Playfulness as an educational tool

Johan Huizinga (who wrote Homo Ludens, or "Man the Player," in 1938)  suggested that "play is primary to and necessary (though not sufficient) condition of the generation of culture".

Playfulness can be a great educational tool to help children enjoy (and easily retain) learnings. Teachers can adapt many games for teaching most of the  subjects.  What could be some examples? Let us do a quick think:

• http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Flags-of-All-Nations
  
• http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Pass-the-Parcel: At each turn, the student can be asked to do an activity: explain a concept, recite a poem, etc.
• http://www.group-games.com/ice-breakers/homemade-pictionary-game.html
• http://www.group-games.com/stationary-games/hot-seat.html (there can be a five-minute hot seat every day, conducted in a fun manner so that students want to be really at the hot seat)
• Dumb Charade (use relevant subject instead of movies)
• A quick round of Rapid Fire Quiz (First to raise hand gets to answer) 

Handing out gifts for the winners can do wonders. Children love gifts! Even if it is an eraser or a pencil or simply a "star" drawn on the hand.

What would be the impact if more and more teachers play similar games to teach as many subjects as possible in this manner?

Actually, playfulness has a deeper impact. As Hector Rodriguez shares in The Playful and the Serious: An approximation to Huizinga's Homo Ludens:

The purpose of playful learning is not to improve the "effectiveness" of teaching but to encourage a profound rethinking of the essential nature of its methods and subject matter.

A report "Playfulness-based Design in Educational Games: A perspective on an Evolutionary Contest Game" cites: 

When players are interested in something, it keeps them engaged, and when their attention is on one thing, they are described as playful (Eysenck & Keane, 2000).Webster and Martocchio (1992) define playfulness as the device that attracts players’attention and involves them during their play.

Huizinga said:

Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing.

Amen!

Museums, Fun and Education

Bharat reminds me how Museums are a powerful tool for education and it is sad that many Museums in India are in a sad state of affairs.

So, let us revisit Museums' role in education:

Prabhas Kumar Singh quotes John Falk & Lynn (1992), who had extensively studied museum education in U.S.A, India, U.K and many other countries:

The information a visitor receives during a museum visit tends to bear a ‘contextual map’. The museum visit represents a collection of experiences rather than a single unitary phenomenon.

Any information obtained during the museum visit is likely to include social related, attitude related, cognitive related and sensory related association.

These associations will become embedded in memory altogether with the result that anyone facet of these experiences can facilitate the recall of the entire experience.

Thus Museums are rather a source of intellectual stimulation and entertainment.

Exhibition halls, properly arranged secondary collections, labels, guided tours, traveling exhibitions, school class visits, loan services to the schools, training courses to the teachers, illustrated lectures, motion pictures, film trips and publications, etc. are the various means which constitute the educational activities in a museum.

There are many organizations, projects and budgets, but no ENTHUSIASTS among those who run these initiatives!

For example, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an autonomous society under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (formed 1978), administers 27 science centres/museums/planetariums spread all over India.

The Delhi unit is National Science Centre , www.nscdelhi.org, (Pragati Maidan, Near Gate No.1).

Its various VARIOUS INDOOR & OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES include:

• Commemorative Events
• Community Programmes
• Creative Ability Camp
• Environmental Awareness Programmes
• Film Shows
• Nature Study Camps
• Popular Science Lectures
• Science Camp/Fair
• Science Demonstration Lectures (SDL)
• Science Quiz
• Science Seminar
• Science Shows
• Sky Observation Camp
• Taramandal Shows
• Teachers' Training Programme
• Vacation Hobby Camp/ Centre

An interesting project : Virtual Museums as Innovative Tool for Adult Education (VMIT)

Pay MORE to Teachers

It is well known that most people avoid teaching as a profession (usually it is the last resort.)

The United Nations has reiterated that "Low salaries, lack of job security, inadequate training and overcrowded classrooms have combined to deter many willing and eligible people from becoming teachers....The shortage of qualified teachers is one of the biggest challenges to achieving the Education for All goals.”

How can we encourage talented people to take up the teaching profession?

First thing, of course, is to pay them more. But, what else?

What ALL do we need to do to CAUSE a world-wide revolution in education?

How can we create a powerful context for people to CHOOSE teaching as a first-preference profession?

हे शिक्षक जागो!

हर बच्चा एक चंचल कन्हैया है,
खूबसूरत सपनों की सुगन्धित पुरवैया है।
बाहर से कच्ची मिटटी का ढेला है,
किंतु भीतर असीम आत्मबल का मेला है।

हे शिक्षक जागो! अपने कर्तव्य से मत भागो,
इन बच्चों से ही देश का भविष्य दिव्य है।
इसलिए इनके बुनते हुए सपनों को संवारों,
यही तुम्हारा धर्म है, और यही राष्ट्र-सेवा है।

Ekal Vidyalaya

Ekal Vidyalaya: "A charitable trust that initiates, supports, and runs non-formal one-teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over the country. With the participation of numerous non-profit trusts and organizations, this program has now become the greatest non-governmental education movement in the country."

Vision: To banish illiteracy from the face of tribal India by providing free, non-formal education through a People-Movement.

Mission: The Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2011. To date, Ekal Vidyalaya is a movement of over 24,006 teachers, 5,000 (Approximately) voluntary workers, 20 field organizations (scattered in 20 Indian states), and 8 support agencies as on December 2007.

Join as a Volunteer here.

Sponsor a School here.

Teach Children to Draw Animals

Here is great site to help children learn to draw a variety of animals:

How to Draw It :

How to draw animals from pears
How to draw sheep
How to draw a parrot
How to draw an owl
How to draw a dachshund
How to draw a frog
How to draw a hen
How to draw a rooster
How to draw a pig
How to draw a goat
How to draw a cow
How to draw deer
How to draw ducks
How to draw birds
How to draw snails
How to draw a cocker spaniel
How to draw a poodle
How to draw a squirrel
How to draw a koala bear
How to draw a rabbit
How to draw kittens
How to draw bears
How to draw horses
How to draw a crocodile
How to draw a porcupine
How to draw an opossum
How to draw a seahorse
How to draw a swan
How to draw a whale
How to draw a camel
How to draw a kangaroo
How to draw a giraffe
How to make alphabets into animals
How to draw lions
How to draw tigers
How to draw a dinosaur
How to draw a walrus
How to draw penguins
How to draw a rhinocerus
How to draw a hippopotamus
How to draw a peacock
How to draw an angelfish
How to draw elephants
How to draw centaurs
How to draw a unicorn
How to draw a griffin
How to draw an octopus

Which Disney Princess are you?

Bharat (who has an eight year old daughter) had shared a fun link (Disney Princess) for my seven year old daughter, Aditi.

Aditi had been exploring the site for the last few and days and today she stumbled upon the 5-Question Personality Quiz "Which Disney Princess are you?"

It was amusing see my daughter choose among the various options and finally read her result: You're are most like Belle:

You are loving and giving and can always see the good in others. You love to read and spend time with friends.

Very interesting for a 5-Question personality test!