development.
Play is the first way in which children can gain physical developmental skills (Smith, 1994) and it enables to children develop psychomotor skills such as movement, dance, and drawing. Not only indoor activities but also outdoor activities help children to provide their gross motor skills and scientific experimentation through natural method. Miller (2007, p. 62) highlighted that "even young children are learning basic math, science and language concepts through gardening". Thus, it should be considered that educational settings should combine and recognize the need to support space, time and materials in order for children to be able to learn and understand the world in different ways (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). Children are able to be physically active in play and they can feel and use different parts of their body in different activities. Additionally, they can control their own body coordination . Movement in play stimulates all developmental areas and contributes especially to physical development through reinforcement of body parts and neuronal connections in brain and body and so they can put some ideas into the play to meet their goals (Brock et al, 2009). Therefore, children are in control during their play and they are active when they are exploring, revising and restructuring through their experiences while, at the same time, their well-being might be supported.
On the other hand, an example from my own experiences is that children can face some conflict with each other about, for example keeping a particular role in a socio-dramatic play situation or are unable to share play materials. Using play tools, limited resources and behavioural fluency can be supported within play-based approaches (Wood, 2010a). There is another view that diversities and conflicts occur principle variation, which is essential in play as in learning and development . The interaction with peers allows children to face new situations that they can solve and that permits children's possible cognitive development and social skills (Medina et al, 2001). Even though play is a crucial tool in early years settings, play sometimes does not allow children equal opportunities to develop and learn and so there can be seen some conflicts as a disadvantage for some children (Karaoglu, 2013). Peer interaction in a faced conflict can be solved the problem that Medina and her friends (2001, p. 155) pointed out that "children must learn to cooperate and resolve possible peer conflicts". Children's faced problem in their play and resolving it is crucial to provide progress of learning activities (Ditchburn, 1988). Broadhead (2009) argued that these kinds of problem can be solved by using effective pedagogy in early years education.

Play Pedagogy and Play Provision
EYFS has been established on play and play promotes children's all developmental areas and learning (Rogers & Lapping, 2012). Play underpins learning and development of young children and therefore play should be used in pedagogy (Wood, 2010). According to Siraj-Blatchford, Sylva and Muttock (2002, p. 28) pedagogy is "a set of instructional techniques and strategies which enable learning to take place and provide opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions..." Considerably, for young children, pedagogy can be defined differently. Play and learning are entwined and this combination is important to provide young children's learning and development (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Einarsdottir (2003, p. 104) stated that "play is seen as the basis for preschool activities, and as the most important way to learn and develop". Play is a key element and a natural activity for children where they learn in early childhood pedagogy and school readiness. Young children have different learning disposition from school children because they have not yet school readiness which for many children means taking instructions or waiting for teacher (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Therefore, play could help in early years pedagogy to provide them school readiness and create a playful learning atmosphere. The learning environment must allow young children with alternatives to be active and to take the initiative to learn (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004). This learning environment could be provided by play structured pedagogy. Walsh, Sproule, McGuinness and Trew (2011) sorted out that playful structured pedagogy creates high quality experiences for young children.
Although pedagogy justifies play as a possible way to provide the occasions for children's social experience, the technique can lead to children forming limited relationships (Rogers, 2011) and young children's anxiety and discomfort increase when children are in more structured and didactic teaching atmosphere and this situation can prevent children's learning (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004). These problems could be minimized by play pedagogy and the decision to provide an informative atmosphere in which play and investigation can take place is one of the pedagogical methods and that might be used by early years teachers (Anning, Cullen & Fleer, 2006). Influential pedagogy in the early years must be play structured to provide 'high quality' experience in early years (Siraj-Blatchford, Sylva & Muttock, 2002). Children's play perspectives show by nature that combination of the learning and play is important in early childhood education (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). Hence, pedagogy established on play in early childhood can lead to 'high quality' experiences.
Play is the way of child's learning and it is important to assure provision of good resources for high quality experience in early years setting (Abbott, 1994). If play provision can be used through the pedagogical method, it can be helpful to provide children's developmental needs and a good learning environment for young children. A high-quality preschool provision plays role in that decreasing social exclusion and disadvantage (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004). To support and improve children's developmental areas, active learning can be used effectively with play so that play appears the natural and most convenient way to learn in early years setting (Heaslip, 1994). Providing a solid basis for children's future learning can be supported by well-organized play pedagogy (Abbott, 1994). Use of well-designed play pedagogy should be supported with good indoor and outdoor play resources. This can depend on the physical space available but, if no outdoor play space is available then it is necessary to arrange to take the children to an appropriate play space nearby every day. Use of the outdoors increases the space of learning environment and provides children high quality experience. Fisher (2009) pointed out that energetic and rough plays are essential for young children's development and learning within high quality.
Play provision and physical space of high standards can be effective in physical development, cognitive development and academic performance (Anders et al, 2012). Generally, the provision of suitable books, crayons, papers in different sizes and textures, countable objects are all included in materials that constitute a good quality preschool setting where children can explore their environment and learn through play and discovery. The provision of bead threading, colouring and scissors help to develop fine motor skills. Such early years experiences improve children's readiness to start primary school. While positive interaction between educational settings with physical space in the classroom and outcomes may not have long term effects (Bulotsky-Shaerer et al, 2012), this relationship is beneficial for children. Children who have been supported with the highest quality of physical space and resources have shown the greatest gains in understanding and numeracy in pre-school (Curby et al, 2009). In the classroom, pupils' highquality experiences can be supported with play tools like concrete instruments and objects such as beam balance, different coloured toys, plastic cubes in different sizes and colours (Zacharia et al, 2012). By developing basic number skills, effective thinking and improving motor skills development, these kinds of play provision and relevant physical environments can help children to gain maximum benefit from the early years. The affirmative outcomes of experiencing such settings can be seen several years later (Montie, Xiang & Schweinhart, 2006).
As mentioned previously, sub-chapter of Play and Its Effects upon Children's Development and Learning, in EYFS prime developmental areas need to be supported through play to provide high-quality experience in early years setting. Learning disposition is developed in early childhood and learner's experience and teaching approach can help to shape learning disposition during children's life (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). Hence, when play pedagogy is applied, children may go on to be successful in their academic life. They could learn to enjoy, learning, become more sociable and cooperative and also more motivated. Bennet et al argued (1997) that teachers take into account that play activities are more motivating and engaging than work for young children and also these kinds of activities provide learning in natural way. As well as being playful overtime could help to gain more benefit and could continue to power thinking and attitude (Ring, 2010). The playful approach pedagogy is a criterion of high-quality provision (Broadhead, 2010). Play provision allows practitioners to discover children's learning disposition and all aspects of young children's development and also it helps provide school readiness. A positive and supportive classroom atmosphere can promote the encouragement of young children's school readiness (Whitebread & Bingham, 2011).
All play activities have valuable educational role in children's learning (Walsh et al., 2011) and subsequently play could be combined with sustained shared thinking in early years provision. Sustained shared thinking (SST) is an important element in children's learning and it means that children and teachers can share their ideas sustainability to provide high quality learning experience in throughout play activities (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008). SST can be used as a balance between child initiated and adult initiated activities (Walsh et al, 2011). Sustained shared thinking permits children a good basis to provide their literacy and cognitive development plus, to provide high quality experience for young children well-designed pedagogy and well-trained teachers can associate with play, language, attitude skills in early years education (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004). Duncan and Lockwood (2008) argued that quality early years play provision needs to consider the way in which it can support the development of each individual child. Therefore, practitioners have a big role to play in applying play pedagogy effectively in early years education.

Roles of Teachers
Teachers have crucial roles in children's development and learning in early childhood education therefore they need to use play pedagogy and play provision effectively encourage children to play in order to provide high quality experiences in early years. To get the highest benefit from the early childhood education can be assured by committed and well-trained teachers (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004). Einarsdottir (2003, p. 108) classified teachers' role in her study that "teaching and caregiving in the preschool; cooperation with primary schools; organization of the preschool day; and the role of preschool teachers in children's learning". Teachers can assist and support children's actions and play in order to provide fluency of their play and to make it useful. In addition, children should be able to rely on their teachers as this trustworthy relationship is important for effective interactions in their play. Effective interactions are important when pupils need individual help (Taggart et al, 2003). Booren and Downer (2012, p. 521) argued that "two basic teacher behaviours, physical presence and active direction, play well-established roles in pre-school classrooms".
Although teachers are not managing the activities throughout activities times (Innonceti, 1986), sometimes children need a teacher's guidance in their play. Teachers can help children to become more actively involved in play that has been child-initiated when some children need encouragement to join in. When teachers would like to use play as a pedagogical way for explaining or introducing specific concepts, then it becomes significant for the teacher to firstly consider the daily concepts that children have improved or are currently stimulating though their play (Fleer, 2010). In order to shape intellectual skills and creativity, to reinforce children's imaging world and to enable them to deal with problems on their own, teachers should guide them and provide situations that stimulate the children's own interest in the class (Montie, Xiang & Schweinhart, 2006). Saracho and Spodek (2006) said that best practices and best outcomes in early years are related to the quality of the teachers. The EPPE Project found that "settings which have staff with higher qualifications, especially with a good proportion of trained teachers on the staff, show higher quality and their children make more progress" (Taggart et al, 2003, p. 2). Also, researchers in the UK found that the more qualifications teachers have the more effective they are in their relationships with children in play (Montie, Xiang & Schweinhart, 2006). Hence, teachers have a crucial role to play in providing a more interactive learning process and to support 'high quality' experiences for young children.
An educator who is aware of the importance of play, can devise an educational environment to provide learning though play (Broadhead, 2010). A skilled teacher is busy with teaching of the concepts and practices of the young children (Fleer, 2010). The activity can be self-directed and child can feel free to play with whichever play resources he wants, but he or she can manage the play; the play environment and play materials are planned by the practitioner with the more specific purpose of achieving quality learning outcomes (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). For this reason, teachers' perspectives are important and can affect children's play (Wu & Rao, 2011). It is important that use of sustained shared thinking in play by teacher and it helps teachers to introduce new concepts (Fleer, 2010) also it provides teacher and children communication in educational setting. It is a crucial role of teacher that giving support and inspiration for faced problems and incitation, the children's willingness and desire to provide continuously making sense of the world though process of communication and interaction (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008).
What is more, teachers should observe children's play to understand their psychological stages or specific situations so that they are able to use these observations when they are planning their play environments. Unfortunately, some teachers often have not enough sufficient time to observe children and tape regular observations as a consequence of this; they do not evaluate children's observation whether children successfully did activities or played along with peers (Scales, et al., 1991). Educators should have time to observe individual children's play and take some notes about the children's behaviours (Hurst, 1994) to promote further experiences and comments about children's behaviours. In addition, they can use the results of their observation to provide high quality play areas which support better learning and development. Educators should take account of the individual needs, interest and developmental cycle of each child and must use this information to plan high quality experiences for children in all of the learning and developmental areas. Practitioners need to provide play occasions to use and support many developmental areas in early years settings (Duncan & Lockwood, 2008). Teachers who work with young children should focus strongly on the three main areas which are the root of progress in the specific areas (literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design) and school readiness (Department for Education and Skills, 2007).
Moreover, practitioners can devise adult-initiated play using open ended questions and sustain the conversation to encourage the children to think critically and make them open minded (Wood & Attfield, 2005). Sustained shared thinking with play brings an important understanding between pedagogy and knowledge which is discussed in the play; sustained shared thinking provides clear learning for young children (Fleer, 2010). Teachers' roles in play are crucial to provide a play continuum to help children's learning and development. Siraj-Blatchford and Manni found in EPPE project and Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPPEY) that a child's development is affected by adults and leaders in preschools and their attitudes are important to provide high quality education (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni, 2007). Teachers may use play effectively when they are teaching or improving children's developmental areas or learning dispositions. Related with this, the teacher might also act as a moderator between children and play to support linguistic communication, thinking creatively and cognition. Ailwood (2003) highlighted that "along with institutional space of early childhood settings come relations of power between teachers and children, between children and other children" (p.291). An educator might extend the play and add some materials to attract the children's attention.
When planning or applying the curriculum, teachers need to consider which areas should be included in the principal provision (Drake, 2001). Practitioners should devise a plan that can accommodate play provision in the classroom. For example, if there is a limited space for a certain type of play, the teacher can reorganize the plan for children to fit the environment or redesign another play to provide high quality experience. Also, the teachers could be aware of children's learning disposition and the outcomes. Pre-school teachers can consider how fully competent on children's all developmental areas (Brock et al, 2009). It is really important to set up play that enhances children's main developmental areas mentioned above. When teachers focus on these developmental areas or the children's learning dispositions, they can use play as their method of teaching to improve children's skills. High quality early years education that is supported with a play based pedagogical approach used by practitioners effectively, has a significant and lasting impact on children educational and academic life (Pascal & Bertham, 1994).

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
EYFS is based on play and aims to develop children learning and children's development through play in early years. Early childhood education enriched with 'high quality' experiences is a necessity in people's lives as it provides a solid foundation for the development of communication and language, physical, personal, social and emotional and their subdevelopmental areas (literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design).
All the developmental areas are crucial in early years including personal social and emotion. The seeds of personality traits are built and developed in the early years (Dowling, 2010). As highlighted by EYFS, play has important role in nurturing children's developmental areas and their learning disposition, making them more self-reliant, questioning and trying to solve problems and becoming more socialized. This can have a long-term influence on their academic life. Play can be effectively used in the early years to teach something, to improve developmental areas and to learn children's opinions. That can be made possible through children being active in play rather than passive. As Duncan and Lockwood stated in 2008, being active in play has a crucial role in improving a learning disposition. This can be achieved through the use of play pedagogy. Play pedagogy and provision which are used to provide learning and developing atmosphere in the setting have crucial roles in children's play. Pedagogy which is built on play is a powerful tool to lead to high quality experiences. Teacher should use the play pedagogy and play provision to help children's development and learning dispositions such as using open ended questions and well-planned play scenarios. Teachers also should use sustained shared thinking and thus help the flow of the play and spirit of the play when they have a role in it. As a consequence, high quality early years education based on play, play pedagogy and provision and teacher's role in play will help to provide a positive, long term effect on children's future lives. To provide maximum benefit from the early years education, the play can be implemented effectively.
This paper reviewed how play, play pedagogy, play provision and teacher's roles in play can contribute to a high-quality experience in early years according to English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in-depth. Research by Walsh et al (2010) about "play-based and developmentally appropriate curriculum" implementation has highlighted that children have well-established social emotional learning and development competences and skills in a playbased classroom (p. 53). Also, Hirsh-Pasek et al (2008) pointed out "academic and social outcomes that emerge from these programs indicate that children profit from playful learning approaches" (p. 31). It can be concluded that when playful pedagogy used effectively, all of developmental aspects of early years promote high-quality of experiences and these experiences are essential for supporting happy and peaceful children's lives in the future. Many studies in Turkey highlighted that play is an important vehicle to provide children not only funny activities but also fruitful learning environments in communication, language, physical, personal, social and emotional, and cognitive developmental areas in early years (Akınbay, 2014;Ayan & Memis, 2012;Gunduz et al, 2017;Tugrul, 2002 ). There are also research about definition of play and the importance of play in child development from the perspective of adults (Erbay & Durmusoglu Saltali, 2012;Kocyigit & Basara Baydilek, 2015;Ulutas, 2011;San Bayhan & Artan, 2011). Moreover, Turkish pre-school curriculum (2013) highlighted children learn their best, know the external world, express themselves, gain critical thinking skills through play. Besides all that there is a big gap that even though the local policy document and researches advocate playful learning opportunities, there is a lack of investigations of playful blended curriculum delivery in Turkey has failed in the practice through related studies. Unfortunately, this shows that in Turkey play has less importance in early years settings, especially in the early years curriculum. It is also clear that studies which focus on playful curriculum in Turkey have less emphasis in the related literature. Therefore, this paper critically shed a light to give a theoretical basement of English early years setting as a sample to support curriculum interwoven with playful pedagogy not only for practice but also for researches.