Play Qualities: Playful Actions in Learning Processes in Teacher Education

This article develops the concept of play qualities based on a research project on playful teaching in social and teacher education. Through a design-based approach, it explores how the concept of play qualities might create opportunities to conceptualize playful approaches to teaching and learning. The concept of play quality has the following characteristics: Play qualities are related to concrete situations perceived as playful, they are related closely to actions, fluctuate and are associated with play perceptions and therefore always play qualities to someone . With the development of the concept of play qualities, the paper’s contribution is to create a concept of playful teaching that enables us to look at existing teaching approaches and ask about their play qualities, just as we can use the concept of play qualities as design principles for future playful teaching. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the concept for education.