Light and Delight: Playful Learning as an Ideology and Methodology in Adult Education

This article, a conceptual and theoretical piece, opens a window on “playful learning” as a philosophy of education and a suite of diverse pedagogical approaches, methods, and techniques. The paper criticizes the serious ambience of adult education with its high levels of instrumentalism and performativity. It argues for playful learning as an ideology and methodology to realize the light (i.e., the true essence) and the delight (i.e., the pleasure) of learning. To this aim, the paper initially provides a feature-based, pedagogical perspective of “play.” Afterward, it defines and defends playful learning, highlighting a wide spectrum of possibilities and affordances within the pedagogy of play. In particular, (digital) game-based learning, gamification, and quest-based learning are touched upon. Additionally, connections are briefly made between playful learning and several teaching paradigms and philosophies in adult education such as student-centered learning, project-based learning, creative pedagogy, positive education, and critical pedagogy. Furthermore, the article puts forth “signature pedagogy” as a theoretical framework to safeguard the implementation of playful learning in adult education. Similarly, the notion of “iplay” (or intelligent play) is introduced to underscore the technological and evolving dimensions of play and playful learning. The paper, finally addresses several areas of concern within “playful adult education.” It touches upon creating a “playful mindset” and “play culture” among educational stakeholders especially teachers and students. Likewise, developing appropriate adult learning “playware” (i.e., playful instructional content) and “playful assessment” are addressed.