Playfulness in education: a systematic review

Abstract

Play should be present in every dimension of children’s lives as it is crucial to their healthy and happy development. Moreover, the right to play is not only closely connected to the right to health but also to the right to education. The balance between formal education and the time for leisure and rest brings, nowadays, several questions and the recognition that play has positive impact to children’s educational development should be clearly stated. Play should be a reality in educational contexts, either in pre-school or primary school environments, mainly through a playful spirit that connects professionals and children, giving space for matters like creativity, cooperation and freedom to arise. So, the need to work with educational professionals to help them achieve their role as play advocates is a challenge that should be carried out. Playfulness, as the predisposition to play, is an individual variable that can be worked out with professionals and so we collected data on the relationships in research between playfulness and education, stating that playfulness is a mean to achieve better outcomes for children, namely on their school achievements and health indicators, but also for professionals, namely stronger motivation and commitment. We developed a systematic review in different databases (B-On, Scopus and Science Direct) between 2013-2019, in English and Portuguese, ending up with 17 articles for analysis. One of the most relevant ideas is that more research is needed as a playful environment and attitude has deep impact in children’s learning and overall development.