Learning Through Play in Teacher Education

Toward that end, our teacher preparation program at Texas A&M University-Commerce has begun the journey to reignite the existence of play within our schools and early learning programs by incorporating more playful experiences in how we train our teachers. In this article, we discuss the need for teacher candidates to experience play, the equitable benefits of playful learning, and strategies that we use to position play within a standards-based curriculum. Through dialogue with our strategic partners in area programs and schools, we continually collect data that measure the effectiveness of this approach, including ways playful learning aligns with our state-mandated teacher evaluation system (T-TESS 2016). [...]future educators must understand the value and educational utility of play before leaving their teacher preparation programs.