Introduction

Abstract To play as a teaching method in higher education is, naturally, most in use in teacher education and the authors in this special issue responded on an international call inviting them to write about their research on play-based teaching. These articles, all together, cover parts of the gap of knowledge of play-based teaching with adult students. Play-based teaching in teacher education is a method to underline a professional signature: the students ought to know about teaching because they are going to teach children. It also might be a way for the students to learn: they play and appropriate the knowledge at the same time, just as children do. Playing can also be seen as a framework for building relations: an arena where the students dare to take risks and reflect critically within the classroom and in collaboration with the other students. The articles in this issue show different perspectives of play-based teaching.