For school leaders looking to transform their school culture this year, here are four ways we can create playful teaching environments:

Freedom to experiment: Teachers should have freedom to experiment with new pedagogies and approaches, even if they don't yet know how it will work out with their students, what additional scaffolding may be needed, etc. Experimentation is a huge part of playing with new ideas, and the best way to innovate. A classroom is a great place to do this because teachers get immediate feedback and can adjust in real-time. For instance, a teacher might try remixing a project-based learning unit with a game like Minecraft, challenging students to design and build their ideal city as an exploration into urban planning. The teacher would experiment with the balance between researching and building in-game, to figure out how best to utilize a new game-based pedagogy.
Freedom to fail: Teachers should be recognized for taking risks and "failing forward" in their teaching. We teach students to not be afraid of failure, and to have a growth mindset, and the same should hold true for teachers. Right now, many teachers are incentivized to keep doing what they've always done, despite a growing understanding that those approaches are not serving all students. Giving teachers the space to fail and iterate on their practices might mean sharing failures in faculty meetings and celebrating the subsequent iterations that lead to better, more personalized learning.
Freedom to try on identities: In order to develop their teaching practices and push them forward, teachers need to be able to see themselves as new kinds of teachers, even before they are fully confident in those identities. This could mean seeing how it feels to be a maker teacher, or a teacher who believes in un-grading, for example. Getting used to seeing yourself in a new way is an important component of play, and of developing new competencies, which can be fulfilling and benefit students.
Freedom of effort: Teachers should have the freedom to decide how best to teach their students, and which new practices they want to play with. Their expertise should be respected and valued within the school community so that everyone feels autonomy and a sense of agency. This might mean teachers doing different things, such as one teacher using Minecraft if that game resonates with their students, and another having students build with 3D printers if that's an area that sparks excitement in the classroom. Current school systems are not always set up to give teachers this kind of agency, but administrators can find at least small ways to enable this element of playful teaching.

Bringing more joy to the classroom

What will it take to reshape schools into places where playful teaching is not only allowed but encouraged? Ideally, school leaders and districts will play a key role in helping to create time and space to collaboratively build a culture of playful teaching.

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4 ways leaders can create playful teaching and learning environments

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