Toward lifelong learning and play.

Research has examined the relationship between play and learning across all ages, beginning with early childhood and through old age. This research spans major views of learning, including behaviorist/empiricist, cognitivist/rationalist, and situative/pragmatist-sociohistoric perspectives. This paper presents an argument for why, given the diversity and depth of play and learning research, a field of play and learning across the lifespan should be organized. It presents this work in terms of current criticisms of lifelong learning, especially its tendency to narrowly focus on learning that supports economic preparedness and argues that better organizing play and learning research into a field would help to advance its societal impact. • Lifelong learning (LLL) is an important area for research and policy in education, but tends to be overly narrow in its views of learning. • Play and learning research provides theoretically diverse empirical work that can help to expand and support LLL. • Play and learning across the lifespan may be studied together as field that further investigates the relationship between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]