papertalker
10-02-2006, 09:47 PM
Working definition of play: for this topic.
Play referred to is innate, higher order learning. Such play is largely unadulterated and uninhibited, and can be consciously, unconsciously, or semi-consciously engaged. Hence, play that is fragile, spontaneous and responsive, involving reciprocal patterns of movement, action, thought, or communication, and often accompanied by silliness, surprise, humor, or fun. This behavior may include word play, make-believe, private speech, improvisation, in-dwelling, day-dreaming, doodling, hand- or puppet play, or the uncensored manipulation or expression of ideas and imaginings. This order of play depends on a degree of feeling free and safe, and may or may not become subject to the more controlled and organized aspects of play associated with competition, electronic games, directed role-playing, formal theater, and the like.
The purpose of this new topic is to introduce a special perspective on play, one that I think will prove unique especially to those already familiar with play. The thrust of the ideas I want to present here were introduced at the Emotions, Learning, and Education meeting in Copenhagen, Nov. 2004. I presented two papers: 1) Theory of Puppet Play and 2) on “Play Language.†These two papers are Macromedia Flash files and can be downloaded from my web site home page. The position paper I prepared for that meeting is also available on the home page.
Since that meeting, my imaging research has been published in the Journal of Child Neurology. This research may be the first such ‘picture of the brain at play’. Some may be aware of the criticism of the dramatic rise in imaging research—soon we will be imaging the brain during growth of hair on the head—but given acceptance of play as one of the most important ‘learning inventions’ and a renewed, broader interest in play, the continued imaging of play may be valuable in light of corroborating non-technical research starting to emerge. The imaging research on play, however interesting, is not as important as getting tools of play into the hands of teachers and then getting the reports of their impact on teachers, on students, and… on the learning culture of their classroom.
All participating in this forum of course want to see brain science take hold in the consciousness of those, wherever they may be, who run the schools. It’s a worldwide dream because schools all over the globe pretty much mimic one another and operate on the same wavelength. Most of us would agree that the current communication wavelength is all wrong. It is my conviction that we need to find a wavelength charmed and magnetized by play energy. To me, play is synonymous with brain science, especially as it relates to the challenge of education. But play is just too hard to grasp as a natural resource, especially in providing nourishment to human inhabitants of environments we call classrooms. In the same way that we cannot nourish ourselves directly from the sun (instead, we consume energy stored in plants), play in most forms cannot be absorbed directly into the academic body. In the learning culture, play must be ‘broken down’ into a consumable format before it is distributed to our minds and bodies. Play needs to be harnessed, and, like electricity, it requires its own system of distribution in order for it to be practically integrated into our mass learning culture.
Play is also a key to moving the learning culture off dead center, to a place where the culture is actually receptive, sensitized, conscious, and hungry for brain science. After all, what good is all this research if the culture it intends to serve and change is closed and biased against its knowledge?
Applied brain research must address the ‘education culture’ issue. In fact, the resistance to change in the learning culture may be the most important issue facing brain science. We can conduct all the research in the world—discover the myriad workings of this most complex product of evolution—but if the new tree of brain-based learning can’t grow in the soil of education, we can forget about harvesting the fruit. If we can’t ‘turn the learning culture on’ (a 60s expression dating me) to the learning sciences, we as a species face centuries of head-banging and brick walls—if we last that long. I believe that a strategic harnessing of play is one of the best chances that brain science has of a meaningful future in the evolution of human learning. Given today’s world and the problems we face, can anyone seriously dispute that the scientific breakthrough most desperately needed is one that changes, deeply and irresistibly, the nature of education?
This, then, is the focus of this topic Rather than open wide any and all discourse, I would like to provide a focus—a strategic plan based on my recent paper—as a framework in which the discourse can grow. I invite challenges, tests, ideas, feedback, contributions—but most of all I seek a consensus. Tell me if I am on the mark or waste-deep in poppycock. In the process, we can of course address related issues that are the focus of the Brain and Learning Teacher Forum, but mainly in context of play.
This is a gameplan, a strategy to provide a roadmap for driving the essential knowledge of brain science into concentrated and applied action—again, what play is—a form of movement that leads to the mainstreaming and popular grasp of the learning sciences. My purpose will be to persuade you that the means to a more enlightened learning culture—meaning the advent of the learning sciences in education—are no further than an arm’s length away if we choose to act on—rather than dwell on—the power of our imagination.
Play referred to is innate, higher order learning. Such play is largely unadulterated and uninhibited, and can be consciously, unconsciously, or semi-consciously engaged. Hence, play that is fragile, spontaneous and responsive, involving reciprocal patterns of movement, action, thought, or communication, and often accompanied by silliness, surprise, humor, or fun. This behavior may include word play, make-believe, private speech, improvisation, in-dwelling, day-dreaming, doodling, hand- or puppet play, or the uncensored manipulation or expression of ideas and imaginings. This order of play depends on a degree of feeling free and safe, and may or may not become subject to the more controlled and organized aspects of play associated with competition, electronic games, directed role-playing, formal theater, and the like.
[SIZE="1"]© 2004 Jeffrey L. Peyton[/SIZE]
________________________________________________________________________________________The purpose of this new topic is to introduce a special perspective on play, one that I think will prove unique especially to those already familiar with play. The thrust of the ideas I want to present here were introduced at the Emotions, Learning, and Education meeting in Copenhagen, Nov. 2004. I presented two papers: 1) Theory of Puppet Play and 2) on “Play Language.†These two papers are Macromedia Flash files and can be downloaded from my web site home page. The position paper I prepared for that meeting is also available on the home page.
Since that meeting, my imaging research has been published in the Journal of Child Neurology. This research may be the first such ‘picture of the brain at play’. Some may be aware of the criticism of the dramatic rise in imaging research—soon we will be imaging the brain during growth of hair on the head—but given acceptance of play as one of the most important ‘learning inventions’ and a renewed, broader interest in play, the continued imaging of play may be valuable in light of corroborating non-technical research starting to emerge. The imaging research on play, however interesting, is not as important as getting tools of play into the hands of teachers and then getting the reports of their impact on teachers, on students, and… on the learning culture of their classroom.
All participating in this forum of course want to see brain science take hold in the consciousness of those, wherever they may be, who run the schools. It’s a worldwide dream because schools all over the globe pretty much mimic one another and operate on the same wavelength. Most of us would agree that the current communication wavelength is all wrong. It is my conviction that we need to find a wavelength charmed and magnetized by play energy. To me, play is synonymous with brain science, especially as it relates to the challenge of education. But play is just too hard to grasp as a natural resource, especially in providing nourishment to human inhabitants of environments we call classrooms. In the same way that we cannot nourish ourselves directly from the sun (instead, we consume energy stored in plants), play in most forms cannot be absorbed directly into the academic body. In the learning culture, play must be ‘broken down’ into a consumable format before it is distributed to our minds and bodies. Play needs to be harnessed, and, like electricity, it requires its own system of distribution in order for it to be practically integrated into our mass learning culture.
Play is also a key to moving the learning culture off dead center, to a place where the culture is actually receptive, sensitized, conscious, and hungry for brain science. After all, what good is all this research if the culture it intends to serve and change is closed and biased against its knowledge?
Applied brain research must address the ‘education culture’ issue. In fact, the resistance to change in the learning culture may be the most important issue facing brain science. We can conduct all the research in the world—discover the myriad workings of this most complex product of evolution—but if the new tree of brain-based learning can’t grow in the soil of education, we can forget about harvesting the fruit. If we can’t ‘turn the learning culture on’ (a 60s expression dating me) to the learning sciences, we as a species face centuries of head-banging and brick walls—if we last that long. I believe that a strategic harnessing of play is one of the best chances that brain science has of a meaningful future in the evolution of human learning. Given today’s world and the problems we face, can anyone seriously dispute that the scientific breakthrough most desperately needed is one that changes, deeply and irresistibly, the nature of education?
This, then, is the focus of this topic Rather than open wide any and all discourse, I would like to provide a focus—a strategic plan based on my recent paper—as a framework in which the discourse can grow. I invite challenges, tests, ideas, feedback, contributions—but most of all I seek a consensus. Tell me if I am on the mark or waste-deep in poppycock. In the process, we can of course address related issues that are the focus of the Brain and Learning Teacher Forum, but mainly in context of play.
This is a gameplan, a strategy to provide a roadmap for driving the essential knowledge of brain science into concentrated and applied action—again, what play is—a form of movement that leads to the mainstreaming and popular grasp of the learning sciences. My purpose will be to persuade you that the means to a more enlightened learning culture—meaning the advent of the learning sciences in education—are no further than an arm’s length away if we choose to act on—rather than dwell on—the power of our imagination.