Designing for pedagogical competencies and a bodily engaging playful learning approach

The most recent evaluation of the teacher education program pinpoints its inability to prepare teacher education students to work with innovative processes and movement in teaching (Danish Agency for Research and Education 2018). The abilities of pedagogue education students to initiate movement and creative activities are likewise deemed insufficient (Danish Professional Colleges 2019). In the teacher education programme it is, consequently, the individual professor's personal view that decides whether or not movement is included in the teaching. Only 12 per cent of students experience that their professors focus on integrating movement in the teaching, and, in turn, only 14 per cent of professors believe that their students will be able to integrate movement in their own teaching after completing the education (Styrelsen for Forskning og Uddannelse 2018).

On the contrary narratives are both a well-known driver in play designs (Gudiksen & Skovbjerg 2020) and common in didactic approaches in the education of pedagogical personnel, which is why the use of narratives as a component in Play designs could be a potential “didactic bridge” between the vision of a more bodily engaging approach and the vision of a more playful approach. With this project I hope to contribute with knowledge on how, why or why not to use a bodily engaging and narrative approach when designing for playful learning in teacher and pedagogue education.