Slides from talk at Interacting Minds Center, AU on Playful Education: http://interactingminds.au.dk/events/single-events/artikel/imc-seminar-talk-by-yishay-mor-and-rikke-toft-noergaard/

1. Principles - Patterns -
Processes - Pedagogy
for
Playful Education
Director Yishay Mor, Centre for Innovation and
Excellence in Teaching, Levinsky
Associate Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård, Center for
Teaching Development and Digital Media, AU
goo.gl/F8ktRD

2. Foreword:
How it all began & will play out

3. Agenda
1. Setting the scene
a. Motivation of the talk: Troubles in education
b. Getting a vocabulary: Playful education
2. In search of a framework for new educational futures
a. Principles
b. Patterns
c. Processes
d. Pedagogies
3. Worked example: Game.Play.Design: ReThink
4. Future work
5. Discussion

4. Chapter 1: Setting the scene
Troubling Trends vs. Playful
Education

5. Motivation of the talk:
3 Troubling trendsin
education
1. THE LESSON: The contemporary default pedagogy of schooling (Thomson et al 2016)
The banking model of education - transmission of information (Freire 1974)
Curriculum objective, specific learning goals, training & tests, schooling ‘systems’
Makes education into a ‘non-place’ like airports or supermarkets & makes the learner into a
de-humanised ‘no-body’
The default pedagogy promotes the non-place tendency - children and young people come to be seen
primarily as outcomes and levels, a curriculum is something to be delivered in order to produce this data,
and teacher-student and student-student relationships are merely means to league-tabled ends
(Thomson 2016)

6. 2. THE SURFACE: Only what can be observed - focus on visible acts of learning
Educational ‘systems’ promotes a culture of ‘circuitboard thinking’ & ‘theorycrafting’ where
students learn to focus on and move most efficiently within the ‘rule structure’ or ‘game
system’ of education to produce visible acts of learning
This carries within it the inherent danger of growing and promoting a ‘gaming-the-system’ mind-set to both
academic practice and work. In many ways these mind-sets and approaches resemble the ones found
within early ‘gamification’ where ‘Points, Badges, and Leaderboards’ (PBL) dominated the discourse and
practice. (Nørgård, Whitton & Toft-Nielsen 2016)
(instead: meaningful choices, student ‘voice’ & academic value)
Motivation of the talk:
3 Troubling trendsin
education

7. 3. THE SYSTEM: Playing it safe & playing to win: ‘gaming the system’ & ‘not to learn but to
be assessed’
Everything becomes an assesment moment (eyes on the outcome - don’t fail!)
When thinking we will be judged, we tend to avoid risk (play it safe - don’t ask!)
Within education today, increased focus on quantifiable performance and assessment results is creating
an emerging learning culture characterized by fear of failing, avoidance of risk-taking, and increases in
extrinsic motivation and goal-oriented behaviours. This approach to education is performed and
experienced by learners and teachers alike (Nørgård, Whitton, Toft-Nielsen 2016)
(instead: learning moments, ideational learning, boldness, transgression)
Motivation of the talk:
3 Troubling trendsin
education

8. Sidenote: assessment =
feedback vs. assessment
= judgement
Black & Wiliam, Hattie - formative assessment (feedback / feedforward)
drives learning, summative assessment (measurement of achievement)
impedes learning.
Gee: video games are characterized by constant feedback.
Play - conversation with a constructed situation. Constantly assessing
ourselves, never judging.

9. Yes, but.. gaming
the system is also
learning
To game the system you need to understand it.
You develop high-level problem solving, risk management & creativity
skills
diSessa: design for the unexpected; Python escapes the classroom

10. Beyond ‘transmission’ ‘surface’ &
system’?
From gamification to gameful design
Gamification: “The use of game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding et al.
2011). A set of concrete, specified means. ⇒ Adding a gamified layer / gamification plugin
on top of an existing activity: PBL-gamification. Or: “Chocolate-covered broccoli 2.0”.
Problem: Point-based incentive systems can undermine internally motivated learning.
Gameful design: Defined by an end; the design of affording “gamefulness” - the
experiential qualities characteristic for gameplay - in non-game contexts. (Deterding, 2015).
Problem: Goal-oriented, systemic thinking, rule-bound gameworlds, perfecting gameplay:
Huizinga: serious play is ‘false play’ / ‘profane play’ = loss of playfulness

11. Playful education:
Games or play?
Apollonian structures
Rule-bound
Ludus mode/mood: progression
Mental / rational: figuring out
Chess, narrative, RPG
Rules, structure, system, functions
Individual, personal
Figuring things out
Perfection
The system is monologic dictator
Dionysian improvisations
Free-form
Paidia mode/mood: emergence
Bodily / sensuous: acting out
Dance, improvisation, Wii
Rhythm, nature, process, senses
Collective, communal
Being in flux
Tentative / iterative
The player is monologic anarchist
Rule-bound gaming & Free-form playing Towards playful education

12. Playful education:
Not play but playful
“Playfulness is a way of engaging with particular contexts and objects that is
similar to play but respects the purposes and goals of that object or context”
“What we want is the attitude of play without the activity of play. We need to
take the same stance towards things, the world, and others that we take
during play. But we should not play: rather, we should perform as expected in
that (serious) context and with that (serious) object. We want play without
play. We want playfulness - the capacity to use play outside the context of
play”
(Miguel Sicart, Play Matters, 2014)

13. Playful education
is open-ended
Free play differs from open-ended play, as it stresses the freedom children have to
play with whatever whenever they want.
Open-ended play somewhat restricts children in their free play as it offers
objects with design intentions.
The challenge for open-ended play is to develop designs that are specific and easy to
understand but also general enough to encourage imagination and creativity in how to
use them.
(de Valk, L., Bekker, T. and Eggen, B., ‘Leaving room for improvisation’, 2013)

14. Playful education
is open-ended
Open-ended education emerges through a superposition of the apollonian and the
dionysian as
• reflection & intuition,
• rationality & passion,
• intentionality & improvisation,
• individuality & collectivity,
• thinking & tinkering
becomes interlocked, entangled, and fused. What traditionally has tended to be dichotomy
between free-form affective tinkering and rule-bound cerebral thinking is merged in open-ended
education (Nørgård & Paaskesen 2016, p. 6)

15. (Dettmer 2005, p. 73)
Playful education
is ideational

16. Core concepts for
playful education:
The magic circle (Huizinga)
“The magic circle” is a metaphor for the creation of a specific social situation, in which
participants across a virtual boundary into a secondary world or a ‘playspace’. This
playspace is beyond profane seriousness and profane codes of practice, moral and ethical
structures, and ways of being
This also means that the circle is not something that is not either intact or broken, but rather
is a “fuzzy social process”, a boundary between the real world and the play-world (Remmele
& Whitton: 2014). The magic circle is then a liminal space - a sacred space
The boundary of a liminal space is based on an implicit agreement between those engaged
in play / the players. This is essential in order to preserve the sacred reality. In doing so, we
adopt what is called a lusory attitude.

17. Core concepts for
playful education:
The magic circle (Huizinga)
The magic circle is interesting for education: Because it allows us to imagine a
different kind of learning environment. Namely a safe, collaborative place, in
which learners can take control, take risks and where failure and mistake-making
is not only accepted, but customary.
Within this magic circle the learners can together conjure alternative futures and
new worlds/words to explore new ways of being, doing and knowing through
integrating lusory attitudes and engaging education playfully

18. Core concepts for
playful education:
The lusory attitude (Frissen et al)
Ludification of culture: playful attitudes, practices, and objects coming together
in ludic worldviews that are potentially transgressive, sacred, revolutionary
(Raessens 2006 & 2014)
Lusory attitude: playfulness is no longer restricted to childhood, but has become
a lifelong attitude (Frissen et al 2015, p. 10)
Ludic technologies always embody freedom (Frissen et al 2015, p, 38)

19. • freedom to be playful, freedom to make decisions, freedom towards the world
• contains its own course and meaning - being in and out of control
• being playful is beyond profane seriousness - in the act of play, profane reality is
enriched by a layer of sacred seriousness
• being playful can become a genuine medium of scholarly inquiry into the roots of
philosophical activity (Frissen et al 2015, p. 24)
• playing with the rules - playing with worlds - participatory cultures
• potential ‘rite de passage’: a room for new combinations of actions and thoughts -
views of alternative models for living
Core concepts for
playful education:
The lusory attitude (Frissen et al)

20. Core implications
for
playful education:
Playful education entails freedom to be playful, freedom to make decisions, freedom
towards the world
Playful education contains its own course and meaning
Playful education is beyond profane seriousness - in the act of being playful, profane reality
is enriched by a layer of sacred seriousness
Playful education become a genuine medium of scholarly inquiry into the roots of
philosophical activity (Frissen et al 2015, p. 24)
Playful education play with the rules - play with/in worlds - is participatory culture
Playful education as ‘rite de passage’: a room for new combinations of actions and thoughts
- views of alternative models for knowing, being & doing

21. Chapter 2: Frameworks
In search of an epistemic
infrastructure

22. New educational futures?
Presenting design principles
Episteme -> Techne; Values & ideals -> Imperatives
‘‘...an intermediate step between scientific findings, which must be generalized and
replicable, and local experiences or examples that come up in practice. Because of the
need to interpret design-principles, they are not as readily falsifiable as scientific laws.
The principles are generated inductively from prior examples of success and are
subject to refinement over time as others try to adapt them to their own experiences”
(p. 83). Bell, Hoadley, and Linn (2004)

23. Design Principle
Structure
Instruction
General rationale
Theoretical underpinnings
Implementation details & considerations
Links
Kali, Y.; Levin-Peled, R. & Dori, Y. J. (2009), 'The role of design-principles in
designing courses that promote collaborative learning in higher-education',
Computers in Human Behavior 25 (5), 1067 - 1078

24. Example principles
“Identify opportunities for transgressive play”
temporarily letting go of social rules; entering a transitional space where boundaries
can be pushed and roles explored
“Provide choices and consequences in simulated worlds”
“Differentiate roles and distribute expertise in multiplayer games”
Squire, K.; Jenkins, H.; Holland, W.; Miller, H.; O'Driscoll, A.; Tan, K. & Todd, K. (2003), 'Design Principles
of Next-Generation Digital Gaming for Education.', Educational Technology 43 (5), 17-23.

25. New educational futures?
Presenting design patterns
Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and
over again in our environment, and then describes the
core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you
can use this solution a million times over, without ever
doing it the same way twice.
— Christopher Alexander Context
Problem Solution
● A three-part rule
● A “thing in the world” and the
process to create that thing

26. Example Design
Pattern: Guess My X
Mor, Y. (2010),
Guess my X
and other
patterns for
teaching and
learning
mathematics,

27. Example:
try once refine
once
Daly, C.; Pachler, N.; Mor,
Y. & Mellar, H. (2010), '
Exploring formative e-
assessment: Using case
stories and design
patterns', Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher
Education 35 (5), 619 -
636.
FOWLER, A., 2014. 4.2. 7
PATTERN: TRY ONCE,
REFINE ONCE. Practical
Design Patterns for
Teaching and Learning with
Technology, p.323.

28. Principles, patterns,
narratives, scenarios
Practice
Values
Theory
Design
Narratives
Design
Patterns
Design
Scenarios
Design
Principles

29. Read all about it..
Warburton, S. & Mor, Y. (2015), Double Loop Design: Configuring Narratives, Patterns and Scenarios in the Design of
Technology Enhanced Learning, in Yishay Mor; Marcelo Maina & Brock Craft, ed., 'The Art and Science of Learning
Design' , Sense publishers, Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei
Mor, Y.; Cook, J.; Santos, P.; Treasure-Jones, T.; Elferink, R.; Holley, D. & Griffin, J. (2015), Patterns of practice and
design: Towards an agile methodology for educational design research, in Gráinne Conole; Tomaz Klobucar; Christoph
Rensing; Johannes Konert & Élise Lavoué, ed., 'Design for Teaching and Learning in a Networked World' , Springer, , pp.
605-608
Mor, Y. (2013), SNaP! Re-using, sharing and communicating designs and design knowledge using Scenarios, Narratives
and Patterns, in Rosemary Luckin; Peter Goodyear; Barbara Grabowski; Sadhana Puntambekar; Niall Winters & Joshua
Underwood, ed., 'Handbook of Design in Educational Technology' , Routledge, , pp. 189-200

30. New educational futures?
Presenting signature pedagogy
Signature pedagogy
“A signature pedagogy has three dimensions. First, it has a surface structure, which consists
of concrete operational acts of teaching and learning [...] Any signature pedagogy also has
a deep structure, a set of assumptions about how best to impart a certain body of
knowledge and know-how. And it has an implicit structure, a moral dimension that
comprises a set of beliefs about professional attitudes, values, and dispositions” (Shulman
2005, p. 54-55)
“...one thing is clear: signature pedagogies make a difference. They form habits of the head,
heart, hand [...] Whether in a lecture hall or a lab, in a design studio or a clinical setting,
the way we teach will shape how professionals behave - and in a society so dependent
on the quality of its professionals, that is no small matter” (Shulman 2005, p. 59)

31. New educational futures?
Presenting signature
pedagogy
Signature pedagogy
Horizontally: A particular discipline (‘Pedagogy of the Professions’ Shulman, 2005)
Ways of teaching & learning cutting across institutions within a particular discipline, e.g. law
(case dialogues) or design (design studio crits)
Vertically: A distinctive practice (‘Signature pedagogy / powerful pedagogy: The Oxford
tutorial system in the humanities’ Horn, 2013)
Ways of teaching & learning which have such influence that they may in themselves shape
disciplines e.g. ‘GO-IT’ or ‘playful education’ or ‘PAC’

32. New educational futures?
Presenting signature
pedagogy
Signature pedagogies = ‘habits of mind’: the ways of thinking, doing, being in education (as
teacher / student and subsequently in the world (as professional / citizen)
‘I would argue that such pedagogical signature can teach us a lot about the personalities,
dispositions, and cultures of their fields’ (Shulman 2005, p. 52-53)
‘To the extent that we identify signature pedagogies, we find modes of teaching and learning
that are not unique to individual teachers, programs, or institutions’ (Shulman 2005, p. 54)
=> e.g. ‘playful teaching and learning’
‘We came to see, on the basis of our cumulative findings about creative practice, that there
were something as distinctive about creative pedagogies as a handwritten signature’
(Thomson et al 2012) - this might also go for playful pedagogies

33. New educational futures?
Presenting signature
pedagogy
Signature pedagogy?
...entail public student performance (actively performing their role)
‘This emphasis on students’ active performance reduces the most significant impediments to learning in
higher education: passivity, invisibility, anonymity, and lack of accountability’ (Shulman 2005, p. 57)
...pedagogies of uncertainty - create atmosphere of risk taking, foreboding, exhilaration,
excitement (...designing intentional change in an unpredictable world)
‘When the emotional content of learning is well sustained, we have a real possibility of pedagogies
of formation - experiences of teaching and learning that can influence the values, dispositions,
and characters of those who learn’ (Shulman 2005, p. 57-58)

34. Signaturepedagogy
Surface structures:
concrete operational acts of
teaching & learning
Deep structures:
Assumptions about ‘how to’
Implicit structures:
habits, ethics, values & ‘why’
Pedagogica
l patterns:
mechanics
of playful
Signature
pedagogy:
methods of
teaching e.g.
‘playful teaching
& learning’
Pedagogies of
formation:
experiences of
education shaping
the student’s head,
hand & heart
“Signature pedagogy in the professions” (Shulman,
2005)

35. Chapter 3: Frameworks in use
Worked Example

36. 3. An example of playful
education:
Game.Play.Design: ReThink
Game.Play.Design: ReThink
(playful courses, processes and
pedagogies)
The Public Library Exam-Exhibition
(playful assessment & evaluation)
House of Game//Play Education Lab
(playful activities, principles and
patterns)

37. Introduction to the
case
The aim:
The outcome:
The 4 weeks: Theorizing, Empathizing, Conceptualizing, Finalizing
Group examples: Designing for ‘games that hurt’ & ‘inter-generational
bonkersness’

38. Theorizing the domain
through playing with
theory
Empathizing with people
through playing in the
world
Conceptulizing the design
through playing with
ideas
Finalizing the knowledge
be dis-playing sacred
worlds/words
Growing playfulness: from ‘what’ to ‘why’ through ‘how’ - processes

39. playfully curious (divergent thinking / imagination - the new & unknown) - digging in the dirt
playfully courageous (inclusion / diversity - the different & strange) - intercultural togetherness
playfully critical & creative (dialogue / reflection - the wise & sacred) - painful play / playful pain
playfully co-operative (sharing / remixing - the global & collective) - becoming bonkers in the world
A playful pedagogy:
Subverting troubling
tendencies

40. Transgressing existing borders & conventions to grow more playful. To (re)imagine the impossible as
possible on the grounds of teaching/learning that is
• playfully curious (divergent thinking / imagination - the new & unknown) - digging in the dirt
• playfully courageous (inclusion / diversity - the different & strange) - intercultural togetherness
• playfully critical & creative (dialogue / reflection - the wise & sacred) - painful play / playful pain
• playfully co-operative (sharing / remixing - the global & collective) - becoming bonkers in the world
through creating education aimed at shaping the hand - the head - the heart. Educating future
citizens/professionals, enabling them to critically challenge/change the normative assumptions of what
counts as ‘proper’ in relation to being, doing & knowing (playful revolutions / radical literacy).
pedagogy:
Subverting
troubling
tendencies

41. Things emerging from the practice of playful education
Magic circles to become daring/adventurous and go into the world beyond the classroom / campus /
confinements of education - playing outside
Lusory attitudes & actions to be empowered agents that create educational spectacles/events - dis-play
Ludic collectives to construct alternative belongings together: silliness, children, pain, passion, topophilia-
Participatory Academic Communities (Aaen & Nørgård 2015) - playing together
Sacred/professional play to become virtuous academic citizens beyond assessment (Nixon 2008) - making
education matter - playful commitment
Open-ended playfulness: no endpoint, no endings - being(s) in play with worlds/words
A playful pedagogy:
Subverting troubling
tendencies

42. A playful pedagogy:
Subverting troubling tendencies
Playful education: Becoming someone doing something somewhere to conjure sacred worlds/words
Freedom to fail: To undertake activities that are not successful in the first instance without fear of reprisal
or repercussions. Playfully becoming someone through courage: try-fail-try (THE ITERATIVE LOOPS)
Freedom to experiment: Provides the space to create and invent things, develop ideas, test theories and
experiment (in a context where failure is okay). Playfully making something with curiosity: make-
wonder-make (THE DIVERGENT-CONVERGENT DESIGN PROCESS)
Freedom of effort: Being able to decide how much effort to devote to play at any given time. Playing fully
with something, then falls back to relax and rest. Playfully belonging somewhere through cycles: build-
dwell-build (THE OPEN EDUCATION LAB & EXAM EXHIBITION)
Freedom of interpretation: Learning about the world at the same time as learning with/in the world, and
interpreting the meanings of actions and activity within the play space. Playfully knowing the
world/word through construction: world-word-world (ACADEMIC CITIZENSHIP &
SACRED/VIRTUOUS BILDUNG)
(Building on Klopfer, Osterweil & Salen: 2009 + Whitton, 2014)

43. From pedagogy to
principles
Establish a Lusory contract
Adopt a lusory attitude to teaching
Set tasks with lusory requirements
Create a magic circle
Set tasks where failure is a legitimate option
Establish a clear contract about what comes in / goes out

44. Lusory task
requirements
“We are going to ship your prototype to India for QA. Please
package it carefully and include clear testing procedures”

45. Failure is a
legitimate option
Prototype testing in public space
You don’t know if it will work (that’s the whole point..)
I don’t know if it will work (I would tell you if I did)
If it doesn’t, you’re back to the drawing board
Oh, and we’re doing this ourselves (MODELLING)

46. The line of the
circle:
porous but clear
(and expanding)
Closed facebook group, open to scholarly / design / social
activities
Open twitter streams, by informed consent
Constant feedback, no judgement
Experiment in the world, reflect in class, respect privacy
Start closed, end open

47. Design patterns for
playful education
Breakable rules, unknown outcomes
Prepare - simulate - go real
Stick to their story

48. Breakable rules,
unknown outcomes
IN a small course, diverse participants, working in groups
You WANT TO afford participants a freedom to experiment and freedom
to interpret, you want to inspire Bildung,
BUT
You need to provide some structure, some scaffolding, a shared
experience

49. Breakable rules,
unknown outcomes
THEREFORE,
Provide activities which have clear rules of process - but not of outcome.
Stress that the only criterion for the outcome is that it is coherent,
consistent with THEIR STORY, and exciting
Note that this rule overrides the process rules.

50. Prepare - simulate -
go real
IN a course where the final outcome is publicly presented, you
WANT TO allow participants to playfully become someone,
through playfully making something and playfully knowing the
world/word.
BUT play is foreign to prior serious educational experiences, not
associated with being, making, knowing. Playing in the real world
created tensions of face, identity, performance.

51. Prepare - simulate -
go real
THEREFORE,
Break down “big” public performances into smaller tasks.
Facilitate these tasks through time-boxed iterations.
Interleave simulations of the public performance.

52. Stick to their story
IN a course where participants learn through group projects, you want to
facilitate their freedom to experiment and freedom to interpret, allowing
them to playfully become someone through playfully making something.
BUT Bildung requires sustaining a critical and rigorous stance. Freedom
and playfulness does not mean “anything goes”.

53. Stick to their story
THEREFORE,
Sequence activities that guide participants through formulating their story: the
context in which their project is situated, the actors that inhibit it, their
concerns and resources.
Point to gaps or inconsistencies in their story.
Assess (provide feedback) participants choices, actions and products in
reference to their story.

54. Chapter 4:
Future Work

55. We just started..
We need to:
Consolidate the framework
Articulate the signature pedagogy (inputs from ethnography & philosophy)
Identify, express and validate the principles
Distill and validate the patterns
Map the system

56. EduPLoP.dk
http://eduplop.org/?page_id=98
Sandbjerg Gods, Denmark, 9-13 Nov
Drafting a Design Language for Hybrid Pedagogy

57. Playful learning
network
Research & development, cross-disciplinary & cross-sector conversations.
Exploring the themes of:
Playful learning / teaching
Hybridity
Trans{formitive, gressive, cendal}
Empowerment, emancipation
Critical educational design

58. Epilogue:
Discussion

59. Thank you!
http://xkcd.com/1753/
Rikke Toft Nørgård,
rtoft@tdm.au.dk
Yishay Mor,
yishay.mor@levinsky.a
c.il
goo.gl/F8ktRD