Move to Learn More [Podcast Series]

• [:56] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dina Buchbinder

  • Dina Buchbinder is Founder and President at Education for Sharing.

• [1:10] Power of play

  • “[W]e humans need to play, to interact and to nurture our curiosity and to become critical thinkers and to just want to give our best to the world.”

• [3:35] Play and learning

  • “You will think that play is just something like a nice to have, but it is at the center, at the heart of how we learn and why we learn and the reason that…like in order to really engage with what is relevant today and how can we prepare our brains to learn what we will need, I think it has an intimate relation to play and to movement…”

• [8:16] Play-reflect-take action model

  • “So we use play. We translate abstract concepts, maybe like civic values or the global challenges also known as the Sustainable Development Goals from United Nations. And we translate them in a way that become a game where you're invited to to use, again, movement at many levels, your body for sure, your mind and your emotions. And the whole model is play, reflect and take action.”  

• [12:12] Engaging the community in play

  • “What would it look like to have parents and teachers playing together? Does that ever happen? It's not rocket science. It's just, like, very human, very simple, but very so not common, so not the practice. And so if these adults can get to know one another from a different perspective, but also talking about what they both care about, they can find in each other a true ally and find in each other a source of support that they didn’t think of before…” 

• [13:58] Power of reflection

  • “And I think that is the biggest gift that we can promote in our youth, but, frankly, also us adults, to have the possibility to take a moment to reflect. And I don't know how many of us do that in our day to day lives, just really learn to have a space and the discipline to have a space to reflect and to find answers or questions, which is even better.”

• [16:24] Good citizenship development

  • “So really, I think that's the most important for a relevant education today and going forward is the fact that we can integrate fully the notion of being proud of who we are and our identities, and being able to celebrate where we come from. And at the same time, be able to fully be amazed about who others are, and to also celebrate that and to want to learn about them and their cultures and their lives and and their circumstances. ”

• [20:18] Moving to learn

  • “And I think that's why all our games, whichever subject we are learning about, they have movement, because inherently that is how we learn.  It’s like, by using our bodies, our minds, our emotions, simultaneously, they're not siloed, it's not like when you use your body then you're not using your mind or vice versa. It's really a comprehensive package, if you will.”

• [23:37] Building the case for moving to learn

  • “And so I think one way of doing that is by continuing showing evidence about how that is the case, how they're better results in terms of academic achievement. If you focus on the, on the right foundations, no?, and really giving the importance to what, what is essential. It's, and sometimes it entails going back to basics.”

• [26:27] Innovation in education

  • “I believe innovation is more about things that exist, but that you put together in a way that didn't exist before.”