Teacher Tip: Learning Through Play

Here is the software I use to make my videos: Where I get my background music: The microphone I use: Subscribe to Tolentino Teaching for online teaching resources: My favorite books on writing: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker: How to Argue with a Cat by Jay Hendrichs: The Elements of Style Fourth Edition: On Writing Well by William Zinsser: My Social Media Links Instagram: Facebook: Twitter: **Disclaimer: Tolentino Teaching is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and AWIN, affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to and American social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, said “deep play precedes deep work.” What makes “deep play” so special, according to Rifkin, is that the activities that elicit deep play are an end in themselves. The end result is joy and actual revelation.” Author Diane Akerman says that “the deepest states of play sweep you up and make you feel balanced, creative and focused.” Getting students into a playful state of flow not only helps students focus, but, according to research “enables a state of balance that leaves students poised to play some more.” This means that when play and learning intersect you get intrinsic motivation. (Teaching and the Human Brain, Geoffrey Caine) Fostering playful flow in the classroom is easy to theorize, but difficult to enact. A study in 2009 by Bolton and Houlihan found that if playfulness is used as a mechanism for engagement or creative enhancement, it will be seen as disingenuous and an act of coercion--a technique to control students. Therefore, when teachers embody genuine playfulness, they become a model of how students should learn--and their playfulness becomes contagious. And when teachers act playful and feign interest in learning as part of a technique or best practice, students resist. Bulgarian researcher Lozanov says the teacher’s playfulness must be part and parcel of the experience of content. This means great teachers are at their best when engaged in productive struggle--and take joy in the messiness and confusion of learning. They are humbly willing to look like a fool--to act spontaneously and--to turn the classroom into a stage of creativity and play. Carl Jung claimed that there is wisdom in foolishness--that the “fool is the precursor to the savior” for only the fool is willing to to do things badly, to stumble and expose his deficiences--in order to get better at a craft. There is something charming and human about a teacher humble and playful enough to experiment and learn in front of students. This--once again--shows that your disposition as a teacher matters. And that you need to cultivate creative playfulness outside of the classroom so that you can embody it inside the classroom. Thanks for listening and please subscribe to Tolentino Teaching.