Introducing the Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Research Centre

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the work being conducted at the Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Research Centre, based in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. PEDAL has three main aims, (1) To conduct worldclass research, (2) To build capacity in play research and (3) To influence policy and practice. The present paper provides an overview of the history and rationale for PEDAL, followed by some detailed examples of the foci of its work. Exemplar research is presented on the theme of 'Measuring Play'; an endeavour that is common to many of the different research projects led by PEDAL investigators and Ph.D. students.

‘Understand More What We Do’: A Review of Children’s Perspectives of Play in Education

“…There is almost universal consensus that play is an essential part of children's lives (Yiran Zhao et al, 2019), that all children have a right to play (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989) and that there are many developmental and cognitive advantages to engaging in play (Brooker et al, 2014;Howard, 2019;Whitebread et al, 2017). However, play remains notoriously difficult to define and continues to perplex researchers (Pramling Samuelsson & Björklund, 2023;Zosh et al, 2018), creating significant challenges for empirical investigations of play and the interpretation of findings across studies.…”

“…Firstly, understanding children's perspectives of play would help to identify the key characteristics that should be investigated when testing associations between play and children's learning and development (Howard, 2019). Secondly, this would improve the measurement of play across research studies (Howard, 2019;Yiran Zhao et al, 2019). Finally, greater understanding of children's views of play would support the development of new hypotheses on the role of play in children's lives (Zosh et al, 2018), thus 'securing the status of play in early childhood education by increasing knowledge and understanding' (Howard 2019, p.213).…”

Participant engagement with play research – examples and lessons learned from the Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning

“…This diversity in viewpoints and perspectives is also reflected in the wide range of stakeholders involved in play research, including policymakers, parents, teachers, childcare professionals, toy designers, therapists and health professionals and, of course, the play experts themselves: children. The Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), which was previously introduced in this journal (Zhao, Kulkarni, Gibson, Baker, & Ramchandani, 2019), is familiar with this diversityour members have backgrounds in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, speech and language therapy, teaching, parenting interventions and psychiatry, to name a few.…”