Jane P. Perry, CSC Research Coordinator
Research BiographyA teacher myself, my research focuses on the importance of outdoor play. I use ethnographic collaboration with fellow teachers, children, and other researchers to develop a framework and language to better identify and advocate for the complex learning opportunities available to children on the playground, and how learning occurs in a negotiated process between the peer and teacher cultures.
I use qualitative evidence in a narrative format to convey the complexity of children's pretend play through initiation, negotiation, and enactment, and the role of decision-making processes of the teacher in promoting complex learning outdoors.
More recently, I am expanding on the peer and teacher process of negotiation to look at children's dictated narratives as a way to further access peer-derived play themes in the development of literacy and perspective-taking.
Selected Publications and Presentations:
Scales, B.S., Perry, J.P. & Tracy, R. (in press). Children making sense: A curriculum for the early years. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Perry, J.P. (in press). Children's experience of security and mastery on the playground. In E. Goodenough (Ed.) A place for play. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press.
Perry, J.P. (2007). Complex learning on the preschool playground: How to use the peer culture to plan, observe, facilitate inquiry, and match outdoor play to assessment goals. Presentation at NAEYC's National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development, Pittsburgh, June 10.
Sherk, J. & Perry, J.P. (2005). The mentor's guide: Skills and strategies for working with student teachers. Sacramento, CA: Foundation for California Community Colleges.
Perry, J.P. (2005). Complex learning in the preschool play yard: how to plan, observe, intervene and then advocate for the importance of outdoor play. Presentation at the NAEYC Annual Convention, Washington, D.C. December 10.
Perry, J.P. (2005). Got Play? in the 21st century: A teacher articulates her process. Research roundtable presentation for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)'s Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., December 9.
Sherk, J. & Perry, J.P. (2005). The mentor's guide: Skills and strategies for working with student teachers. Sacramento, CA: Foundation for California Community Colleges.
Perry, J.P. (2004). Making Sense of Outdoor Pretend Play. In D. Koralek (Ed.) Spotlight on young children and play. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, pp. 17-21.
Perry, J.P. (2004). "Member that time we did that?" Supporting complex learning in the play yard. Research roundtable. NAEYC's National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development, Baltimore, June 21.
Perry, J.P. (2004). "You're kinda like a policeman, aren't ya'?": The role of the teacher during peer play. "Let's talk play" research roundtable. NAEYC's Annual Conference, Anaheim, November 13.
Perry, J.P. (2003). Making sense of outdoor pretend play. Young Children. 58(3), 26-30.
Perry, J.P. (2003). Promoting Complex Learning in the Play Yard. Child Care Health Connections. 16(3), 1, 11.
Perry, J.P. (2001). Outdoor Play: Teaching Strategies with Young Children, New York: Teachers College Press.
Jane P. Perry Research Biography, September 2007
Jane Perry's main page
Jane Perry's Curriculum Vitae page