Use teaching tools like PowerPoint pres- entations and videos â YouTube is an ... Confucius in 450BC is reputed to have said,. 'I hear and I forget; I see and I ...
Play and lea
Many Indian schools are without science laboratories, but there is still a way to enable active science learning in classrooms and playgrounds through hands-on inquiry, as Suresh Joshi explains. 22
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It’s a truism in educational circles that if education is to be meaningful for students, it must be relevant. This view lies at the heart of the concept of Continuous Comprehensive Education introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education in Indian secondary schools. But what is ‘relevant’? Educators agree that education is about applying what learners learn in their daily lives, not merely about learning facts and succeeding in exams. Learning depends on numerous factors, from a learner’s motivation and interest, and orientation to failure – either embracing or fearing it – to the learning environment and the content knowledge and skills, as well as pedagogical practices of the teacher. It also depends, of course, on the curriculum, which identifies the logical progression of particular content and desired outcomes for students at particular stages – often defined as progression points by age, or class or grade. The key to ensuring that teaching is relevant and enables students to apply what they learn is to focus on inquiry, and one of the best ways to do that is to build on what students already understand and can do. In science, a useful strategy is to draw on students’ knowledge about and skills in playing games.
School resources in India Perhaps the most plentiful resource in schools in India is our students. According to the ninth Annual Status of Education Report, released in January, there has been a steady increase in the provision of libraries, with the proportion rising from 63.6 per cent in 2010 to 77.1 per cent in 2013. The bad news is that 87 per cent of rural schools are without science laboratories, and large number of students, and teachers, have no access even to simple instruments to perform scientific experiments. It’s difficult to expect good teaching and good student outcomes when many of our schools are still struggling to provide basic amenities like playgrounds and fundamen-
tal learning environments like libraries and laboratories. While improving facilities can’t be done overnight, it is possible to use games for inquiry based learning in classrooms and to develop cost-effective pedagogical tools for teaching and learning about science through games. My research at the University of Maryland in the United States, as the recipient of a grant through the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, indicates that a game-based teaching model using Indian traditional games is a feasible way to teach and learn science.
Game-based teaching and learning Traditional and modern games play a constructive role in developing many motor skills and conceptual skills. Put simply, children learn through games since games have been central to the way people share their culture since ancient times. It is not only that complex scientific principles can be demonstrated and discussed through game playing, but also that learning is stimulated by the active participation of students. The developmental psychologist Jean Piaget proposed that in the construction of knowledge, assimilation is associated with play whereas accommodation involves logical or serious thinking. Likewise, social constructivist Lev Vygotsky, observed that, ‘In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behaviour; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.’ The game-based teaching model is an instructional method drawing on traditional games to enable active learning in science classrooms through hands-on inquiry based experiments and activities. Students are given freedom to think and experiment in their own ways to strengthen skills like developing strategies for problem solving, designing and building, as well as strengthening an orientation to embrace failure – since a degree of difficulty, and failure, is fundamental to most games, as more and less proficient golfers – to pick a game at random – will readily attest.
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The scientific mechanisms in games can best be understood if learners both engage in playing the game and in discussion facilitated and extended by their teacher.
Every game, traditional or modern, involves principles of physics. Consider Lattu or spinning tops, the cricket-like GilliDanda with a shorter wooden stick as a ball or gilli and a longer wooden stick as a bat or danda, or Patang Bazee or kite flying. The scientific mechanisms in games can best be understood if learners both engage in playing the game and in discussion facilitated and extended by their teacher.
Implementing game-based teaching and learning Game-based teaching and learning works best with small groups of students. A demonstration to begin with is useful, not to teach students how to play the game but to discuss the scientific mechanisms that are at play in the game. A short video of the game is very useful at this point, so that the teacher can guide the initial discussion to these scientific mechanisms. Students then play the game in order to understand both the game and the scientific mechanisms. Their involvement is usually stimulating and motivating, particularly if the game is familiar to them. It’s important to give adequate time for discussion between group members for brainstorming and independent thinking about these scientific mechanisms. Following brainstorming and discussion, students write down their ideas and observations in terms of key words so that the teacher can see their current knowledge and understanding or misunderstanding. The teacher notes common ideas and observations on the board for brief discussion and review of knowledge and understanding or misunderstanding, using mathematics to explain and represent the students’ ideas and observations in terms of scientific mechanisms. This can proceed through the students’ discussion or the teacher’s input, depending on the knowledge and understanding the students bring to the discussion. It can be useful to repeat the demonstration, if required, at this stage. This is followed by a question session to invite queries, further investigation and a 24
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recapitulation, with the help of key words, of the scientific mechanisms at play in the game under investigation. An assessment quiz follows to check students’ knowledge and understanding. This enables the teacher to evaluate the students’ current knowledge and understanding, and address any persisting misunderstandings.
Further tips Use simple and familiar games and keep scientific terminology to a minimum until the students have gained a firm grip on basic concepts. For example, you might want to look at why a spinning top veers or tips as it slows down, but would introduce terms like velocity, deceleration, precession and torque once your students have made observations about the tendency to veer or tip as it slows. Stimulate your students’ thinking by encouraging them to cite other day-to-day examples in which they can demonstrate the scientific mechanisms that are at play in the game. Stimulate your students’ thinking by encouraging them to cite similar games from other cultures. Involve other teachers and expert student volunteers to demonstrate the game successfully. Avoid giving your own insight. Encourage your students to think for themselves. Be prepared for failures or problems to occur during the demonstration. It’s quite proper to incorporate observations about these. Use teaching tools like PowerPoint presentations and videos – YouTube is an obvious resource to investigate. Note all student responses to ensure the teaching-learning process is student centred and to obtain feedback so that you can make modifications to support each student’s further learning. Where the games you select require teamwork and perseverance, highlight such social values even while focusing on the scientific mechanisms that are at play in the game.
Good games to try
Hear, see and do
Kanchey or marbles: addresses calculated force; friction; transfer of energy – potential energy into kinetic energy; collision. Gulli-Danda: addresses torque – couple of force; rotational motion; angle of projection; horizontal range; translational motion; impulse; trajectory followed by the gulli. Gulel or slingshot: addresses elastic potential energy; conservation of energy; projectile motion; elasticity – stress and strain; restoring force; transfer of potential energy stored, in the form of work, into kinetic energy – the work-energy theorem. Satoliya, Sampholia, Pithoo, Lagori or seven stones: addresses action and reaction; inertia; collision; angle of release; Bernoulli’s theorem; spinning of the ball. Lattu or spinning tops: addresses spinning; rotational motion; balancing; equilibrium of forces; elasticity; torque; precession. Keekli: addresses balancing of forces; friction; rotational motion; circular motion; force – action and reaction, and momentum. Patang Bazee or kite flying: addresses Bernoulli’s theorem; tension; aerodynamics – lift and drag; buoyancy. See-saw or teeter-totter: equilibrium; rotational force and torque; centre of gravity.
Confucius in 450BC is reputed to have said, ‘I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.’ At the heart of the demonstration, play, observation and analysis in the game-based teaching model is inquiry as a strategy for learning. The model also supports classroom learning by drawing on students’ real-life knowledge and experience, motivating them to learn by extending from what they already know and can do as a result of the games they play. While the game-based teaching model best suits students in middle and high school, the approach draws on the knowledge, demonstration, play, observation and analytical skills of all students.
Limitations and challenges The game-based teaching model can be time consuming, particularly when you first use the approach and during the demonstration stage in large setting classrooms. Keeping the focus of students on the scientific mechanisms rather than the games themselves can be challenging. Resources – the games themselves and space within which to play them – can be a challenge. Designing a highquality demonstration requires time, energy and resources. Work on lesson plans, animations, videos, video games and libraries of online demonstration tools that investigate and explain scientific mechanisms are in the pipeline.
At the heart of the demonstration, play, observation and analysis in the game-based teaching model is inquiry as a strategy for learning.
REFERENCES Annual Status of Education Report. (2014). Ninth Annual Status of Education Report. New Delhi: ASER Centre. Available at http://img.asercentre.org/ docs/ Publications/ASER%20Reports/ ASER_ 2013/ASER2013_report%20sections/aser2013fullreportenglish.pdf Piaget, J. (1976). Piaget’s theory. In, B. Inhelder, H.H. Chipman and Zwingmann, C. Eds. Piaget and His School: A reader in developmental psychology. New York/ Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (pp.11-23). Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. FURTHER READING Matthews, M.R. (n.d.). Constructivism in Science and Mathematics Education. Available at http://educa.univpm.it/inglese/ matthews.html Williams, E. & Underwood, J. (1970 (2013)). The Science of Hitting. New York: Touchstone. Randel, J.M., Morris, B.A., Wetzel, C.D. & Whitehill, B.V. (1992). The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: A review of recent research. Simulation and Gaming. 23(3): 261-76.
Suresh C. Joshi is the Head of the Learning Resource Centre and Department of Physics at Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar, Delhi, India, and a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program Fellow, 2012. Photo © Luis Shutterstock
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