In the dynamic world of education and learning design, there is an increasing buzz about play. There are many different ‘types of play’, from free play through to games.

But to truly tap into play’s game changing potential for super-powering learning, it is important to challenge our preconceptions and beliefs, and to embrace the concept of Purposeful Play.

At its heart, Purposeful Play is an approach that leverages the inherent power of playful learning in support of clear, defined objectives. There are six key principles to purposeful play that combine to build better learning experiences.

When play is purposeful, it is actively engaging, meaningful, full of purpose, joyful, exploratory and socially interactive.

 

Actively Engaging: Empathy, Understanding and Executive Control

Purposeful Play is Actively Engaging

 

Because they are actively engaging, purposefully playful activities encourage people to bring their full selves to the learning experience. They supercharge people’s listening skills, encouraging listening for empathy and understanding (Covey, 2020); helping participants to more actively focus their attention on others’ contributions to better appreciate a diverse range of opinions and perspectives.

Purposeful play also builds engagement by giving participants executive control, offering choice, along with the agency to make decisions; ultimately affording them the opportunity to take ownership over their learning experiences.

 

Meaningful Experiences: Real-world Relevance

Purposeful Play is Meaningful

 

The second key principle of purposeful play is that it should be a meaningful experience. One way it achieves this is through the use of story. By framing experiences through the telling and co-creation of stories it protects people into learning (Roberts, 2023), connecting people to their peers and co-participants, as well as to the ideas and content.

When at its best, participants can also see the relationship and relevance between purposeful play and real-world experiences, allowing people to connect and transfer their learning with life beyond the confines of the play.

Due to its social nature, purposeful play also fosters a broadening of perspectives, helping participants to better observe and understand how others make – often different – meaning from the same playful experiences.

Purpose and Intention: Clarity of Direction

Purposeful Play is Intentional

The central focus on purpose is potentially the biggest differentiator between purposeful play and other forms; such as free play. Purposeful play is objective aligned; there is a clear reason WHY people are playing; often linked to a key learning or success objective.

This intentionality offers players a ‘direction of travel’. Often, this purpose can be a shared one, helping galvanise groups around key objectives as they collaborate, compromise and think critically to achieve these shared goals.

Joyful: NOT the antithesis of work!

Purposeful Play is Joyful

Purposeful play – like all play – should be a joyful experience. This enjoyment has a positive influence on participants’ wellbeing and state of mind.

The pleasurable experience of play results in the release of dopamine – the “feel-good” chemical (Sinek, 2014). Not only does dopamine serve as a neurological reward mechanism, facilitating increased engagement, but it is also proven to sharpen focus and foster intrinsic motivation; all factors that should be at the heart of any powerful learning experience!

Iteration: Fostering Creative Behaviours and a Growth Mindset

Purposeful Play Fosters Creative Behaviours

Another key element of purposeful play is that it is iterative – giving people the opportunity to explore and test different ideas and solutions. Participants are encouraged to adopt an agile mindset; engaging in rapid ideation to learn, improve and ultimately solve problems.

This iterative approach encourages other creative behaviours, like challenging conventional attitudes and responses to failure, helping people to view failure as an essential component in any authentically innovative process – encouraging people to embrace ambiguity, uncertainty and the taking of calculated risks.

This embracing of failure as essential, coupled with rapid iteration, means that purposeful play cultivates a growth mindset, with people learning from where things go well, as well as when they don’t; using this data to inform future decision making.

Socially Interactive: Human-Centred

Purposeful Play is Socially Interactive

The final principle of purposeful play is that is socially interactive. In a world increasingly focussed on automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, Purposeful Play is very much a human centred approach.

Purposeful play is equitable; creating the conditions for ALL participants to access the experience

At its best, it is also democratic, affording participants the chance to share their perspectives, and collectively decide on the best course of action; seeking consensus over universal agreement.

This powerful combination of equity and democracy builds people’s capacity for being good citizens who seek to positively influence society, whilst helping groups and teams to form and cultivate positive relationships, grounded in trust and mutual respect: even where opinions and perspectives may differ.

In Closing…

6 principles of purposeful play

So, there you have it; a very brief overview of the six principles of purposeful play, along with some of its many associated benefits!

If you want to learn more about how Purposeful Play can benefit you and your teams, get in touch to learn how SERIOUSWORK can create bespoke learning programs to help you and your teams meet their specific learning needs.

What are you waiting for, connect today!

References:

Covey, S. R. (2020). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Simon & Schuster.

Roberts, H. (2023). Botheredness: Stories, stance and pedagogy. Crown House Publishing Ltd.

Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders Eat Last: The leadership book that every good manager needs. Penguin UK

Zosh, J., Hopkins, E., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Neale, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Solis, S. L. & Whitebread, D. (2017). Learning through play: A review of the evidence. LEGO Foundation.