Let’s Play Research
Introducing Play in Education, Development and Learning at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University
What does play mean to you?
When was the last time you acted creatively?
Is creativity the grown-up word for play?
Picture yourself when you were a child playing, what were you doing? How did you feel? Who were you with? Play makes us smile, connects us with others and sometimes gets us into scrapes. Play helps us grow. With a stack of cushions, a set of building blocks, pencil and paper or simply our own bodies, we experiment, fail, fall over, laugh, cry, try again, we can create, tear down and rebuild entire worlds. In today’s world of rapidly accelerating change, we hear so many calls for the need for creative-thinking problem-solving resilient people… can play seriously play a role in developing these faculties in childhood and beyond?
Who
Since October 2015, an evolving team of around 25 academics, PhD students and support staff at the centre for research on play in education, development and learning (PEDAL) have been exploring the role of play in children’s lives. PEDAL was founded with funding from the LEGO Foundation who “aim to build a future in which learning through play empowers children to become creative, engaged, lifelong learners”.
Did you know….
the name LEGO comes from the Danish words ‘leg godt’, meaning “play well”
Within Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education, PEDAL is part of the Psychology, Education and Learning Studies research group and collaborates across the university including with the Centre for Family Research. There are three broad research strands: “Play in Early Life” establishes a longitudinal study of play, led by Professor Ramchandani who focuses on the role of play in children’s early development, including parent-child relationships; Dr. Sara Baker, with her interest on factors that can support children’s agency over their own learning, leads “Stepping stones in science” which examines playful approaches in children’s learning in science. “Social play, social lives”, which aims to create a framework for measuring play and explore its role in social and emotional development, is led by Dr. Jenny Gibson, a qualified speech and language therapist who considers the interplay between linguistic and social development, and play as a context for development. Three ESRC-funded postdoctoral fellows are part of the team and the centre also receives funding from the National Institute for Health Research.
What and How
PEDAL aims to conduct world-class research in the area of play, to build capacity in play research, and to influence policy and practice. To achieve this, the centre builds on the existing evidence base and measures of play. Tools and interventions are being designed, developed and shared with caregivers, teachers, and academics to improve the research on play in the UK and developing countries. A cross-disciplinary approach aims to move play research into the mainstream of education and psychology and make it central in the field of child development and learning.
The centre engages well beyond academics using social media, hosting events, and publishing in diverse media. Digestible summaries of research findings are published on the PEDAL hub. In 2020 these followed the simple format Why? How? and What we found. The ‘Healthy Start, Happy Start’ study was summarised in a one-minute YouTube video. Events and seminars are hosted both in person and online with experts from around the world and are made freely available online. As of October 2021, the most viewed video on their YouTube channel is Parenting and Early Childhood in the Pandemic, published in February 2021 as part of TEDxCambridge University’s “The New Normal”. One of their PhD students was featured in a children’s book “Fantastic Jobs and How to Get Them”. Professor Ramchandani participated in a parliamentary event organised by the chair of the Heath and Social Care Committee’s Inquiry into the First 1000 Days on Parents, Play and Emotional Wellbeing and shared a brief on the importance of play and childhood.
Where
From the PEDAL centre in Cambridge, UK, the geographic spread of the research is broad. To name but a few, studies have focused on secondary school students in Britain, the role of play for children aged 3–5 in Ghana, and emotional regulation in 7–10 year olds in a Chinese boarding school. Nevertheless, it can be expected that the majority of PEDAL’s research is UK-based and published in the English language.
We aim to foster a culture of reflexivity in PEDAL whereby we reflect on our own perspectives, biases and assumptions and provide spaces where we can constructively challenge each other in our thinking about play. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21594937.2019.1684144
So what?
While most people recognise that play is an integral part of a happy childhood, there is a lack of scientifically established evidence to support this. PEDAL centre aims to change this. Let’s not forget that babies, children and adults all share the characteristic of being human. What is beneficial for young people is often found to be beneficial for older people too. The benefits of good quality sleep, a balanced diet, and exercise are all proven and accepted. How about play?
Children are teachers and every weekday
Grown-ups go to school to learn how to play
