From: Helen Collins
Subject: play in the adult classroom
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 1997 1:34PM
Hi Major FUN and thank you for this site.
I teach management, human resource management and business communication to adults at 1st and 2nd year college level. I teach in a Polytechnic mainly to mature students — the average age of my students this semester was 36 — and many of them have had little formal secondary education.
I have found that I need to spend much time helping the students to learn how to learn — many of them having been let down by the traditional school system they ‘endured’ during their compulsory years of schooling. They often have little confidence in their ability.
Many seem to learn better using tactile and kinesthetic methods and I am finding that ‘games’ and ‘play’ in the classroom tend to help with the following:
Students find themselves interacting with the lesson content without realising it — less threatening than tradition methods
Students are interacting with each other – thereby processing the material in a variety of ways and seeing more than just two perspectives – mine and theirs.
Non-competitive games are best unless students are working in group – intra-group competition lessens and a little inter-group competition adds ‘drive’. In the groups, individual strengths are used and individual weaknesses supported. It is a safe place to ‘not know’ and learning happens vicariously.
We tend to make lots of noise – including enough laughter to attract the ‘fun police’ from time to time – as if having fun was not conducive to effective leanring.
I’m not sure, but I believe recall is enhanced, because game memories provide ‘hooks’ for information.
Sometimes I feel a little like a pioneer, and sometimes my colleagues look sideways at me – and often new students move into ‘culture shock’ for a time when they come into my classrooms. However, I am convinced this approach (alongside more tradtional talk & chalk stuff) is helping getting some students through these university
level courses with less stress and better results than they would otherwise.
I came across your site while looking for material / ideas / help in my work.
I realise that answering this would take time, but I’m figuring that if you didn’t want strange people from far away writing to you, you wouldn’t have provided the channel!
I would very much appreciate it if you could give me any suggestions about appropriate games for my students, appropriate sites to visit on the Internet (I am very much a beginner on the Net), or any other stuff you feel like sharing.
Many thanks,
Helen Collins, Wanganui, New Zealand
—
Glad to meet you, Helen.
Try using Google or whatever search service you can find. Then search for Business Simulation Games, for example. My friend Thiagi offers a fairly wide doorway into this whole category of educational games that are most often instructive, and generally fun. You might also look at NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming Association) for more leads.
Another suggestion: engage your students in designing games, in small teams, using the whole class as a test group. I’d start with creating variations or combinations of games they already know — whatever games work (play) well for the class so far: board games, card games, computer games, people games (New Games). This engages their critical and their play faculties, and begins to develop sensitivity to the effect of rules on social and individual behavior.
Yours in play and learning,
Major Fun
—
From Helen Collins
My latest purchase is two pairs of slippers for wearing in the classroom during the winter months. (You may remember my business/management students have an average age of 35) One pair is in the form of fat, fluffy pink pigs and the other pair is made like lion heads-with mouths that open and shut when I wriggle my toes.
Also – spot test made up by students.
- Class into two teams
- Have 30 minutes, open book, for each team to design 10 quiz questions with one or two word answers on revision topic
- Tutor as quizmaster (I reserve the right to be non-PC)
- Each team asks a question of the other team in turn
- Answering team (books closed) may confer
- Answer given
- Questionning team decides whether to accept answer or give a clue ** Much cheering when answered correctly
Rules are agreed upon first – eg. Questions can be challenged because they don’t have one or two word answers or because they are silly, or for any other reason students manage to come up with.
Gets very noisy sometimes – outcome is:
- Students interact with material in supportive atmosphere while desiging questions
- Students interact with material while designing answers
- Students interact with material while asking and conferring on answers
- Student interact with material while deciding on acceptance of answers and challenges
- Students interact with material while deciding on a clue which will give the least info away
- Students interact with material while deducing answer from clues
- Everyone wins
“Prize” is usually a bag of individually wrapped penny lollipops – the “winning team” ie the team with most answers for least clues – gets to have first pick of their favourite colours.
Seldom seen middle aged men and women study so intensively, so supportively and laugh so much at the same time.
Cheers, Helen
PS Sometimes use noise makers (horns, buzzers etc) for turn taking
(at Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic – New Zealand