An evaluation of using playful and non-playful tasks when teaching research methods in adult higher education

ABSTRACT

The use of playfulness in higher education has been considered sparsely when compared to other areas of education, such as primary schools. This paper is an evaluation, and a piece of reflective practice, of teaching a research module to postgraduate students using a combination of playful and non-playful tasks. The evaluation indicates that when initially participating in a playful task, students do not make the links with how it relates to research when compared to non-playful tasks. However, once the playful task is complete, students can relate the task to the research process. For both playful and non-playful tasks, there was a difference in how much students enjoyed participating in them. This could relate to whether the tasks were an individual or group task. There was also a difference in how helpful the playful tasks were, compared with the non-playful tasks, for completing the assignment. This evaluation considers the use of playfulness when teaching not only research, but any subject within higher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflective practice
• reflection
• playfulness
• teaching
• research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplementary data can be accessed here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pete King

Dr Pete King is a Senior Lecturer at Swansea University and programme manager for both the MA in Childhood Studies and MA in Developmental and Therapeutic Play courses. His professional background is in children’s play and playwork and current research is on playworkers understanding of the play cycle. Pete has co-edited with Dr Shelly Newstead the publication ‘Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective’ (Routledge, 2017) and is currently writing a co-authored book with Gordon Sturrock on the Play Cycle. Pete’s research has been published both within the UK and internationally, and is interested in the use of playfulness as a teaching methodology.