Educational Programs for Initial Teacher Training in Playful Pedagogy

The use of games or playful activities in the educational process has recently attracted the interest of researchers, who aim to include them as specific ways of teaching, learning, and assessment, in order to make learning more engaging and impactful. The benefits of game-based instructional interactions have been shown by several studies and promoted by UNICEF and the Lego Foundation. Learning through play or playful learning is essential in quality education. Numerous studies have highlighted the need to include playful pedagogy in initial teacher education and this article systematically analyzes those that are published between 2014-2024 and are included in Scopus. A total of 20 articles met the inclusion criteria that aimed to identify the characteristics of effective teacher training programs in promoting playful pedagogy, while arguing the need for their implementation. The results display a variety of formats and solutions through which the teachers’ abilities can be empowered in this direction, from dedicated courses, or modules, to virtual simulation. The participation in playful pedagogy courses significantly contributes to a positive attitude and the successful integration of this approach into teaching-learning-assessment activities. The analysis argues for the need to introduce such training programs in the pre-service teacher education and highlights the implications for the measures to be adopted.