1. Games for Understanding: Introduction

How can tabletop games be used to teach understanding in the primary classroom?

Looking back at  their education, most people will remember some kind of game that was played in their classroom, sometimes it was a reward, sometimes a way to calm the class, and sometimes a way to learn something new. Perhaps you might also remember the way that there was a wave of excitement when the teacher used those fateful words: ‘Today we are going to play a game.’ But how can games be used effectively to support earning in the classroom? In this series of articles we look at how games can be used in education as a tool, not just a reward,  to teach understanding, not just knowledge.

1: Games and learning

Introduction

Board and table-top games have been used in education, instruction and training for hundreds of years1 and, despite the advent of the digital age, physical games still remain an often used tool in the classrooms of the UK. In fact, in the wider world and outside the classroom, the board game industry is experiencing what some have called a ‘renaissance’ 2 and others a ‘golden age’ 3. Yet the games used in class are still restricted to the mechanics of older games which are often used by teachers to motivate children in the acquisition, or recall, of facts. Even in the scant research that has been completed recently that focuses on board games, the games that were used focused on the memorising and testing of learned facts 4.

Educational psychologist, Mayer 5, however, argues that in research that focuses on computer games in education there has been a shift, from the motivational effects of games to the actual teaching and learning implications of games in regard to cognitive skills. In other words a shift from using games simply to motivate students to engage with the content, to using games to actually support the students development and learning. Some have argued that these thinking skills such as creativity, evaluative thinking, decision-making, self-discipline, and critical thinking have been sidelined in schools during the ‘age measurement’ 6. However, such skills are essential for the modern age in which we live 7.

Why understanding?

Of these thinking skills, Newton argues that understanding acts as the base from which each of these forms of thinking can be performed or practised 8. It is this understanding that allows people to make sense of the world and Halford 9 describes it as the most valuable acquisition a person can make. It affords people flexibility 10 in their thinking and confers a greater autonomy in their interactions with the world by freeing them from the confines of memorised procedures and knowledge 11. It is this basis and means for deeper thinking which has been stressed as a focus of the 2013 revision of the National Curriculum in which it was stated that schools should prioritise teaching in terms of depth, rather than breadth 12. This is reinforced with a quick word search of the primary curriculum which reveals that the word ‘understand’ is used 237 times. It is therefore not only an objective in schools, it is an important skill for making sense of the world and as basis for further learning.

However, understanding, unlike facts, exists in the head of the learner which make this a challenge for teachers to help their pupils acquire13. Understanding may not be transferred but it can be fostered and supported 14 and it is here that games present an opportunity in the classroom, not just as tools for making knowledge acquisition more ‘fun’, but by supporting the construction of understanding.  This series of articles will therefore argue that table top games can be an effective tool in supporting the construction of understanding when they are chosen for a specific purpose and mediated by the teacher.

What’s in these articles?

To consider the potential of games as a support for understanding, firstly, the diffuse definition of understanding will be addressed and its common elements drawn out. Using these areas as a base we will argue that, through the interaction of its component layers, a game supports understanding by acting as an external model of the target concept or phenomena and reinforces understanding by highlighting relevant information and key relationships. The externalisation of understanding will then be considered by arguing that games allow for the performance of understanding for different purposes. Finally, we will examine how the role of the teacher is crucial if games are to be effective in the classroom.

Next article: What is Understanding?

Read article 2 here >

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Footnotes:

  1. Hoy, 2018
  2. Chabris, 2017
  3. Duffy, 2014
  4. for example, Anyanwi, 2014; Swiderska et al, 2013; Sardone and Devlin-Scherer, 2016
  5. Mayer, 2014
  6. Biesta, 2010; Claxton and Lucas, 2015; Newton L. , 2013
  7. Newton, 2012; Sierpinska, 1994
  8. Newton, 2013
  9. Halford, 1993
  10. Entwistle, 2009
  11. Newton , 2012
  12. DfE, 2013; Gibb, 2015
  13. Hiebert and Carpenter, 1992; Sierpinska, 1994
  14. Newton, 2012

Click here for full bibliography.