Part of the Learning through Play presentations. This session will explore the value of play and how it can enhance student learning in Higher Education. Colleagues from the School of Education invite you to explore the benefits of Play in education in which play challenges assumptions of traditional HE learning and identify ways in which Play can be incorporated into your own teaching.

1. PLAYFUL APPROACHES TO
LEARNING
Julia Davies
FSS Academic Director of Technology Enhanced
Learning

2. 2 IDEAS
• Teacher in role – ‘mantle of the expert’
• Poetic plenaries

3. DOROTHY HEATHCOTE
• ‘Mantle of the expert
• Imaginative Inquiry
• Guide on the Side
• Collaboration
• Teacher does not have an
answer in mind
• Teacher provides resources
and information
• Students ask questions, so
does the teacher.

4. FORMAT
• Pre-session readings
• Arrival at the session – teacher in role
• Students assume roles – taken into the ‘as if’ scenario
• Groups of students take on one role per group
• Students gradually understand what is happening
• Prepare discussion in groups
• Debate ensues
• Time to reinforce and re-collect
• Debate continues
• Vote

5. Preparation at home – readings, video and PowerPoint – new ideas,
complex but a range of modes to explore.

6. ROLE PLAY
• Arrival at the session and
teacher in role
• Confusion and excitement

7. ROLES
• Headteacher - Lecturer
• Governors – Local councillors
• Governors – Local business employers
• Parents 1 – traditional
• Parents 2 – innovative, entrepreneurial
• Student Council reps – keen kids
• Teachers – old school, values basics
• Teachers – young, inexperienced, nervous – but
enthusiastic

9. ‘TEACHER IN ROLE’
• Adopting the mantle of the expert
• Collaborating to gain confidence
• Collaborating to develop ideas
• Rehearsal of ‘ways of being’
• Taking on different viewpoints
• Articulating arguments
• Adopting formal language

10. POETIC PLENARIES
• Feedback from groups in poetic style – e.g. haiku;
rhyming couplet.
• Feedback as Tweets – everyone can participate using #
• Skills: crystallising main points; concision; practice for
participating in academic networking