When the games are the curriculum
When the games are the curriculum
When the games are the curriculum
By Nial Pickering
January 28, 2021
Summary
In most schools the sound of games stretch from the ubiquitous music of Kahoot to the triumphant call of 'BINGO!' from the Biology lab when someone finally gets all the keywords.
Games only have entertainment value and no long-term use in education.
Games have been shown to improve Higher Order Thinking Skills, such as the analysis and evaluation in games like Risk or Diplomacy or creativity in Dixit and Azul.
Games do not easily fit the curriculum we teach as they are too abstract.
Games have no relevance to the wider world that we are educating students to enter.
Then there is the game that can inspire dread in many, originally called The Landlord Game, we know it now as Monopoly! The true aim of Monopoly is assumed to be 'get rich quick', where in fact it is to bankrupt all of your opponents, providing a spectrum of learning experiences for all ages.
For me, the most amazing aspects about games is their ability to induce a state of deep concentration in what the Taoists and Hungarian-American psychologist Csikszentmihalyi refer to as 'Flow', described as "When thoughts, intentions, feelings, and all of the senses are focused on the same goal".
Reference
Pickering, N. (2021, January 28). Blog: The games of life - win, lose or draw, we all learn through our experiences. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://spectator.sme.sk/c/22583847/when-the-games-are-the-curriculum.html