Playful approaches to learning are well established when teaching children, especially those in early childhood. But there is mounting research evidence about the value of playful learning in higher education (HE), too. Playful learning in HE enhances engagement, creativity, multi-disciplinary learning and conceptual understanding (Rice, 2009); while playful approaches to learning in higher education ‘makes us better at the complex, challenging, horizon-stretching work that a university needs to do’ (James, 2019, p. 18).
The value of playful learning has been evidenced by using Lego® Serious Play® (Warburton et al., 2022) and in this blog post I will discuss how learning with Playmobil pro supports conceptual understanding about environmental and sustainability education in an undergraduate Primary Education Studies module.
‘Playful learning in HE enhances engagement, creativity, multi-disciplinary learning and conceptual understanding.’
In my recently published paper, I used Playmobil pro as a playful tool for learning (Parkin, 2023). Hans Beck designed the first Playmobil small human figures in 1974 (Haymarket Media Group, 2012). Playmobil pro was released in 2020 (figure 1) and is aimed at companies wanting to use playful approaches to support their consideration of strategy, project management and design thinking.
