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PEDAL News Archive 2017

ARCHIVE: This material is no longer maintained and should be viewed for reference only

Bite-size videos about play

Dr David Whitebread has been working with the National Council for Curriculum & Assessment, which has produced three short videos as part of a suite of web-based materials designed to support the pre-school curriculum in Ireland. Links to these videos are below:

Why is play important for babies & toddlers?

Why is play important for young children?

How can practitioners support children's learning through play?


BBC Breakfast report on Playful Writing

In this video David Whitebread is featured in the BBC Breakfast report on Playful Writing in primary years education.

Copyright BBC Television (2017)


Trinity College Dublin symposium on Early Learning Experiences

Dr David Whitebread recently spoke at a symposium entitled 'Early Learning Experiences: Children, Creativity and Contexts' at Trinity College Dublin - you can watch a video of Davids talk..


Playful writing - free handbook for teachersHandbook

Primary school teachers in the UK are charged with stimulating and supporting children's writing throughout KS1 and 2 - but some children can struggle to harness their creativity and communication skills.

Led by PEDAL's Dr David Whitebread and Dr Marisol Basilio, PLaNS (Play, Learning and Narrative Skills) was a research project designed investigate if playful approaches to children's writing and storytelling are beneficial. Using LEGO bricks, and aimed at 5-10 year olds over the course of a year, primary school teachers worked with academics to develop playful activities to inspire and improve written and oral narratives. Participating children were evaluated at the beginning and end of the project, to measure the impact on writing, oral narrative skills, self-regulation, vocabulary and creativity. Teachers were also encouraged to reflect on what they learnt from the project.

To see what happened, there is a video of the project and to try out some of these ideas in your classroom, there is a FREE downloadable handbook for teachers. More in depth information is available via this video of a research seminar presentation by Dr Basilio.


PEDAL Acting Director supporting PlayLabs in Bangladesh

BRAC group photoDr David Whitebread recently visited kindergartens in rural villages in Bangladesh, as a member of the Play Consortium of academic advisers established by BRAC (an NGO dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor).

Eighty PlayLabs have been set up in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania, funded by the LEGO Foundation, alongside the training of play leaders. David will be leading a research sub-committee working over the next 2-3 years to support the development of the PlayLabs and to conduct research to establish their effectiveness in providing high quality pre-school education. 


Associate Editor role for PEDAL Research Associate

Dr Marisol Basilio has been appointed as an Associate Editor of the Journal for the Study of Education and Development. This is an international peer-reviewed journal on developmental and educational psychology published by Taylor & Francis. The journal admits works coming both from basic research of human learning and development processes and applied research and intervention in educational settings.

As an editor, Dr Basilio will be able to recommend authors for sections of the journal 'by invitation only' (original texts presenting new and alternative points of view regarding learning, development and education), as well as thematic 'special issues'. If you are interested in publishing your work in this journal please get in touch with Dr Basilio (mb773).


Pretence and creativity during childhood and beyond

Dr Kirkham

Dr Julie Kirkham spoke at a joint Psychology & Education and PEDAL seminar on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 on the subject of pretend play and creativity in the context of early and middle childhood, and the influence of Montessori and Steiner education on these abilities.

A video of Dr Kirkham's talk is available here.


Play, self-regulation & early childhood education: what does research say?

Prof Clancy Blair

A free public event on Friday, 27 January 2017, offered a rare opportunity to hear two of the world's foremost developmental psychologists talk about how their research has been applied to education and social policy. Prof Kathy Sylva presented on 'Nurturing 21st century skills in early childhood: evidence from the English EPPSE study and the EU CARE project', and Prof Clancy Blair on 'The science of self-regulation: supporting executive function development in early childhood through play'. 

A video of the lectures is available here.

This event was supported by an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant awarded to Dr Marisol Basilio.

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