Change the Way we Teach – For a Lifetime of Learning Part 1

Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.

John Dewey

What is the purpose of education? This question has been asked for centuries, and probably even longer than that. Everyone has an opinion on what we should teach our children, and how that information should be taught. Societal norms, culture, religious preference, moral values, and legal responsibilities all impact the answer to the question. Historically, communities needed a method that would ensure the continuation of the populace. Thus, children were taught the essentials – that which would allow the youth of society to mature into responsible adults. So, yes, social, cultural, and religious norms needed to be transferred from generation to generation. In the 21st century, thoughts on the purpose of education have broadened beyond assimilation and maturation of youth into adulthood. Members of society need to consider the moral, ethical, and economic impact of technology on humanity. Additionally, we now need to transition into a post – epidemic norm that integrates the various facets of education – academic, social, and emotional – into a feasible solution that works for teachers, administrators, parents, and children.

Beyond this, I think that many adults, both parents and teachers alike, would indicate they would like to see the younger generation become excited about education. We want to see a young population become excited about learning and become empowered by the learning process. I, for one, would like to see that. I would like to see the next generation embrace the tradition of education and see it as the process of becoming a better you. As Dewey indicated, education is much more than a process of preparing someone else for life. Education truly is life. However, at times, the value of education gets lost in translation. That is, there is a need to know how things work, cause and effect, and the moral and ethical impact of decisions on our lives. At the same time, learning is fun, exciting, and impactful. At least, it can be. We should find ways of making the learning process so valuable that the younger generation will want to explore, learn, and do. Engaging young minds with this level of excitement is challenging. Allow me to explain. 

I am an educator, teacher, and parent. The statement, ‘education is life’, is truth to me. And I want to impart this value onto my daughter. As with all parenting, things are easier said than done. Today, my story involves math, homework, and frustration. Although math is one of my daughter’s favorite subjects (in addition to art), she does not always find the work easy. I share my daughter’s excitement for math, so I want to be the one that helps her solve the problems that she faces. I have the motivation, but sometimes lack the discernment of doing the right thing at the right time. But one day, I got it right.  

Without giving a hint to my age, some time between 1987 and now, the process of ‘doing’ math changed. I will refer to this as the ‘new’ math. I think a quick Google search will tell me that my timeline is off. Regardless, for this story, the new math refers to the process that my daughter was taught. The old math refers to the way I was taught. The old way of doing math has served me well for forty years. However, knowing the old way does not help when my daughter is stuck on a math problem that “must be solved using the” new way. This is my dilemma. The dilemma in this situation is that both my daughter and I are speaking the same language (i.e., math), we are just speaking it differently. And wisdom tells me there is more than one way of doing things.

The situation – not understanding how to finish her math homework – brought her to tears. And I was not helping the situation. My (temporary) solution was to remove both of us from the situation. I suggested we play a game. At the time, she liked to play hide and seek. My house is big enough for the two of us to find unique places to hide. Sometimes, however, we would hide her dolls. First, I would hide them, and she would seek. Then we reversed who would hide them, and who would seek. This time, I said we were going to hide only one doll, but that I would give her clues to find the missing doll. The clues were riddles, and she needed to decode each riddle to move on to the next riddle that would eventually lead her to the doll. For the game, the only way we could communicate was through deciphering the riddles. At first, this was frustrating for her. But eventually, she was understanding the game, and the riddles, and she was able to find her doll. There are several morals to this story. The moral that I focused on was that there are several ways of understanding a problem. More than that, there is probably more than one way of solving a problem. This helped her understand that my way of solving the math problems on her homework assignment was not wrong, it was simply different. 

To say that games have been used as teaching tools is nothing new or profound. Both in and out of the classroom, people of all ages play games. From Hi Ho Cherry O to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, games have been instrumental in the teaching/learning paradigm. Until now, games have been used as tools or extensions of the learning system. They introduce learners to new knowledge in non-threatening ways. Or they reinforce content in fun and challenging ways. Either way, games provide a platform for student engagement, content familiarity, and positive social and emotional reinforcement. But can games be used as a learning tool, even to the extent that games function as a teaching methodology? The answer may surprise you.

To consider role-playing games as an educational methodology, teachers, administrators, parents, and students will need to agree that this type of structure helps create a suitable place to:

1.     Explore physical (and virtual) surroundings

2.     Learn about and appreciate various cultures

3.     Grasp the relevance of history and historical events

4.     Understand actions and consequences

5.     Reinforce positive social and emotional interactions with others

6.     Engage in science, technology, engineering, and math in a safe environment

The argument against introducing role playing activities into the classroom is that problems are not based on real-world scenarios. How often will students need to solve a puzzle that allow them to enter of leave a secret room? When will they encounter a dragon in which they need to fight, escape, or subdue? How many students will venture on a quest where gold is the reward, but death is more likely the outcome when wrong decisions are made? These are good questions. In Part 2 of this article, I will provide more insight into how real-world skills are learned and reinforced in role-playing scenarios. For now, I will consider the value of role-playing within the educational game model.

In offering a research-based methodology to classroom instruction, I look at tabletop role-playing, and not simulation, games as the more appropriate teaching paradigm. My reason for this is that role-playing scenarios, especially in the tabletop role-playing game structure, are collaborative in nature. Simulation games are often competitive. Although competition is a component of real life, learning to solve a problem – any problem – using research, collaboration, and positive social reinforcement is critical for healthy social and emotional growth. As we venture forward, I will provide evidence and support for role-playing as part of the game-based learning model.

To be continued . . .    

#education #roleplayinggames #k12education #stem #teaching #learning #gamification

Giving credit for the pictures.

URL: https://pixabay.com/images/search/education%20games/