PEDAL Centre

Adults instinctively feel that playing outside is good for children, but what is actually known about the benefits of play in green spaces?

What does play look like at home and in schools and early years settings during the current Covid-19 pandemic?

What is the potential of play in tackling inequalities, and in providing relief and resilience to parents and children?

Charities Right to Play and Starlight discuss their approach on bringing play to challenging settings nationally and internationally

A PEDAL Resource that aims to use play to help children engage with the COVID swabbing procedure and reduce some of their worry.

Social learning has been a large focus of early developmental psychology for the past three decades. While it reveals how culture is transmitted to young children, questions about how young children come up with their own ideas and learn for themselves have been largely ignored. This talk, with Dr Elena Hoicka from the University of Bristol, will present research showing that toddlers can be creative and come up with their own ideas. Elena will focus on toddlers' creation of their own novel jokes and pretending, and toddlers' divergent thinking with novel objects.

Play at the Extremes - A Panel Discussion for Parents, Teachers & Carers

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/pedal Join PEDAL for a public lecture by world-renowned psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, evaluating the evidence for the importance of free play and guided play as a catalyst for learning in social and cognitive development. Kathy will explore why play, particularly guided play, might offer a successful midway position between the warring factions of playful and didactic approaches to early childhood education. Kathy argues that it is possible to have strong curricular goals that are presented to children within a playful pedagogy. Prof Hirsh-Pasek’s work is trying to understand the link between play and learning by researching both free and guided play, and advocating for more time for play in order for children to thrive academically.

Professor Greenfield is a Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics at the University of Miami. His work is positioned at the interface of research, policy and practice at the international, national and local level. His research examines school readiness with at-risk and dual language learners, with a specific focus on early science education.

As one of the leading international proponents of play as part of education and learning, David Whitebread's fascinating career led up to the creation of the PEDAL research centre with funding from the LEGO Foundation. Here, David gives us an insight into his career as an early year's educator, University lecturer, and continual researcher, with the world premier of his theory of play! With words of thanks from John Goodwin (LEGO Foundation), Geoff Hayward (Faculty of Education), and short talks from past PhD students Kate Noble, Maria Eracleous & Martina Kuvalja. The event finishes off with two videos - the first created by David's daughter, Sarah, and the second by past PhD students Dave Neale & Matt Somerville.

Dr Victoria Leong, University of Cambridge and Nanyang Technological University, speaks about the social dynamics of adult-infant neural synchrony.

Talk by Dr Guillaume Dumas, Institut Pasteur, on the use of two-person hyperscanning in social neuroscience research, with particular applications to the study of autism spectrum disorder.

Talk by Dr Tristan Bekinschtein, University of Cambridge, on the future of brain imaging in personalised medicine.

Talk by Dr Sarah Lloyd Fox, Birkbeck College, on infant brain imaging in The Gambia

In this talk, Dr Moreno presents the work that they have carried out in the context of analyzing and shaping children’s play behavior in interactive playgrounds, technology-enhanced spaces where players engage in co-located, playful activities

Dr Elian Fink talks about collaborational project Baby Talk, where they used a light-weight wearable pedometer to record infant-caregiver interactions.

Public lecture on 11th September with this second part given by Prof. Anthony Pellegrini For more information please visit www.educ.cam.ac.uk/pedal/

Public lecture on 11th September with this first part given by Dr Jenny Gibson and Dr Behzad Heravi For more information please visit www.educ.cam.ac.uk/pedal/

Watch Ben Mardell from Harvard University's Project Zero, and Camilla Uhre Fog from the International School of Billund talk about their Pedagogy of Play in a teacher workshop.

Part of the PEDal Seminar series this video shows the recording of the recent seminar hosted by PEDaL and the Psychology & Education research group at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Introduced by PEDaL acting Director Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education and presented by Dr Megan McClelland, Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children & Families, Oregon State University.

BBC Breakfast report on playful writing

Play, self-regulation and early childhood education: what does research say? A lecture by Prof Clancy Blair of NYU Steinhardt & Prof Kathy Sylva of University of Oxford

This joint Psychology & Education and PEDAL seminar by Dr Julie Kirkham will examine pretend play and creativity in the context of early and middle childhood

Prof Nancy Perry from The University of British Columbia presents the role of research-practice partnerships in bringing self-regulated learning to classrooms.

Play is a serious matter for young children across all cultures. This is evidenced by the passionate, intensive and energetic engagement many children invest in this activity. Play experiences are widely recognised to create the foundation for a child’s healthy and holistic development. In Finland opportunities for play are highly regarded in the education of children under seven years old, and the interest in playful learning has extended to the education of older children and even adults. Professor Kumpulainen’s talk will reflect on current international research and how this evidence is reflected in Finnish education policy and practice. It will show how play and learning is also about playing with learning. The talk will end by considering the changing landscape of play in the digital era and its consequences for children’s learning, educational practice and teacher professional competencies. Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor of Education at the Department of Teacher Education at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is a founding member and the scientific director of the Playful Learning Center (www.plchelsinki.fi). She has also served as the Director of the Information and Evaluation Services Unit at the Finnish National Board of Education before her current position. She received her PhD in Education from the University of Exeter in 1994.