• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Learning / The Primacy of Play in Learning

The Primacy of Play in Learning

September 27, 2022 by Dr Rob Long Leave a Comment

Originally posted on October 9, 2017 @ 7:10 AM

The Primacy of Play in Learning

safety firstOne of the world experts on Learning is Sir Ken Robinson. His recent video on play (watch it below) provides a nice outline of the essentials in learning through discovery, imagination, creativity and free unconstrained activity/thinking. Although Robinson’s work is primarily targeted at schools his work in general is brilliant for anyone wanting to know the fundamentals of learning, particularly the nature of the unconscious in learning. His book ‘Out of our Minds’ should be compulsory reading for all people with a passion about helping people tackle risk. The discussion of this topic is covered more fully in my recent book: Tackling Risk, A Field Guide to Risk and Learning (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/tackling-risk/ )

Play is about much more than sport or games although these are helpful ways of learning about people, self, community, competition, trust, hope, faith, uncertainty and risk. Play is spontaneous, improvisational, vigorous and unrestrained. Play is studied in great depth by early childhood learning specialists. However, the qualities of free and open decision making, subverting and stepping outside rules and intuitional decision making should be of all interest to people in the risk industry. Unfortunately, people often frame the process of play as ‘unproductive’, it often doesn’t have a measureable outcome. This is because the things one learns in play are of a higher nature in learning and cannot be measured. In risk and safety we tend to value what we can measure rather than value what we can’t measure. The things that matter most in human relationships cannot be measured and any effort to try and measure them kills off their value eg. love, trust, relationship, friendship etc

The key to understanding play is ‘autotelicity’ that is, engaging in activities for their own sake, as an end in itself. Most activities, even our work has value in learning IN the activity as much as the OUTCOME of the activity. It is through play that we learn so much about ourselves, others and relationships. This is often the case when we find work to be ‘fun’. There is a sense of joyfulness inherent in play.

Here are some of the essentials in understanding play:

· A state of mind embedded in an activity

· Intrinsic value in performing in the activity

· A lack of form, coercion and structure in the activity

· A sense of meaning (semiosis) in playing

· Voluntary participation

· No projected or controlled purpose in the activity other than the joy of the activity itself

· Freedom of time

· Diminished consciousness of self

· Improvisation, creativity and adaptability in the activity

· Desire and motivation to participate and continue in the activity without outcome

Ryal et.al (2013 The Philosophy of Play. Routledge. London. P. 25) describe play as ‘an ontological distinctive phenomenon’. This means that there is something special in human ‘being’ in the play. The work ontological comes from the root ‘ontos’ meaning ‘being’.

There is a ‘presence’ or ‘meeting’ with others in the play. What that Martin Buber described as i-thou or Jacques Ellul describes as ‘dialectic’. It is often in play that we learn how to ‘connect’ with others and ourselves. We learn to ‘tune in’ to ourselves and others as a way of understanding and learning how to predict decision making and read people ‘in-situ’.

Play doesn’t conform but is most often about non-conformance, something that risk and safety people ought to know much more about. There is often an element of play in why things sometimes go wrong. In a study of play we learn about disorder, unruliness and passion. Play helps us understand human decision making not as rational/irrational but as a-rational, beyond the rational construct risk and safety imposes in a binary way on human activity. The idea of zero contradicts everything we know about play and learning. It is in the study of play that we can learn so much about risk.

For more study of the nature of play the Australian Educationalist Marc Armitage is very helpful:

Malarkey Playwork

Marc Armitage

Maybe these articles might also be helpful:

Key Elements of Play

Philosophy of Play

Play from Goodtastic Films on Vimeo.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’! - May 24, 2023
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process - May 23, 2023
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble - May 21, 2023
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video - May 21, 2023
  • Safetie - May 21, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Learning, Robert Long, Safe Behaviours, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: learning, play

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,521 other subscribers

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Chris. on It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Pierre Joubert on Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • James on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Admin on We are all equal
  • James Parkinson on We are all equal
  • Rob Long on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on We are all equal
  • Brent Charlton on What Does Safety Achieve?
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Simon Cassin on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • Rob Long on You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe

The KISS of Death in Safety

Is Your Safety World Too Small?

You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time

When Safety (Zero) is Abusive

Hands Up the Best Safety Fraud!

Communicating Professionally in Risk

How NOT to be Professional in Safety

How NOT to do Anything About Culture in Building and Construction

Celebrating 60 Years of Lifeline

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Safety Acronyms

Recent Posts

  • When Safety Delights in ‘I Told You So’!
  • My Story is Better than Yours
  • Understanding Safety as a Cultural Reproductive Process
  • The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser
  • Thinking Outside the Safety Bubble
  • Understanding Language Influencing, A Video
  • Safetie
  • You are NOT the Sum of Safety
  • Update on SPoR in India, Brazil and Europe
  • It is NOT My Responsibility to Keep You Safe
  • Safety at the Margins
  • Research Basics for Safety
  • We Need Communities and They Need Us
  • Researching Within The Safety Echo Chamber
  • Confirmation Bias, Risk and Being Offensive
  • Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk
  • Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging
  • Zero Doesn’t Work, Road Fatalities Increase
  • Can There Be Other Valid Worldviews Than Safety?
  • Evaluating Value by the Value of What You Don’t Know
  • Reality vs Theory, The Binary Divide
  • No Paradigm Shift with BBS
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Is Your Safety World Too Small?
  • What Does Safety Achieve?
  • In Praise of Balance in Risk and the Threat of Extremism
  • We are all equal
  • You Can Fool Someone Some of the Time but, You Can Fool Safety All of the Time
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • iCue Engagement Process
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • For the Monarchists of Safety
  • The Sully Effect
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk
  • Scapegoating and Safety
  • Understanding Habit, Habituation and Change
  • Don’t Mention the War
  • Safety in Design for Who by Who?
  • Beyond ‘What We Do Around Here’
  • Asking the Wrong Questions
  • When Safety (Zero) is Abusive
  • Mandala as a Method for Tackling an Ethic of Risk (a Video)
  • Safety Cosmetics
  • Visualising the EHS Role
  • Towards Dumb
  • Workshops with Dr Long – Vienna, Austria 26-30 June 2023
  • Visual, Verbal and Relational Mapping in Risk Assessment
  • Abduction in Risk and Safety
  • Creating Myths and Rituals in Safety
  • The Safe Christmas Psychosis

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

No Hope for Safety

My Journey with SPoR

The Strange Challenge of Unlearning in Safety

Safety Leadership Training

SPoR and Myth

Emotions, Bias and Heuristics in Risk

The Ethics of Safety

The Measurement Mindset in Safety???

SPoR, Ideology and Safety Myth

What’s Faith Got To Do With Safety

Semiotics and Safety

In Honour of George Robotham and Geoff McDonald

‘Pause and Ponder’ – what we can learn from social psychology academics

Balance in Risk and Safety

Learning from people who we don’t agree with

Dumbs for Safety

Social Psychology of Risk Challenge

A Parallel Universe in Safety

Deepwater Horizon and The Suppression of Risky Conversations

Triarachic Thinking in SPoR

I’m Concerned That We Can’t See The Safety Forest For The Safety Trees

7 Incredible Ways To Diagnose Risk More Effectively

The Curse of Cognitivism

Risk, Safety and Fundamental Attribution Error

Managing Risk Rather Than Striving for Absolute Safety

How is the unconscious in communication critical for understanding and managing risk?

Why is Myth so Scary to Safety?

Safety-as-Persona

Safety as Avoidance

The Repression of Uncertainty

Envisioning and Creativity in Safety

Social Psychology Applied to the Discernment of Risk

Sanctimonious Safety

Don’t Let Evidence Get in the Way of Safety

Listening, Learning, Helping and Caring about Risk

SPoR Introductory Workshop Series April 2020

Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity

The Colour of Safety

What Does Your Risk and Safety Icon Say?

Safety and Risk Culture Cloud

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,521 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY

x
x