We are happy to announce that Ben Mardell will join us as the first keynote speaker at this year’s Next Library Festival in May.

As a principal investigator at Project Zero, a research organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ben teaches and conducts research in early childhood settings – something he has been doing for 40 years.

He leads the two projects Pedagogy of Play and Children are Citizens and is also part of a new project – Playing with the Sun

Ben will give a keynote about ‘Supporting Playful Learning in Libraries: A Pedagogy of Play’

Supporting Playful Learning in Libraries: A Pedagogy of Play

Play exists across the animal kingdom and is a shared feature of humanity. Why?

Because play supports learning.

This keynote shares findings from the Pedagogy of Play research project to explain how a comprehensive and collaborative approach to teaching and learning can help librarians promote playful learning; where young people lead, explore the unknown, and find joy in their learning.

More about Ben Mardell

Ben Mardell is the project director of the Pedagogy of Play, a collaboration with the LEGO Foundation and the International School of Billund, exploring how play can be a central part in children’s learning in school.

Ben is a co-author of Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio-Inspired Approaches in All Schools, Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners and Children at the Center: Transforming Early Childhoods Education in the Boston Public Schools. He is the author of From Basketball to the Beatles: In Search of Compelling Early Childhood Curriculum and Growing Up in Child Care: A Case For Quality Early Education.