Sketch: Playful Pedagogies—Collaborations Between Undergraduates and School Pupils in the Outdoor Learning Centre and the Pop-Up “Playscape”

Abstract

A playful approach within HE sometimes involves asking students to literally play or, alternatively, adopting a creative practical approach to help students develop their understanding of challenging concepts and/or encourage them to make clearer links between theory and practice. On Early Childhood Studies, the serious business of play is often at the heart of it. Our aim with outdoor playful learning is to create and maximise the use of enriching environments to inspire our undergraduates involvement in their learning. Playful exploration alongside children and practitioners within the forest brings live critical challenge and in the pop-up playscape designed by students for students, this space realises playful learning afforded even in the most barren of spaces. Indoors, meanwhile, students may be asked to use graffiti art as a means of summarising the key points of a chapter.