Search

Playful interventions: Measuring impact on learning

Figure 1: PMM tracking individuals’ understanding of ‘playfulness and me’ over the course of several workshops and a field trip. Red text was added before any workshops were...

Does playfulness have a place in higher education? A reflection on using playfulness when teaching research methods to postgraduate students

Playfulness has been defined as a disposition (Barnett, 1991) a mindset (Skilbeck, 2017) and fundamental for creativity (Cheng-Ping Chang, 2013). I have spent many years working in play and...

Becoming a playful academic: A personal story

Throughout my life I have been exposed to an increasingly stressful and demanding expectation to perform, dictated not only by society (cultural pressures) but also through beliefs deeply...

Playful praxis: A student’s perspective

Now in my fifth year of higher education (HE), I am in the unfortunate position to have more years as an undergraduate to reflect on than most, yet still have more to look forward to. Yes, I am a...

Connection and creativity despite Covid-19: Playful learning at university during the pandemic

Over the past decade, interest in play and playful learning in higher education (HE) has grown significantly (James & Brookfield, 2014; James & Nerantzi, 2019). Publications, conferences and...

Editorial: The playful academic

Imagine a place of learning where progressive failing, building resilience, and developing individual and collective skills, values and creativity are not only thought about as a theoretical...

The playful academic

This special BERA Blog series, edited by Maarten Koeners, explores how play and playfulness can facilitate learning in higher education – from the points of view of educator, researcher,...

Sharing the ambition: Play and parental interest in Scottish early years education

BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant Research Reports

This report provides evidence from the Sharing the Ambition project, which investigates parents' perceptions of early years education in Scotland, what their priorities are in terms of settings'...

‘To fit in at school, you have to be a robot’: Do care farms offer a viable alternative?

In a recent and yet-to-be-published qualitative study, I explored the possible contribution of care farming (the therapeutic use of farming practices) to young people’s engagement with learning....

Creating a forest food garden: Higher education that is disruptive by design

In this blog, we describe a new forest food garden course at the University of Sussex that fosters student agency to embrace uncertainty, so that they might be(come) responsive to human-induced...

Room to grow: Teachers, physical education and physical literacy

A quality physical education (QPE) programme is unlike the stereotypes of a ‘gym’ class often seen in popular culture. So, what should a QPE programme look like? QPE includes well-planned...

Being active in play environments: The key to children’s health and wellbeing

Playground closures due to the ongoing pandemic have led to urgent calls for city councils and authorities in the UK to keep play spaces open. Parents and experts reason that home isolation has...