Learning through play: a review of the evidence
Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Notes from Learning through play whitepaper
“Learning through play is about continuity; bringing together children’s spheres of life - home, school and the wider world, and doing so over time.”
“Learning through play happens through joyful, actively engaging, meaningful, iterative, and socially interactive experiences.”
“Learning through play supports overall healthy development, acquisition of both content (e.g., math) and learning-to-learn skills (e.g., executive function)”
“Attaining key content and facts is important for school and life, but children also need a deep, conceptual understanding that allows them to connect concepts and skills, apply their knowledge to different situations, and spark new ideas (Winthrop & McGivney, 2016; Frey, Fisher, & Hattie, 2016)”
“ When playing together, children are not just having fun but are building skills of communication and collaboration.”
“A game of hide-and-seek helps them to manage feelings about the unknown while also helping them to think about what other people know and see. Beyond enjoyment, playful experiences have the potential to give children the skills they will need in the future that go beyond facts. As we discuss more fully below, playful experiences appear to be a powerful mechanism that help children not only to be happy and healthy in their lives today but also develop the skills to be the creative, engaged, lifelong learners of tomorrow.”
“First, research in the last few decades has repeatedly shown that the different domains of development are not silos as much as they are interconnected gears: development in one area can influence development in another. For example, physical development lays the foundation for later cognitive and social skills.”
“Importantly, lessons from neuroscience also tell us that learning is dynamic and not easily divisible into separate and independent mental processes.”
“For example, executive function - a suite of abilities that includes working memory, the ability to inhibit impulses, and switch attention between tasks or rule sets - has been shown to relate to a variety of academic skills including math and literacy. Some studies have even found that children’s impulse control in preschool predicts a wide range of outcomes in adolescence and adulthood, including higher SAT scores, better health, and lower rates of substance abuse.”