A to Z of Teaching

play in higher education

Play is ‘purposeless’ and ‘voluntary’. If you think it is play, then it is!     

Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the difference from the common world by disguise or other means.

Homo Ludens (1955)

Introducing play in higher education

Recent research and resources

Synonyms:
play
Related articles:
  • Glossary: simulation
    Often associated with role play, but increasingly used in the context of information and communications technology. A learning activity that simulates a real-life scenario requiring participants to make choices that demonstrate cause and effect.
  • Glossary: Vygotsky
    Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Soviet psychologist who developed a Marxist theory of human development.
  • Glossary: mantle of the expert
    A teaching technique in which students are asked to pretend to be experts in a specific topic, and are given a related task to complete.
Categories: Teaching approaches
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