Director and lead researchers
Paul is LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at Cambridge University, UK. He leads a research team investigating the role of play in children’s early development. He also works as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in the UK National Health Service. Paul's research is focussed on early child development and he has a particular interest in how we give children the best start in life, including the prevention of emotional and behavioural difficulties. Much of this work has explored the role of fathers, as well as mothers, in children’s lives and development.
Jenny is a Lecturer in Psychology and Education and her work at PEDAL focuses on investigating the role of play in children’s social development, and the rigorous development of meaningful and reliable ways to measure play. Jenny is the lead researcher on the PEDAL research strand that examines 'What is play?'.
PEDAL Researchers
Marisol is a Research Associate with the 'Play in Early Life' research area. Her areas of interest lay in play and learning in education; development of self-regulation and metacognition; early communication and literacy.
Elizabeth works as a research associate between PEDAL and the LEGO Foundation. Her research interests focus on play-based educational interventions for children and cognitive development. Elizabeth completed her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit on the impact of cognitive enhancements such as working memory training and non-invasive brain stimulation. Elizabeth is a keen traveller and has spent time working in South Korea as a primary school teacher and completed a JSPS Fellowship at Kyoto University in Japan. Prior to joining PEDAL Elizabeth worked at the Manchester Institute of Education as a postdoctoral researcher investigating the effectiveness of a whole school intervention aimed at improving children’s academic and social outcomes.
Sophia is a Research Associate working with Sara Baker on the Strand C TRAIL project. Her current work involves the development of training materials designed to develop children’s agency through playful approaches to teaching and learning within Early Years education in UK primary schools.
Sophia’s research interests include participatory and visual methods, inclusion, and the multimodal practices of young children. Sophia previously worked as Foundation Stage leader and SENCo in UK Primary and Early Years settings.
Zhen currently investigates parent-child play, peer play, and playful learning, and how these are related to children's cognitive, social, and emotional development and parental mental health.
Dee is a Research Associate working with Sara Baker within the Stepping Stones in Science research area of PEDAL. Her current work involves the development of teaching materials designed to help teachers build children’s autonomy through playful, child-led approaches to early Science teaching within the current UK education system. Dee’s research interests include bi/multilingual children’s development, content and language integrated Learning and teaching (CLIL), as well as teacher cognition and the features of effective teacher professional development. Prior to joining PEDAL, Dee worked at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, as a postdoctoral researcher investigating the effectiveness of a classroom intervention aimed at supporting the development of children’s multilingual identity in order to enhance motivation and inclusion in UK schools.
Eloise works with Paul and Christine on 'Play in Early Life'. Her current research interest lies in the effectiveness of a video-feedback parenting programme (VIPP) to increase caregiver sensitivity with different populations. She is a trial co-ordinator and clinical supervisor on three different studies testing the programme’s effectiveness with foster carers and foster children, parents with personality disorders and teachers in primary schools.
Dave’s research interests revolve around how play relates to learning, particularly in infancy and early childhood. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2017, for which he studied mothers’ play interactions with their 1- to 2-year-old infants. From August 2017 to August 2018 he was part of Roberta Golinkoff’s Child’s Play, Learning & Development Lab at the University of Delaware. In addition to his research, he has acted as a consultant on play and learning for The LEGO Foundation and Skylark Learning Ltd., and given research advice or briefings to the US Military Operations Research Society and the UK Houses of Parliament.
Stephen Bayley is a PEDAL Affiliate and a Research Associate with the REAL Centre, University of Cambridge. His doctoral research focused on education for adaptability and how children in low-income settings develop skills like creativity and problem solving. He also holds a Masters in International Education and Development from the University of Sussex and previously worked as an Education Adviser and Project Manager on programmes in Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania. Stephen initially qualified and practised as a lawyer and has worked with NGOs and community initiatives across Africa and Latin America.
Research Assistants
Allison is a Research Assistant working with Sara Baker developing a digital professional development program designed to help teachers build children’s agency through play. Before joining PEDAL, Allison received her MSc in Educational Neuroscience from UCL Institute of Education. Her past research looked at the relationship between home noise levels and infant attention and learning development.
PhD Students
Chika Ezeugwu is a PhD candidate funded by the LEGO-Cambridge Scholarship at the University of Cambridge. Chika's scientific interests focus on integrating neuroscience, cognition, child development, and education to improve educational practise and experience of children from a low-income context. Chika studied applied psychology (BSc) at Adekunle Ajasin University and joined the Master’s programme in Psychology and Education at the University of Cambridge in 2019. Prior to Cambridge, Chika has worked on policy and strategy projects as a research assistant at Lagos Business School, Nigeria. Chika loves to PLAY and would love to see play-based educational interventions for children's scientific exploration in Africa.
Emily is a PhD student working with Jenny Gibson and Paul Ramchandani. Her work uses data from the ChiRPP study to examine children's communication with their peers during play, exploring how children make decisions together about the ongoing play, and to consider how this communication may be related to characteristics of the children.
Read Emily's latest piece for the 'Z to A of Play' series here.
Kelsey is a PhD student supervised by Prof Paul Ramchandani and Dr. Christine O’Farrelly. Having worked in hospitals both in the US and the UK and with a background in psychology, her research interests are at the intersection of children’s physical and mental health. During her doctoral studies, she will explore the role of play in healthcare, with a specific interest in the impact of play for children with chronic or severe illness.
Before coming to PEDAL, I completed a Masters Degree in International Education Policy at Harvard University. During my PhD I will explore how play-based parent interventions and home visiting programs can promote a range of child outcomes including, EF and self-regulation and look at the ways that we can improve the design, delivery, and conceptualization of these interventions across contexts. I’m excited to be a part of this incredible team and look forward to this next chapter.
Tilly is a PhD student and Research Assistant working within the Play in Early Life Research Group. Tilly is working with Paul to develop a professional development Summer School in play for researchers and educators. She is also involved in engagement and outreach activities sharing PEDAL work and activity.
Lenka is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Jenny Gibson. She is exploring social play, friendships, and wellbeing of children with primary difficulties in language development. Her study design is a series of case studies and Lenka collects data via multiple methods: observations, video recordings of children playing with playmobil, school mapping, one-on-one meetings using art-informed methods. Promoting participatory research, Lenka aims to give active voice to children in research about their social play and social lives.
Krishna is a PhD student supervised by Paul Ramchandani. Her research will be examining parent-child playfulness, and its importance in child outcomes. She will also be exploring parent-child relationships through play in India.
A former primary school teacher herself, Soizic is interested in helping teachers foster a love of learning in children. Her work is split into two main areas: working directly with teachers as part of the Stepping Stones project to help them make changes to their practice, and looking at how we can measure children’s inner motivation, the engine of both play and learning. Before joining the world of education, she wanted to be an entomologist – if you like random facts about ants, she’s the person to ask – and worked in conservation to try and save the planet. She decided working with children was the best solution.
Stephanie is a PhD student working with Dr Jenny Gibson from PEDAL and Prof Nidhi Singal from REAL. Her PhD project looks at a participatory research approach to understanding autistic children’s experience of playful interventions in South Africa.
Domnick Okullo is a PhD student supervised by Sarah and Pauline. His research interest is in the use of play-based pedagogies in Early Childhood Education.
Emma is a PhD student supervised by Dr Jenny Gibson. Broadly her PhD focuses on how autistic play and its role in autism assessment can be reframed towards a strengths-based approach. As part of this, Emma is currently working on an interview-based study of autistic perspectives and experiences of play.
Vicky is a PhD student working with Dr Jenny Gibson from PEDAL and Dr Ben Alcott from REAL. Her PhD project looks at the relation between communication disorders and psychosocial adversities, and how play can be an effective intervention to promote children’s social and emotional skills. Her research interests cut across psychology and sociology of education. She is particularly interested in how different social, economic and psychological factors intertwine with each other in promoting children’s educational achievement and life outcomes in both developed and developing contexts.
