Learning by Playing

EasyChair Preprint 15852

Abstract

Play plays a key role in the development of all human beings; it is a fundamental tool for stimulating the development of thinking, language and the ability to interact with others and with the environment (Bruner, 1976; Piaget, 1945; Vygotskij, 1966; Winnicott, 1971). Many authors in the field of psychology have emphasised the positive values of play (D'Urso 2012), linking it in particular to learning processes and the experience of well-being (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The activity of play has the peculiarity of taking place in a context that is "outside of reality", so that the risk of failure is not perceived as an error, but as one of the possibilities offered by acting through play, which leads to a reformulation, a loss of interest or a shift of attention to another activity (Bruner, 1976). Play is one of the themes of the curriculum in primary education within the Educational Psychology course and it is a topic that needs to be experienced to be fully understood. Started in face-to-face classrooms, the model was then transposed into online experiences. Keeping into consideration the interactive model, it was planned to teach the educational and psychological value of playing activities by using a teaching-learning interactive approach. To address these aims, a research project composed by three studies was conducted. The first study aimed to experience the positive effects of play on individuals well-being in the academic classroom (emotional and social goal). The second study had the purpose to promote the understanding of the positive value of game format in teaching-learning process (cognitive goal) and to reflect on the game experience in order to design play activities for children (metacognitive and learning transfer goals). In the third, the experience was shifted online, offering a screen to screen play practice trough a charade.

Keyphrases: Students' wellbeing, Teaching-learning active method, ability to interact with others, board game, board games, developmental and educational psychology, field of psychology, game experience, learning process cognitive goal, learning processes, play, positive effects of play, teaching-learning process, university students, well-being

@booklet{EasyChair:15852,
  author    = {Paola Nicolini and Veronica Guardabassi and Susanna Iraci},
  title     = {Learning by Playing},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 15852},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2025}}