Learning through play has emerged as an important strategy to promote student engagement, inclusion, and holistic skills development beyond the preschool years. Policy makers, researchers and educators have promoted the notion that learning though play is developmentally appropriate—as it leverages school-age children’s innate curiosity while easing the often difficult transition from preschool to school. However, there is a dearth of evidence and practical guidance on how learning through play can be employed effectively in the formal school context, and the conditions that support success. This paper addresses the disconnect between policy, research and practice by presenting a range of empirical studies across a number of well-known pedagogies. These studies describe how children can foster cognitive, social, emotional, creative and physical skills through active engagement in learning that is experienced as joyful, meaningful, socially interactive, actively engaging and iterative. The authors propose an expanded definition for learning through play at school based on the science of learning, and summarize key findings from international studies on the impact of children’s learning through play. They identify four key challenges that underpin the considerable gap between education policy and practice, and propose a useful framework that addresses these challenges via a common language and structure to implement learning through play.

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Substantive work has been undertaken to define and frame global citizenship education (GCED). Global citizenship and related terms are included in the curricula and policy statements of many diverse nations around the world, however, the education sector often struggles to enact and monitor GCED in ways that reflect the changing conditions of students and schools. This study responds to an identified need for enhanced tools and resources for schools and systems to monitor and evaluate GCED, in accordance with United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7. This need is particularly pressing in the primary school sector, where little research has examined staff or student interpretations of GCED, and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, where despite significant interest, gaps in understanding and implementing GCED remain. This report presents a draft framework for monitoring effective GCED, which is relevant to systems, schools, and staff supporting upper primary school students. The framework has been developed from a review of existing instruments and research, including work undertaken to frame and assess global citizenship for the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM). To develop this framework, we have also sought the input of GCED experts and teachers from the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and Australia to ensure relevance to these contexts. Accompanying the framework is a series of preliminary questions for systems, schools, and teachers designed to assist in exploring enabling conditions for the enactment of global citizenship, which is also underpinned by key findings and gaps from the literature.