Playful Education

Children are natural scientists, artists, mathematicians, authors, and scholars. From the time they are born they seek out information about the world around them in an effort to construct meaning and further their development. While children have an inherent drive to make sense of their reality, parents have a unique opportunity to harness their children’s curiosity and channel it into a love of learning. Playful learning is the magic that takes place when we meld a child’s sense of joy and wonder with thoughtfully planned learning experiences. Through easy-to-implement, hands-on projects you can engage your child in fun and creative ways that encourage learning and impart the joy of discovery. With a little bit of information and forethought, you can play a pivotal role in the cognitive and creative development of your child Mariah Bruehl has worked in the field of education for over a decade. She has taught in the classroom, developed curriculum in many different subject areas, trained teachers, and implemented programs across many grade levels. She is the mother of two girls and the owner of Playful Learning—a retail space and education center in Sag Harbor. Learn more at www.playfulearning.com.

Every early years practitioner should be able to captivate and maintain the interest of young children in their setting, through the provision of a playful learning experience. Covering age ranges 3-8 years, this textbook explores the importance of infusing playfulness throughout the entire early years day, and includes chapters that: establish the core principles underpinning playful teaching and learning help students and practitioners understand how playfulness can be applied to all aspects of the early years curriculum including mathematics, literacy, outdoor environments, science & technology, and ICT explore core issues in early years provision including observing, planning & assessment, and how they relate to playful learning emphasise the role and qualities of the playful professional. This is a fantastic resource for any student or practitioner looking to enrich the lives of young children through meaningful playful learning experiences.

Informed by international research along with contrasting perspectives on different forms of play, this book emphasises the importance of play to children, and the opportunities that play provides for learning and development.

In the fast-changing field of education, the incorporation of game-based learning has been increasing in order to promote more successful learning instruction. Improving the interaction between learning outcomes and motivation in games (both digital and analog) and promoting best practices for the integration of games in instructional settings are imperative for supporting student academic achievement. Global Perspectives on Gameful and Playful Teaching and Learning is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications that explore the cognitive and psychological aspects underpinning successful educational video games. While highlighting topics including nontraditional exercise, mobile computing, and interactive technologies, this book is ideally designed for teachers, curriculum developers, instructional designers, course designers, IT consultants, educational software developers, principals, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the design and integration of game-based learning environments.

This book introduces three new subjects to the context of literacy research—play, the imaginary, and improvisation—and proposes how to incorporate these important concepts into the field as research methods in order to engage people, materials, spaces, and imaginaries that are inherent in every research encounter. Grounded in cutting-edge theory, chapters are structured around lived narratives of research experiences, demonstrating key practices for unsettling and expanding the ways people interact, behave, and construct knowledge. Through an exploration of difference, play, and the imaginary, authors Medina, Perry, and Wohlwend present an active set of practices that acknowledges and attends to the global, fragmented, politicized contexts in literacy research. This book provides researchers and literacy education scholars with rich and clear theoretical foundations and practical tools to engage in literacy research in ethical, creative, and responsive ways. The authors invite readers to play by exploring the ways in which pedagogical, research, artistic, and other creative contexts can be sites to examine identity, plurality, and difference. Chapters feature innovative elements such as author dialogues that make visible how the authors engage with the ideas they present; guiding questions to prompt reflection and conversation; playful invitations to share possibilities of play in real-world contexts; and stories and practices to ground the conceptual and playful inquiry.

This timely and accessible text introduces, theorises and practically applies two important concepts which now underpin early years practice: those of ‘playful learning' and 'playful pedagogies'. Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt draw upon filmed material, conversations with children, reflection, observation, and parental and staff interviews, in their longitudinal study of outdoor and indoor play environments in an early years unit. This research-based text offers extensive insights into related theories, as well drawing on the authors’ skills and knowledge as researcher and as class teacher in order to provide opportunities for personal reflection and possibilities for practical application in early years classes and settings. Discussing both indoor and outdoor environments, the text explores ideas surrounding ‘open-ended play’, and ‘the whatever you want it to be place’. It illustrates how the themes of children’s play reflect their interests, experiences, knowledge gained at home and in school, and their cultural heritages. By showing how children become familiar and skilful within open-ended play environments, the authors illustrate how the children’s co-operative skills develop over time as they become connected in communities of learners. Alongside the examples of children’s playful learning, the book also considers the implications for resourcing and organising playful settings through playful pedagogies that connect with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (DfES 2007) and with the Tickell Review, ongoing as the book went to press. Understanding Young Children's Learning through Play uses children’s perspectives on their play to illustrate how rich their personal understandings are. It also includes parental reflections on what may initially appear a risky and unusual outdoor environment, and it draws attention to the importance of conflict resolution in play in order to extend children’s resilience and assertiveness. This insightful text will be of interest to students of early years education, early years practitioners, academics and researchers.

The Agency by Design guide to implementing maker-centered teaching and learning Maker-Centered Learning provides both a theoretical framework and practical resources for the educators, curriculum developers, librarians, administrators, and parents navigating this burgeoning field. Written by the expert team from the Agency by Design initiative at Harvard's Project Zero, this book Identifies a set of educational practices and ideas that define maker-centered learning, and introduces the focal concepts of maker empowerment and sensitivity to design. Shares cutting edge research that provides evidence of the benefits of maker-centered learning for students and education as a whole. Presents a clear Project Zero-based framework for maker-centered teaching and learning Includes valuable educator resources that can be applied in a variety of design and maker-centered learning environments Describes unique thinking routines that foster the primary maker capacities of looking closely, exploring complexity, and finding opportunity. A surge of voices from government, industry, and education have argued that, in order to equip the next generation for life and work in the decades ahead, it is vital to support maker-centered learning in various educational environments. Maker-Centered Learning provides insight into what that means, and offers tools and knowledge that can be applied anywhere that learning takes place.