How can I apply my Research on Learning Through Play to the Classroom?

• Look into children’s urges - what do they enjoy playing with and what are they drawn to - how can we further stimulate this urge of theirs and cater for them? What can we put in the classroom for them? 

• Looking into extending some of the older children? (the play environment can cause them to get distracted with some of their formal learning and they don’t always fully extend themselves with the learning provocations - how can we get them to better manage themselves in this environment?) 

• Do we need more student voice in the classroom regarding the activities and the play equipment? I think we could cater to children's interests better - asking them what they would like in the classroom and put this in the classroom. 

• Valuing play in the classroom - giving sufficient time for it in the day and valuing it as a learning tool - I think we do this well. We have play at the start of the day and throughout the day right up to lunch. We have noticed that sometimes the children are really engrossed in their play in the morning. They are playing with each other well, making good social decisions and being really creative - we found that on these instances we didn’t want to disrupt them so we extended the time we allowed them to play. It really highlighted to me on these occasions that the play calmed the children for the day ahead. 

• Questioning - one of the most valuable tools in the classroom. By questioning the children this not only enabled me to extend the children's learning, it also highlighted to me how creative they are with their play and when they are constructing objects - every little part has a role i.e. why is that wing blue and the others are red? 

• I believe that the children are settling in to school really well. I think that learning through play is allowing the children to be more creative in the classroom, it is catering to more needs of the children which previously would not have been meet. Furthermore, children are learning how to collaborate in the classroom with other children.

• Already the students are demonstrating they are developing the following 21st century skills ITL research decided were important: collaboration, knowledge construction, self-regulation, innovations, communication. 

Questions I now have:

What does learning through play look like further up the school?

At primary school we are good at incorporating these 21st century skills into our teaching and learning, what is happening at secondary school - how has their environment changed?

https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research