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.