When children engage in play, they develop essential skills like creativity, flexibility, imagination, and problem-solving. Children who engage in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities also build similar skills. Both play and STEAM enable children to ask questions, try different solutions, and develop explanations for…

Arts integration enriches learning experiences by fostering creativity, critical thinking, and emotional expression, thereby enhancing students' overall cognitive and social development.While all students benefit significantly from arts integration, students who struggle in a particular academic area can rediscover their love for learning.…

This article presents explorations of co-choreographing the early years dance pedagogical settings through dialogical and intra-active approaches in the context of artistic research. It discusses how to choreograph the pedagogical settings in such a manner, that the distribution of the artistic agency would become more equal, and the complex…

Playful learning has immense potential and relevance across all educational levels, from early childhood to university settings. However, play is often dismissed as an activity reserved only for young children and is ignored in higher education The purpose of this practitioner article is to share instructional strategies and insights in order to…

This article analyses the educational possibilities of art installations in the training of future early childhood and primary school teachers. I start by reviewing the origins of installation art before presenting an experience designed for teachers based on the creation of scale models and installation experiences. Scale model installations…

Although research supports play for children's learning and development, many teachers and schools do not support play or relinquish it to recess or "If time." Teachers need to experience how they learn through play to advocate for play in their classrooms. It is not enough to say, "play is learning"; they need to learn through…

Purpose: Being "literate" is well established as key to active civic participation, right from the earliest years of life. Young children's natural curiosity and motivation to understand the world and their places within it through playful explorations offers rich opportunities for learning. Reported here are findings from a STEAM…

This paper is a critical systematic literature review of empirical work on creative pedagogies from 1990 to 2018. It responds to the increased international attention being afforded creativity and creative pedagogies in research, policy and practice and examines the evidence regarding creative pedagogical practices and the potential impact of…

A growing evidence base has demonstrated the value of Forest School as an outdoor learning approach which supports a range of benefits including improved physical, social and mental wellbeing, increased confidence and self-esteem and the development of problem-solving skills. However, critics of Forest School have argued that a lack of theoretical…

Play is essential to learning and development in the early childhood years. Young children experiment with new skills through play, which supports the development of new competencies and furthers cognitive development. Nontraditional learning spaces such as teaching and learning gardens provide excellent opportunities for children to engage in…

Despite the many benefits of play, within primary school, play is often reduced to lunch breaks, particularly as children move to higher grades. Loose parts play affords children opportunities to develop imagination and 21st-century skills (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking). As part of a larger project, two Year 4…

Background: Teaching experientially in postsecondary education has challenges; institutional constraints, neoliberal management, and a colonized learning environment. We discuss playing as a form of experiential education. Purpose: We challenge conventional teaching and offer an alternative to enrich and broaden conventional pedagogies. We argue…

This paper contributes to the expanding body of research on Playful Learning (PL) within Higher Education (HE), offering an in-depth examination of narratives concerning student participation and engagement in PL emerging as educators reflect on their experiences with PL in Danish teacher education and social education. In attempt to nuance and…

Young children suffer when schools make inappropriate academic demands, which create anxious and demoralized young learners who feel disinvested in the learning process. Students' mental and physical health suffer from the stress of academically driven environments, and they lose the opportunity to gain the skills that creative play generates.…

As the United States and other countries consider "educational reform," the discussion appears to be primarily about fostering basic skills and content knowledge. Our contention is that this approach is not sufficient. Instead, we argue that for twenty-first century success, we must also foster creativity to prepare today's children to…