Spelade
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Play is essential for learning and development. Typically, we associate play-based learning with young children, but, says Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Chair of Learning Through Play and the Vice-President of the Lego Foundation, an international expert on play, learning and creativity, play is beneficial for all ages.
“Play is inherently about engagement, about motivation to engage in things that are difficult, through different types of play, but there are these mindsets, these states of mind we are in and can be used all across activities and ages.” - Bo
We are also joined by three incredible educators from around the world, who share their fascinating stories of how play allows them to develop meaningful and engaging teaching practices in their particular educational contexts.
Houdeja, a teacher of English working in a remote and low-resource secondary school in Tunisia, describes the games she finds beneficial for her teaching:
“One helpful game is I-spy with my little eye. I pick a colour and they have to touch things in our class saying this and that so at the same time they are touching, talking and looking at things and simultaneously translating colours.” - Houdeja
Next we hear from Raquel, a teacher working in the UK with autistic children, about how play-based learning is particularly pertinent for children with special needs:
“One of the most rewarding things about this experience is that my child learned how to speak and how to use her words to ask for things. And she then stopped crying a lot and shouting because she knew how to communicate her needs.” - Raquel
Finally we hear from Lê in Vietnam, about what she’s found to be the benefits of learning through play:
“You learn many things like problem solving skills, the knowledge from the lesson as well, and more importantly, when they play together they know how to play with others through conflict, try to solve the conflicts, sharing, and how to compromise.” - Lê
On today’s podcast:
The relevance of play for learning and developmentWhat is play based learning The benefits of play based learningThe importance of play for children with special needsLinks:
Email: [email protected]
To find out more about today’s guests, and for more episodes featuring other teachers and their stories, visit https://bold.expert/podcasts/bold-podcast-series2 -
Why is literature and storytelling so important for children and adolescents? This is the topic we explore in this latest episode of Teachers’ Voices with our special guest, Evelyn Arizpe, an expert in children's literature and literacy. Evelyn pioneered research into children’s responses to picturebooks and visual literacy and, in the last decade, her research has focused on migration and displacement, building on this to develop a programme for migrant readers.
“When you have nothing, when you have lost your home, when you have lost your material possessions, when there are no resources, maybe even when you have lost the power to express yourself in the language of a new place, one of the things that you still have is your own language, your own voice and the potential to tell your own story.” - Evelyn
With Evelyn’s ideas in mind, we hear from educators around the world with a passion for books and storytelling: Susan in Hong Kong, Lina in Athens, and Trini in Santiago.
Susan works in a library in an international primary school in Hong Kong. She says:
“Reading is such a wonderful outlet and I think in times like these, children like to identify themselves in books and picture books as a way of helping [them] to identify feelings that maybe they can't put into words themselves.” - Susan
Next we meet Lina who specialises in teaching language and literature in Athens:
“Using wordless picture books as a starting point, teachers can promote their students' critical thinking and initiate thought provoking conversations… I think the most rewarding outcome as an educator is listening to children’s views, giving them space to express their ideas and making their voices heard.” - Lina
Finally, we hear from Trini, a head teacher with limited resources at a state primary school in Santiago. While she doesn’t have access to many materials, she’s moving heaven and earth to provide books to read and talk about with her students.
“I believe that reading and enjoying a book in whichever form can have a healing aspect. It can have a concept of reflecting on your own life but also learning about other people's experiences, other realities, other fantasies.” - Trini
On today’s podcast:
What visual image is in literature and storytellingHow to best support children's reading of picture booksWhy picture books make you engage with stories differentlyGive children books that are mirrors of themselves and othersLinks:
Golden Dragon Book Awardbold.expert
To find out more about today’s guests, and for more episodes featuring other teachers and their stories, visit https://bold.expert/podcasts/bold-podcast-series2 -
This episode has some discussion around bulimia and mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised.
If you’re an educator keen to learn more about motivation and self esteem in children’s learning, don’t miss Eddie Brummelman, a researcher studying children's growing understanding of themselves as individuals, how children develop self-views, how these self-views shape mental health and educational outcomes, and how interventions that target self-views can help at-risk children flourish.
“Self esteem shapes how children look at themselves, but also how they look at their social environment, but also how they look at their schoolwork… self esteem can get in the way of learning, and therefore it's important to be aware of the child's level of self esteem.”
From Eddie we then hear from 3 teachers, from 3 different geographies, teaching 3 different age groups a variety of subjects, but they all have in common a special interest in developing motivation strategies that pay attention to individual needs.
First we travel to the Caribbean and meet Kayleigh, who teaches Spanish as a second language to young primary school children.
“In my classroom, my students are constantly speaking, they have avenues to share their opinions, we've created a space where they feel okay to share. We've also created an environment where our ideas and opinions, although different, are respected.”
We then travel across the world to Australia and meet Mark, who’s developing teenagers’ capacities to learn from their peers through experiential learning with film making techniques.
Finally we visit Marisa, an English teacher in a private school in a wealthy residential area of Madrid, Spain, who is setting the necessary conditions to support the development of each student’s particular identity in their learning processes.
“Part of the teaching process is to observe your students and to figure out what they need in each moment. For me, that is one of the most rewarding moments in my teaching life.”
On today’s podcast:
How children develop self esteemSelf esteem in a learning environmentThe role of praise in building self esteemThe importance of feeling emotionally supportedTo find out more about today’s guests, and for more episodes featuring other teachers and their stories, visit https://bold.expert/podcasts/bold-podcast-series2
