Learn by playing
Playing to Learn | Harvard Graduate School of Education
Research Stories
By: Grace Tatter
Posted: March 11, 2019
Play and school can seem diametrically opposed. School is structured, often focused on order; play, by definition, is not.
But within this paradox of play and school, educators can find meaningful learning opportunities, advancing students' academic skills as well as the social skills that will allow them to thrive in adulthood and enjoy their childhood now, according to researchers from Project Zero (PZ), a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
With support and collaborative input from the LEGO Foundation, Project Zero embarked on an exploration of the pedagogy of play in 2015, in partnership with the International School of Billund in Denmark, which has made play a key part of its approach to learning. Since then, researchers have looked at how play enlivens lessons in three schools in South Africa, as well. The goal is to understand, articulate, and advocate for the role of play in learning and schools.
In Denmark, playful learning has meant allowing middle school students to design their own schedules for two weeks, for instance; or students drawing a map of the world onto an orange. In South Africa, it looked like five-year-olds drawing words with the ‘er’ sound. Universally, a playful pedagogy allows students to experiment, use their imaginations, and be creative.
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There is a universality to play: children are often more relaxed and engaged during play, and it’s enjoyable — all aspects that facilitate learning. But there are also cultural specifications to what play looks like, when it’s appropriate, and who children play with.
The hope of the PZ researchers is that by observing playful learning and asking questions about its characteristics, they can work with educators to develop a pedagogy of play in their own contexts — a systematic approach to the practice of playful learning and teaching — that can weave through the tensions between school and play.
Here are some takeaways from their research thus far — and the questions that they, and other educators, are grappling with for the future.
It’s possible to play with a purpose. There is a difference between free play and playful learning. While both are important, a pedagogy of play is grounded in playing toward certain learning goals, designing activities that fit in and leverage curricular content and goals. Children are trusted to direct their own learning, but with appropriate supports from their teachers to meet specific goals.
While learning through play is universal, what that looks like depends on the culture. There is a universality to play: children are often more relaxed and engaged during play, and it’s enjoyable — all aspects that facilitate learning. But there are also cultural specifications to what play looks like, when it’s appropriate, and who children play with. In South Africa, Pedagogy of Play researchers and local researchers identified three South African indicators of play, centered around the concept of ubuntu, or a sense of human interconnectivity: ownership, curiosity, and enjoyment.
In Denmark, that looked a little different. The indicators of play the researchers and educators identified were choice, wonder, and delight.
Older students can benefit from play in the classroom, too. “Play is a strategy for learning at any age,” says PZ researcher Mara Krechevsky. While older students and their teachers might have more curricular demands than younger students, playful learning still has an important role to play — it might just look different. The kinds of activities that inspired a sense of ownership, curiosity, and enjoyment among older students in South Africa — like a debate over the nature of facts — might not qualify as play for younger learners.
“The commonality is this sense of playfulness — some sort of agency and sense of control over what you’re doing; some sort of curiosity; and that you’re enjoying yourself,” says PZ researcher Ben Mardell.
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“Play is a strategy for learning at any age.” – Project Zero's Mara Krechevsky.
And so can adults. “We want students to feel they have agency, and it’s really hard to imagine someone who doesn’t have agency instilling it in someone else,” Mardell says. “We need to provide teachers with that agency so they can take that back to their students.”
Again, what’s playful for a group of educators might look different than it does for children. In one study group of teachers in Denmark, the process of coming up with research questions to explore together felt like purposeful play.
But the PZ researchers do have at least one example of teachers participating in more childlike play: PZ researcher Lynneth Solis recalls how, at a school in South Africa, a group of teachers actually went out to play a game on the playground. “The idea was to bring themselves back to what it means to be a child, and what interactions are happening during play,” she says. During the game, the educators “realized they were bumping into each other, and it provided some insight that when children bump into each other during playtime it doesn’t mean they’re trying to hurt each other — it gave a little insight into the child’s experience.
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Learn more
Project Zero has a dedicated blog to Pedagogy of Play. You can also find more resources at the International School of Billund site and at Project Zero, including the most recent Pedagogy of Play working paper, “Toward a South African Pedagogy of Play.”
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Play-Based Learning: What It Is and Why It Should Be a Part of Every Classroom
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Renowned psychologist and child development theorist Jean Piaget was quoted in his later years as saying “Our real problem is – what is the goal of education? Are we forming children that are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try developing creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?”
No doubt, Piaget didn’t have to deal with standardized assessment—and he would be at odds with those officials who prioritize test high scores and good grades as the primary goals of education.
Instead, Piaget would advocate for helping students understand learning as a lifelong process of discovery and joy. Why do we question the value of this approach?
Being a kid is critical. We see the signature of early childhood experience literally in people’s bodies: as this study from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child shows, positive early experiences lead to longer life expectancy, better overall health, and improved ability to manage stress. Plus, long-term social emotional capabilities are more robust when children have a chance to learn through play; form deep relationships; and when their developing brains are given the chance to grow in a nurturing, language-rich, and relatively unhurried environment.
This is something that as educators we understand in our souls but often find it difficult to implement given the restraints and restrictions of the modern classroom and accountability environment. But, it’s critical to address this disconnect directly in order to make progress.
So, let’s talk about why students need play and how we can bring it into our own classrooms—even if we have to sneak it in, and even if we are working with kids who are not so little anymore.
Play is the defining feature of human development: the impulse is hardwired into us and can’t be suppressed. It’s crucial that we recognize that while the play impulse is one thing, understanding the nuts and bolts of actually playing is not always so natural, and may require careful cultivation.
That’s why a play-based approach involves both child-initiated and teacher-supported learning. The teacher encourages children’s learning and inquiry through interactions that aim to stretch their thinking to higher levels. There are other foundational thinkers who have built from Piaget’s theories that support this; educators like Montessori and Stanley Greenspan have recognized that the way to teach a child is through their own interests and developed concrete strategies to do so.
For example, while children are playing with blocks, a teacher can pose questions that encourage problem solving, prediction, and hypothesizing. The teacher can also bring the child’s awareness towards mathematics, science, and literacy concepts. How tall can this get? How many blocks do you need? Can you BLOW the house down? Who else does that? These simple questions elevate the simple stacking of blocks to application of learning. Through play like this, children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
Understanding the Value of PlayWhen children engage in real‐life and imaginary activities, play can challenge children’s thinking.
Children learn best through first-hand experiences—play motivates, stimulates and supports children in their development of skills, concepts, language acquisition, communication skills, and concentration.
During play, children use all of their senses, must convey their thoughts and emotions, explore their environment, and connect what they already know with new knowledge, skills and attitudes.
It is in the context of play that children test out new knowledge and theories. They reenact experiences to solidify understanding. And it is here where children first learn and express symbolic thought, a necessary precursor to literacy. Play is the earliest form of storytelling. And, it is how children learn how to negotiate with peers, problem-solve, and improvise.
It is in play that basic social skills—like sharing and taking turns—are learned and practiced. Children also bring their own language, customs, and culture into play. As an added benefit, they learn about their peers’ in the process.
Involvement in play stimulates a child’s drive for exploration and discovery. This motivates the child to gain mastery over their environment, promoting focus and concentration. It also enables the child to engage in the flexible and higher-level thinking processes deemed essential for the 21st century learner.
These include inquiry processes of problem solving, analyzing, evaluating, applying knowledge and creativity.
Finally, play supports positive attitudes toward learning. These include imagination, curiosity, enthusiasm, and persistence. The type of learning processes and skills fostered in play cannot be replicated through traditional rote learning, where the emphasis is on remembering facts.
Play-Based Learning and Executive FunctionChildren are naturally motivated to play. A play-based program builds on this motivation, using it as a context for learning. In this framework, children can explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways. They also expand their executive function skills by practicing their ability to retain information—like where the butterfly was in the spread of memory cards, who had the “4” in Go Fish, and what color card they have and need for in UNO.
When students play games that involve strategy, they have an opportunity to make plans, and then to adjust those plans in response to what happens during gameplay.
This engages other critical executive function skills like inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Think Battleship, checkers, tick-tack-toe, or Hide-and-Go-Seek; these games have children develop a plan and adjust on the fly in response to the other player.
Teachers can provide opportunities for students to build their executive function skills through meaningful social interactions and fun games—including activities as common as checkers, Simon Says, and I Spy. Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child offers lots of great ideas for children at different ages.
Play and the Value of Active LearningPlay-based learning is an important way to develop active learning. Active learning means using your brain in lots of ways. When children play, they explore the world—and build on their understanding of the natural and social environments around them.
On the physical level, kids work on both gross and fine motor development through play.
Students working in a play-based classroom explore spatial relationships and hone these important motor capabilities. In fact, it is before the age of 7 years—traditionally known as “pre-academic” age—when children desperately need to have a multitude of whole-body sensory experiences daily in order to develop strong bodies and minds. This is best done outside where the senses can be fully engaged, and young bodies are challenged by the uneven and unpredictable, ever-changing terrain—but a well-equipped, thoughtfully set-up classroom can be just as effective.
Children build language skills while developing content knowledge. Plus, cooperative experiences provide children the opportunity to cultivate social skills, competencies, and a disposition to learn.
Play also builds self-esteem. Children are most receptive to learning during play and exploration and are generally willing to persist in order to learn something new or solve a problem.
The experience of successfully working through something new or challenging helps kids gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
And a big winner in play is Social development. Interpersonal skills like listening, negotiating, and compromising are challenging for 4- and 5-year-olds (as well as older kids and adults). Through play, children get to practice social and language skills, think creatively, and gather information about the world through their senses. Think about the games that students come up with on their own—they are creative, often intricate, and their “rules” always have to be negotiated.
Games and GamificationSome educators regard the time kids spend socializing with their friends while gaming online as the salvation during the COVID-19 pandemic, or in any scenario where a child might experience barriers to in-person socialization. In addition to the social connections, there is an increased understanding that video games can actually improve kids’ remote learning.
As educators we know that using student’s passions to engage them in learning is critical and kids love games. Done right, gaming and gamification of games can engage both intrinsic (pleasure and fulfillment) and extrinsic (recognition and rewards) motivation.
Teachers help enhance play-based learning by creating environments in which rich play experiences are available. The act of being a teacher is recognizing the goals of education, understanding how learning works, and figuring out how to apply all this to each student, one at a time. Teaching children how to learn is a strong basis for every grade level.
It is pretty clear that students learn through play. Every child. Some use play to explore their world, others to gain language, and on and on and on. In fact, we have also seen that it is a natural impulse—like getting hungry, or crying when upset, children play. So why not lean into it? Find ways to increase the time spent on play in your class.
Whether you create centers for dramatic play, bring in costume boxes, explore problem solving with board games, or design your own multiplication board game or even better, have your students design that game, lean in. Use what is part of a child’s fabric to enhance instruction and learning.
Looking for additional ideas to make your classroom a more hands-on learning environment for your young students? Check out this blog post on Exploring CTE at the Elementary Level Through Play for more outside-the-box inspiration!
Interested in learning more about play-based learning? Check out our OnDemand webinar where we explore this topic in-depth!
This post was originally published October 2019 and has been updated.
Three ways to learn while playing - Pythagorka Intellectual Development Center
The development and education of children has long ceased to be boring and monotonous, today it is possible to acquaint a child with new knowledge in an interesting and bright way.
Board games help to find a balance between a competent approach to learning and a fun childhood. Playing and developing at the same time no longer seems like a difficult task if you have modern board games from the Igroved store at hand.
Dobble is a game for future geniuses
At first glance, the actions you need to perform are extremely simple: you need to find the same cards. This board game is aimed at developing attention, self-control and speed of reaction. "Dobble" has no analogues and its uniqueness is easy to see at the first meeting.
First, the game has no age limit. Even the smallest children with the help of adults will cope with the task. If you show your child a few familiar pictures on cards every day, then pretty soon you will notice that the kid has learned the name of what is shown in the picture. And when the first step is completed, you can show the card and ask the child to find the right image. It is important to remember that children under three years of age are not ready to play Dobble in competitive conditions, a more calm and measured option is possible for them.
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Secondly, the game is useful from a speech therapy point of view. In the process of completing tasks, coordination of speech with movement and the activation of the vocabulary of children develop. To make this condition work better, before the start of the game, you can speak with the guys the names of all the symbols and discuss that the winner will not be the fastest player, but the one who clearly and distinctly named the symbols.
Thirdly, "Dobble" is a real treasure for children, who often cannot remember a word due to excitement. The game perfectly develops a speech reaction and helps the children to concentrate in a particular moment. nine0003
Doble is a game with movable rules that can be adjusted to the desired tasks. Here are some of them:
Formation of the skill of agreeing nouns with possessive pronouns or adjectives. To do this, it is important to talk to the children before the game that when naming a symbol, you need to choose a pronoun and (or) adjective for it.
For example: my big tree, my wooden house, my black blot.
Development of auditory attention. This type of game is necessary for future first graders, because at school almost all information is received orally. To develop this skill, you can lay out 6-10 cards in front of the child and say: "I thought of a card, it shows a car and a dog." The winner is the one who finds this card the fastest. nine0003
Development of visual memory. The task changes slightly: each player receives a card and remembers the symbols depicted on it. Then the cards are turned over. The winner is the one who can remember all the symbols from his card.
Development of fantasy and coherent speech. Each player receives a card and invents a story using the word-symbols depicted on it. This version of the game turns out to be the most exciting and creative.
"Speed Colours" - advanced coloring
Regular coloring books are effective for development but not always attractive for children, so Speed Colors has added modern details to the familiar activity.
This game develops memory, attention, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills in children, and also teaches the child minimal graphic skills and instills accuracy.
It is interesting to spend time doing this activity for both toddlers and older children.
For the little ones, you can use a simplified version of the game: learn colors and learn how to paint pictures. Children especially enjoy the process of erasing drawn lines. Thanks to this opportunity, you can train coloring skills, develop fine motor skills and perseverance without fear of making a mistake. nine0003
Over time, this approach can be diversified and slightly complicate the task. For example, give a child specific instructions and ask them to color a particular part in red or blue. This option will help develop a child's understanding of speech, spatial representations and memory.
Older children can prove themselves in team play. For this format, it is necessary to divide the participants into groups and distribute felt-tip pens.
Each member of the team must paint over a specific detail in the future drawing as soon as possible. The team that completes the task as quickly and accurately as possible wins. This will help the children learn to work together and show leadership abilities. nine0003
Sleeping Queens is a game for real wizards
This board game is designed for elementary and preschoolers. In the process of completing tasks, participants train their oral counting, attention and memory. You can supplement the game in many ways, focusing on the problem area.
In order to develop fantasy, you can come up with additional actions for the main characters. For example, decide what the queen will do after sleep, or think about what she dreamed about. nine0003
To improve memory and attention, another setting is suitable - the rules of transformations. Think with the players about who can transform into whom and under what circumstances. For example, who the dragon will become and why.
In addition, with the help of this game, you can train visual attention. To do this, lay out the cards in front of the children and allow the players to remember them. Then close the cards with a screen and change something in them (quantity, sequence, etc.). When the cards are again in front of the participants, they need to describe all the changes. nine0003
The absence of a tough competitive effect and a calm rhythm make Sleeping Queens an interesting, useful and psychologically comfortable game.
Each of the three games presented is a real treasure for children of all ages who need to learn new things and not sit still. These and many other educational games are presented in the Igroved chain of stores.
Lidia Ozerova
experts explain why games are more useful than educational games and lessons
© Liza Streltsova
Not only screams and chaos, but also a lot of good!
A common complaint about kindergartens, which is regularly found in parental circles, is: "No one works with them there, they just play all day long!".
In the world of adults, the opportunity to roll a car on a carpet all day is considered completely unacceptable (and in vain), but for children, “just playing” is many times more important than any developmental activities. We remind you of this at the beginning of the new school year and explain why. nine0003
When children have the opportunity to play with their peers or parents, their imagination is at full capacity. They constantly come up with new scenarios and ways of playing, adapt to changing conditions and develop creative thinking.
University of Maryland Mental Health Center director Sharon Hoover confirms that "gaming and mental health are linked." Pediatricians and other professionals agree that free play is a normal, healthy, and natural part of a child's development. nine0003
According to Hoover, games are good because they generate “positive feelings, such as joy or excitement, that improve the child's mood and reduce feelings of anxiety and sadness. At the same time, children who did not have enough time to play saw an increase in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and inattention.
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Remember the pleasant feeling of relief and joy when you hear the bell from class? This most exciting moment, when you can leave the classroom and have fun from the heart, run and play with your classmates, is hard to forget. nine0003
The opportunity to play freely with your peers is essential to a child's development and helps him acquire many social skills that will be useful throughout his life.
The current generation of children is looked after much stronger and more carefully than previous generations (well, you yourself know these stories about how children from the age of five used to walk without their parents in the yard, and playgrounds looked more like an army obstacle course). This gives rise to a problem: due to the overprotection of parents, not all children get the opportunity to fill bumps on their own and figure out what is dangerous for them and what is not. nine0003
Free play allows children to test themselves and learn to better manage their bodies, their emotions and their decisions.
The ability to self-regulate is another important stage in a child's development, and free play is a great way to develop it.
When you give children the opportunity to play independently and freely, “they learn to cope with problems, think through their actions to the end and realize their own possibilities. This allows them to feel more confident and less helpless." nine0003
Children are born to play. For them, this is the best way to learn, grow and master new skills. Free play stimulates brain cells, and the game tasks that the child sets for himself make his brain work hard, which contributes to his development.
In general, games (even if they look strange from the outside) are not a waste of time that is needed only in a break between useful activities, this is a useful activity, and, perhaps, one of the most useful for children. So before enrolling a child in thirty circles and sections, “so that he doesn’t get bored,” check if he has enough time just to feed the doll with sand or sculpt dinosaurs from Play-Doh? Because these classes are the most important for him now - it has been proven.
