In the 21st century, citizens will need to have the 6Cs (i.e., skills like collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence). Pennsylvania State University’s Professor Jennifer Zosh explains how play can help children to develop these key competencies.
Traditionally, schools focused on transmitting only content to young children. But in the 21st century, this is no longer enough.
In the decades to come, children will need to build collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence on top of content knowledge. These skills may be supported through guided play.
Play naturally harnesses the five characteristics that lead to learning: it is meaningful, iterative, joyful, actively engaging and socially interactive. When children play, they are motivated to learn, and get into a flow state (where they experience energized focus).
There are many ways to infuse playful learning into children’s everyday lives. For instance, community projects like Urban Thinkscape and Supermarket Speak activate public spaces for play-based learning experiences.
Urban Thinkscape’s first installation was a public playground equipped with a puzzle wall (to support early numeracy skills), a wooden deck with icons (to support narrative skills), a hopscotch-like “jumping feet” activity (to support executive functioning), and a metal panel with hidden images for children to discover (to support spatial skills).
Supermarket Speak aimed to spark conversations between adults and children in the aisles of grocery stores. Signs with questions like “Which is heavier—an orange or a pineapple?” and “Where does milk come from?” were added to supermarket aisles to support communication and critical thinking about the characteristics of food items.
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