Ashleigh Blomfield
Linda Miles
Lynn Ligammari
Lynn Marie Ruse
Alison Shapiro
Lynn Neuman
Adrienne Westwood
Elizabeth Herron
Barell, John
Playgrounds of Our Minds
New York: Teachers College Press, 1980
Few people would disagree that in the 21st Century, the rate of change is accelerating. A YouTube video posted in October 2008, Did You Know? , illustrates this with some attention-grabbing points. “The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.” “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that haven’t been invented…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” “The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.” Whether you accept that the rate of change is exponential, as in this video, or merely rapid, the skills required to thrive in an environment of swift change are quite different from those necessary for existence during a period of slow evolution. Imperative skills for upcoming generations in the face of rapid change include flexibility, adaptability, innovation, and creativity. Fostering and enhancing these skills poses critical challenges for the educators of today and tomorrow.
Although writing nearly thirty years ago, John Barell, in Playgrounds of Our Minds, explores the role of imagination as central to the development in young people of just the kind of capabilities that would seem to prepare them for success in the very changed world of the 21st century. He provides fantastic insight into the use of imaginative play, where students create and respond to implausible and hypothetical questions and situations. Play permits people to assume roles and approach situations in which they otherwise wouldn’t engage. It allows for new possibilities to be perceived, “what if”s to be considered, ideas to be tested through open experimentation, and roles to be tried. Particularly for the focus age of this book, junior high and high school, stepping hypothetically into the shoes of others is vital in discovering and creating one’s identity. Such imaginative exercises also foster empathy, another attribute necessary to function effectively in an increasingly multicultural and global society.
Written in a narrative fashion, the book—playful in its own right—follows the lives of two high school students through their classes, extracurricular endeavors, and social activities, exploring their emotional, intellectual, and imaginative experiences. These composite characters are smart, witty, mischievous, and exceptional in many ways. Though not representative of all teens, their antics do shed light on both the expansive possibilities and benefits of play and the emotional, social, and imaginative development of students this age.
In Playgrounds of Our Minds, education focuses on human development, not just academic achievement, with the aim of enabling students to uniquely react to ever changing situations. It casts education as an adventure for students and teachers alike and offers tools for teachers to engage students in thinking with depth, breadth, and ingenuity in a fun and meaningful fashion.
Barell recognizes that teachers face the constraints of time and pressures of content, and that finding a balance between traditionally structured learning and the idiosyncratic play of ideas presents many challenges. He offers strategies for how and when to use imaginative play, both within lessons and in an overall curriculum, and provides specific examples of how to incorporate it in math, science, English-language arts, humanities, and history. Peppered in with the examples and stories are citations to earlier research, providing pedagogical rationalization. Barell also points to recognized thinkers, scientists, inventors, and artists and the significance that playing with ideas had in their abilities to achieve progressive results.
In all, the book helps in considering how teachers can assist and encourage students to be flexible, adaptable, creative, and forward thinking, all necessary traits going forward in this 21st Century of change
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Filed under: Resource Descriptions | Tagged: education, high school, imagination, John Barell, secondary education
[...] The Role of Imaginative Play Posted on September 17, 2009 by Linda Miles How do adolescents and teens “play”? John Barell’s Playgrounds of Our Minds (1980) “casts education as an adventure,” writes Lynn Neuman, a dance teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute, in her review for LCI’s Resource Center Blog. Although written decades ago, Neuman connects the ideas in Barell’s book with what she sees as a 21st-century imperative for students to develop skills of “flexibility, adaptability, innovation, and creativity.” While it is almost “child’s play” to consider early childhood education as within the realm of imaginative play (pun intended), Barell focuses on high school students and provides strategies and tools for teachers. Check out the full review here. [...]