Playful Learning 2026 Programme

I’m the King of the (cardboard) Castle!

Lead Author: Frederik Kjær Zeuthen

Additional authors:

Timetable: Thursday Session 9: 16:30-17:15, Gallery Room 1

Description:

In this session you will be introduced to the playful learning methodology: First do, then think, and finally listen and learn.
Presenting an abbreviated version of a four-lesson playful learning activity from the Danish BA-programme in social education, this session will demonstrate how the framing of playful learning activities matters, and how a curricular learning objective can be met through role playing and cardboard building. Applying playful approaches to teaching and learning is a very effective way to strengthen generic competences, such as the motivation to learn, the will to engage in learning activities, creativity, and the courage to fail (e.g. Jørgensen & Skovbjerg, 2024; Nørgård et al., 2017), whereas research has much less to say about the learning outcomes from using playful approaches to teaching and learning a particular curricular topic in higher education (Zeuthen, 2026).
This session will, however, show that there is more to cardboard building in higher education than mere cardboard building to learn something. The building process must be both well-structured and well framed, as well as explicitly relevant to the topic of the lesson in which the cardboard building takes place. The role-playing part leads towards the double learning outcome of both learning about the topic and experiencing it on one’s own body. The original lesson is focused not only on exam-oriented curricular learning, but also transformative learning, and in the session, you will get a feeling of what the triad of play – learning – bildung (Zeuthen, 2026) can look like. The combined goals of learning and building through play are achieved through a process beginning with a brief introduction to the topic (the students will of course have read certain texts in advance) followed by collaborative externalisation of knowledge, then individual reflection, and finally the teacher wrapping it up by elaborating on theoretical perspectives on the topic (the boring slides).
The session is built upon the principle of show it, don’t tell it, and role playing and building a cardboard castle are a major part of the session. Participants will be assigned a role, each with its own difficulties regarding the ability to participate in a collaborative and creative exercise with glue guns and glitter.

References, web links and other resources:

https://www.emerald.com/books/edited-volume/20967/chapter/107841647/Learning-Through-or-Learning-To