Is Fun The Enemy of Learning?

This provocation questions whether the pursuit of ‘fun’ in university classrooms risks turning learning into edutainment. As active learning and gamified approaches are more widely used, this session examines how fun activities may lack deep pedagogical intent. Drawing on theories of desirable difficulties and productive failure, we argue that genuine learning often involves effort, discomfort, and guided reflection rather than ease or entertainment. Participants will participate in an activity to explore facilitation, inclusion, and meta-learning design. The session challenges educators to critically position fun as purposeful, reflective engagement rather than fun alone (we acknowledge the use of Open AI to draft this abstract).