Alison James - The Power of Play in Higher Education

For some while now theres been an odd assumption about formal education. A curious belief has taken root in the heads of policy-makers and those working in schools and universities that higher levels of study should be a deadpan business with little time for fun. Apparently as you grow up, its important to smile only occasionally and laugh a lot less than when you were younger. A stock rejoinder in any school classroom in response to behaviour which is seen as undesirable is to get on with your work. Not get on with your learning. Definitely not get on with your play. For many children, education can all too easily be a journey of increasing seriousness from the exuberance of the playground to the silence of the examination hall. At university, it is all too easy for a learners spirit of enquiry, playful experimentation and curiosity to be stifled by a misplaced perception that student engagement and student satisfaction will only be achieved if courses are delivered in certain unplayful ways.

In Descartes Error (2005), Antonio Damasio famously placed Ren Descartes in the dock for separating mind from body back in the sixteenth century. With the benefit of modern neuroscience, we now know that emotion, reason and the human brain are all intimately linked and that the philosophical assertions made by Descartes and others simply do not wash. Yet education still bears the mark of viewpoints like this in its separation between academic and practical learning, the former being of higher status.

Something similar has happened with the way play has been separated out from education, although this is not down to any one individuals influence. Rather, it has been a gradual cultural evolution towards a more serious version of learning. In early years, education play is virtually synonymous with learning. But, as pupils become older, play is increasingly removed from the experience of school. And, once at university, play can all too often be seen as unserious suggesting a lack of quality. Yet for some while now the learning sciences (Harrington 1990; Csikszentmihalyi 1999; Fullan and Langworthy 2013; Lucas and Spencer 2017) are increasingly showing us the importance of creative exploration, playful imagining and the kinds of perspective taking which play promotes throughout education.

Outside of school and university, life is also becoming less playful. Once upon a time, we used to run wild, returning to our homes only to be fed by our parents before heading back out again for second helpings of wildness and fun. Or at least this is the dream of the past that many of us still hold dear.

Sadly our memories on this occasion hold true. Todays young people do indeed have less freedom to play, more tests to complete, a lot of homework (that word work again) and, if they enter higher education, a growing seriousness of intent as the amount of their financial investment becomes apparent. Such a serious view is reinforced by many institutions in their perception that quality is to be judged by the earnestness with which every waking student moment is filled with useful assignments.