Dr. Robbin Gibb, full professor at the University of Lethbridge, has been awarded the 2023 ATA Educational Research Award for her project “Building Adolescent Executive Functioning Through a Play-Based Curriculum.”
The ATA Educational Research Award is presented annually to an Alberta academic engaged in research directly related to school and classroom practice in the Alberta context. This year’s award-winning project explores how play affects brain development during adolescence and whether introducing a play-based curriculum would help build adolescents’ executive functions.
“One of the most effective ways to learn new things is through play,” said Gibb, “It builds relationships between students and teachers as well—play to learn, but also learn to play.”
The award panel, which included two ATA field members and a retired faculty of education professor, was impressed with Gibb’s research project given its pedological implications and the tools that will be developed from the research. In particular, Gibb’s research not only demonstrates the value of play in developing adolescents’ executive functioning, but also seeks to identify interventions that Alberta teachers can easily access and implement in their classrooms.
“The research leads to practical recommendations for play-based curriculum for youth,” the award panel noted, “This was seen as particularly important because play-based curriculum is not readily accessible for secondary school teachers and curriculum leaders.”
With students’ executive functions being critical to student success, this research study suggests that teachers can use play-based learning to both reach curricular outcomes and make students more excited about coming to school every day.
“It is my hope and ultimate desire to remind people that humans are built to play,” Gibb said, “Not just in preschool and kindergarten but all the way through life.” ❚
