No Place for Play-Ful Learning in Higher Education: An Interdisciplinary Critical Evaluation (2015–2025)

Abstract

From 2015 to 2025, many universities across OECD systems adopted playful or game-informed methods to lift engagement. Yet large-scale indicators question their contribution to adult mastery. Objective: To interrogate whether playful learning strengthens or dilutes adult development in higher education, with special attention to delayed retention, transfer, resilience, and labour-market readiness. Methods: We synthesise secondary data from the OECD’s second Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) and U.S. releases by NCES, triangulate employer surveys on graduate readiness, and integrate recent meta-analyses on gamification/game-based learning and cognitive load. Results: OECD and NCES report that adult literacy and numeracy largely declined or stagnated over the past decade, with U.S. averages lower in 2023 than in 2017, and a distribution shift toward lower proficiency levels. Employers in 2024–2025 increasingly report shortfalls in resilience, self-awareness, and communication among new graduates. Meta-analytically, playful/game-based designs raise near-term engagement but show modest, context-dependent effects on achievement and limited evidence of superior delayed retention or transfer. Conclusions: In adult higher education, play is not a pedagogical end. Absent robust evidence of medium, durable learning gains, overt game mechanics should remain constrained and cognitively disciplined. Implications: We propose an adult-fit standard: cap explicit game mechanics unless independent evaluations demonstrate ≥0.20 SD gains on delayed outcomes, interpreted with contemporary benchmarks for education effects and accompanied by cognitive-load safeguards and reflective debriefs that convert “safe failure” into real resilience. Supporting evidence and sources are current to December 2024–May 2025.