Advocacy resource: A Pedagogy of Play
A moving body is a learning body, and a playing body is a learning body.
Play is central to how children learn—the way they form and explore friendships, the way they shape and test hypotheses, and the way they make sense of their world. Much is known about how play supports learning, yet little empirical research has explored what it might mean to put play at the center of formal schooling.
In 2015, Harvard’s Project Zero Pedagogy of Play (PoP) research project began investigating the nature of playful learning in schools. Their new publication, A Pedagogy of Play (free PDF available) shares their findings from asking three questions: Why do educators need a pedagogy of play? What does playful learning look and feel like in classrooms and schools? How do educators set up the conditions where playful learning thrives?