Inclusive playful learning : a realistic means of adapting the role of the teacher and framework to improve playful learning for students with Executive Dysfunction

Abstract

Playful Learning is widely and uncritically used as a panacea to current issues in education such as student disengagement, disenchantment, stress, and anxiety. It is also being used as a pedagogy, to encourage creativity and experimentation, to contribute to what may be considered a 21st century education.

Playful Learning has numerous definitions ranging from “meaningful, joyful, engaging, iterative and socially interactive” through to the succinct “Choice, Wonder and Delight”. Regardless of definition, playful learning appears to assume that all students have the necessary executive functioning skills to access the learning opportunities and that playful learning is thus inherently inclusive.

It is widely accepted that some learners, such as those who have ADHD or Dyslexia, need regularity and consistency. This comes with structured learning experiences that give academic scaffolds to provide a firm footing, where students’ own executive functioning abilities are lacking.

The objective of this study was to explore the commonalities between Learning Through Play, student inclusion needs and IB ATL skills to identify elements of Learning Through Play that work for students with different needs.

Outcomes of conventional playful learning for middle school students are essentially thinking, communication and social skills. The study therefore explored how the IB Approaches To Learning (ATL) skills for Middle Years Programme (MYP) framework could be used to provide a more structured approach to Playful Learning and still achieve the same outcomes.

The study briefly reviewed the IB MYP ATL skills framework (including teaching activities) for thinking, communication and social skills and compared these with Playful Learning principles. The aim of this was to identify commonalities. The study then reviewed these identified commonalities in the light of established needs to be inclusive of all students.

The key findings are that the IB MYP ATL skills framework combined with playful learning opportunities allow for vertical and horizontal articulation that supports students with executive function issues. The outcomes of this study, termed Inclusive Playful Learning (IPL), are recommendations that may be used by teachers and curriculum designers. This is done in terms of reuse of existing systems and does not impose unrealistic financial constraints on mainstream education.