Survey Says: Recess Outdoors, Unstructured & On the Playground is Preferred
April 13, 2018
Twitter #VOPChat
May 14, 2018
What a week in Clemson, SC it was! Representatives from IPEMA and the Voice of Play, including 2018 President Tom Norquist and Marketing Committee Chair Brian Johnson, represented and learned for three playful days. The following are highlights from the event.
IPEMA Sponsorship
As in year’s past, IPEMA was a bronze-level sponsor. At the IPEMA table, we gave out magnets and a handout about our recess survey (more on the survey below), as well as a very playful addition – frisbees!
Recess Survey Presentation
On the first night of the conference, Tom and Brian presented the findings from our 2018 survey on recess. The presentation, titled “A Survey on Educators’ Perspectives on the Benefits of Recess,” explored how over recent years there has been more focus on standardized testing and less time for recess in some schools across the country, but that the research shows how recess offers cognitive, social, emotional, and physical benefits. Here are some of the data we dove into:
- The preferred way to play? Outdoors, unstructured, and on the playground
- Teachers use recess as a motivator (but some still take away as a form of punishment)
- Teachers agree recess is essential to student development, behavior and social interactions
- Bullying is real, but teachers agree recess can help
Our presentation was one of the top conference tweets!
Thanks to our audience for such an engaging session. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat as a follow up to our recess survey presentation on Wednesday, April 25 at noon ET during National Playground Safety Week. Just follow us on Twitter and watch our questions that day and follow along with #VOPchat.
Interacting & Learning
What’s great about the Play Conference is the opportunity to learn and network with folks in all different industries from all over the world with one goal: PLAY! We particularly enjoyed sessions from recess expert Olga Jarrett, Founder of the National Institute for Play, play scholar, and IPEMA board advisor Stuart Brown, and NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz. The keynotes were very enjoyable and made us think, such as “The Implications of Race on Play for Youth of Color.”
We came, we learned, we PLAYED!
For more on the Play Conference, search for the hashtag #PlayConf18 on Twitter for great content, insights, and conversation!
