Objects-to-relate-with: Exploring Playful Learning Experiences of Students in Interprofessional Higher Education Co-Creating and Playing with Objects

This research article aims to examine the playful learning experiences of
higher education students co-creating and playing with objects in
interprofessional education and collaboration. The article draws on two
design-based research studies, and the analysis investigates how Danish
teacher education and social education students experience meaningful
collaboration through new communicative strategies situated in shared
social spaces for learning. In the collaborative and playful learning
experiments, the students co-create interpersonal and playful objects
that become evocative boundary objects connecting the participants
across professional educations. Lastly, the analysis addresses challenges
in adults re-learning to play, legitimising playful learning approaches in
higher education and the barriers to connecting across educational
boundaries. In the discussion, I develop the concept of ‘objects-to-relatewith’ and further reflect on the pedagogical potentials and challenges
along with the situational constraints of time and culture in higher
education playful learning.