Play as Curriculum

Authors

Drew Chappell, Chapman UniversityFollow

Files

Description

Play as an academic field comprises multiple disciplines, definitions, and objectives and acknowledges a link between play and learning. Historically and in contemporary societies, play has been used as a teaching methodology; this occurs in formal classroom pedagogy as well as outside the classroom as part of informal and improvisational curriculum. Because play generally includes a component of pleasure, as a methodology it compels entry into learning in a way other practices do not. Yet this playful learning can be problematic, depending on outcomes and structures that define the play/learning experience through narrative and power dynamics. Scholars may analyze various aspects of curricular play, including but not limited to narratives provided, students’ lived experiences within those narratives, actions allowable, objectives and advancement, and sources developing the narratives.

Publication Date

4-26-2023

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Keywords

play, games, improvisation, learningactivities

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Methods | Educational Psychology

Comments

This chapter was originally published in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education in 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1075

Recommended Citation

Chappell, Drew. "Play as Curriculum." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1075

Copyright

Oxford University Press