The effectiveness of installing playful learning landscapes in everyday urban spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT How can city planners, developmental scientists, designers, architects, and public/private institutions come together to leverage the 80% of children’s waking time spent outside of school to benefit their development? One answer is the Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) initiative, which marries the learning sciences with urban revitalization to craft carefully planned playful learning experiences that focus on learning outcomes. Playful Learning Landscapes installations placed in high traffic environments in cities ensure maximal exposure, aligning with best practices in the field of prevention science. Results of this meta-analysis provide initial evidence that PLL installations demonstrate large effects on caregiver behavior and caregiver-child interaction, and medium effects on child behavior, in comparison to either control sites or pre-PLL installation. Results also suggest the presence of two significant moderators: the presence of community involvement and type of PLL (permanent physical installations versus pop-ups). While the number of studies included here is small, these findings are encouraging and suggest that continued investment in creating and evaluating new PLL installations is appropriate.