2. Games for Understanding: Understanding

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

2: What is understanding?

Introduction

In the first article we considered the overall state of gaming in education and explored the different ways that games in the classroom have been utilised in not only using them for the use of knowledge acquisition but also for developing other areas of pupil’s learning, specifically developing understanding. In this article we continue on this journey of how games can be used to support pupil’s understanding of concepts and methods by firstly addressing the large question of what is understanding. This is a question that is larger than we have space for here so we will draw on some key ideas within the topic. Secondly, we turn to how the formation of understanding in the pupil can be supported, and finally we begin to consider how the use of games can be a tool in this scaffolding.

What is understanding?

Dewey and Hounsell describe understanding as simply ‘to grasp meaning or ‘grasping the main point’1.  In its essence, understanding is a process in which people make sense of the world around them by forming an internal model2 of an object of understanding3   which could be a concept (an abstract idea) or a phenomenon (a physical process or object) that exists externally, in the real world.

How the meaning or point is ‘grasped’ is further elaborated on by an analogy used by Newton: ‘understanding is the knitting together of ideas, thoughts and information’4. The interconnectedness of understanding is further stressed by Sierpinska 5 who describes it as an internal lattice and Hiebert and Carpenter6 who argue that it is a mental network of relationships. The nodes of this network or the intersections of the lattice that are connected are internal representations7, ideas8, or pieces of information9 that are present in the learner.

The ways in which these connections are made is important, especially for teachers as this is where the processes of understanding occurs. Sierpinksa10 argues that they are constructed through reasoning in the learner, which may include identifying the relationships of similarity and differences, relationships of inclusion (categorisation)11 or causal relationship12.

It is through establishing these relationships that the learner engages in the process of understanding; the connections represent an explanation or a reason that is satisfying to the learner for why two representations or pieces of information are related13. It is through these series of connections between representations or pieces of information that a learner constructs an understanding of a concept or phenomenon.  These connections are very rarely spontaneous and learners must actively seek to establish them to create an understanding14.

Fig. 1 Visual representation of an internal network 15.

An understanding can therefore be seen as mental network of connections between past and present information that is actively constructed to create an internal model of the object of understanding.

Supporting Understanding

As a mental construction, understanding occurs in the mind of the learner and therefore cannot be ‘transmitted’ to a learner16. An adult cannot simply ‘give’ a pupil understanding but its construction can be supported17. There are various approaches that can be taken in supporting understanding; however, the actions that teachers can take are related to the key elements of understanding: forming connections, testing connections and being active in the construction of the object of understanding.  Three areas of interrelated approaches that teacher can take to support the construction of understanding can then be identified: the teacher must highlight key information and connections18; allow for the active performance of understanding19; provide an object of understanding and the reason to form an understanding of it20.

Supporting understanding through games

How then can games support the construction of understanding in the classroom? Games have the potential to provide a framework that highlights key information and models connections, along with opportunities for the performance of understanding.  Similarly, providing a reason to create understanding is closely tied to the motivation of the learner to actively engage in the processes of forming such an understanding21. This can be achieved through providing step-by-step objectives22, making understanding the object of the teaching23, providing clear objectives24, and providing appropriate challenges and feedback in order to motivate the learners25. The ways in which games can present objectives and motivation is well-argued elsewhere and as such will not be a focus for this article.

The understanding that is present in games and through gameplay is closely linked to the elements of the game, and so,  before an analysis of games as a support for understanding can be considered, the type of game and layers of a game must be clarified, and that is what we will turn to in our next article!

< Back to Article 1              Read article 3 here >

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Footnotes:

  1. Dewey, 1933, p. 132; Hounsell, 1984
  2. Johnson-Laird, 1985
  3. Sierpinska, 1994
  4. Newton, 2012, p. 12
  5. Sierpinska, 1994
  6. Hiebert and Carpenter (1992)
  7. Barmby et al, 2009
  8. Newton, 2012
  9. Mayer, 1989
  10. Sierpinska, 1994
  11. Hiebert and Carpenter (1992)
  12. Newton, 1996
  13. Barmby at al, 2009
  14. Newton, 2012
  15. Barmby et al, 2009, p. 3
  16. Newton, 2012
  17. Newton, 1996
  18. Newton, 1996
  19. Perkins, 1993
  20. Perkins, 1994
  21. Perkins, 1994
  22. Newton, 1994
  23. Rosenburg, 1981
  24. Perkins, 1994
  25. Newton, 1998
  26. for example, Bodnar et al, 2016

Click here for full bibliography.