Kate Hawkesby: Latest idea for school - 'play-based' learning - may well be a winner

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COMMENT:

School goes back today, and you'll probably hear an audible sigh of exhausted relief from every parent (that's if they're not busy getting involved in school gate rage at drop off given trafic will be back, too).

The only parents not sighing with relief might be those with littlies starting school today, in their too big uniforms, with their nervous and brave grins as they officially navigate the school gate for the very first time.

But should we as parents be nervous about what sort of education our kids are getting?

It's a topsy turvy time, that's for sure. The axing of National Standards, the review of NCEA, open plan classrooms versus closed ones, an ongoing teacher shortage, strikes looming.

And now, there are calls for more "play-based" learning. Learning through play isn't new, of course, it's just that more schools are now looking at integrating it.

Kids climbing trees, clambering through mud, playing with sticks ... teachers out of the classroom and into their gumboots.

The play-based approach doesn't suit all schools. The more traditional ones won't want a bar of this kind of carry-on. They'd view it as nothing more than an OSH hazard and an ACC claim waiting to happen.

But, surprisingly, more and more schools are embracing the concept. Learning through play is based on evidence that people learn best when they're engaged – emotionally as well as intellectually.

Someone I admire who speaks a lot of sense is neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis. He says kids need to "develop an emotional disposition towards learning, finding that something is fun before learning repetitive patterns like words and numbers".

I know from my own experience that a couple of our kids have learned more through working in part time jobs than they have at school, in terms of what they've soaked up and retained.

I imagine it's similar with the play-based environment. Attitude and problem solving ability comes before rote learning. Having kids talk, engage, create and work it out for themselves because they want to can only enhance the education experience.

And although I sometimes wish we could throw out our entire current school system and start again, by catering to a wider variety of learning and behaviours, being more inclusive to all types of learning styles and abilities, I guess we just have to try to stay open-minded and hope the school system might evolve a bit more quickly for the littlies starting today than it has done over the past 20 years.