Playful creativity
‘Intelligence is what you use when you don’t know what to do.’ (Attributed to Jean Piaget) Learning is often compromised by competitiveness (Brown & Vaughan, 2009). Bred from the...
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The BERA Blog was established in 2015 to provide research-informed content on key educational issues in an accessible manner.
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Connection and creativity despite Covid-19: Playful learning at university during the pandemic
Over the past decade, interest in play and playful learning in higher education (HE) has grown significantly (James & Brookfield, 2014; James & Nerantzi, 2019). Publications, conferences and...
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Does playfulness have a place in higher education? A reflection on using playfulness when teaching research methods to postgraduate students
Playfulness has been defined as a disposition (Barnett, 1991) a mindset (Skilbeck, 2017) and fundamental for creativity (Cheng-Ping Chang, 2013). I have spent many years working in play and...
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Playful praxis: A student’s perspective
Now in my fifth year of higher education (HE), I am in the unfortunate position to have more years as an undergraduate to reflect on than most, yet still have more to look forward to. Yes, I am a...
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Becoming a playful academic: A personal story
Throughout my life I have been exposed to an increasingly stressful and demanding expectation to perform, dictated not only by society (cultural pressures) but also through beliefs deeply...
Continue reading blog postRent strikes and the continuing relevance of Paulo Freire at 100
Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, student rent strikes took place in many universities in England. Lockdowns and moves to online learning meant that students were at times required to...
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Loneliness and collegiality in the academy: Isolated by a neoliberal ideology
The problems of loneliness and isolation are often raised in academia. How can we understand loneliness and respond to it within the academic community of our time? I suggest that the ideology of...
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Who wants to be an academic?
The good… Academic staff are driven by the thrill of creating new knowledge. New knowledge also stimulates the passion that academics bring to teaching their students. When these two things...
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Has Athena Swan lost its way?
The Athena Swan charter was established in 2005 to advance the careers of female academics in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). Yet it now discourages academic...
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