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Re: [xmca] Playing to Learn
Interesting article...
I want to do my PhD research on something like this (the use of games in
education and its influence in the development of the higher
psychological functions - scholarship suggestions accepted). Many of the
things proposed by her already appears in the book "La imaginacion y el
arte en la infancia" from Vygotsky (don't know the name in english or
russian)...
And this kind of thing is not so imaginary... In Denmark there is a
boarding school that tries to implement some ideas like these (i don't
know their theoretical framework)... They use roleplaying games as
background for their educational practices. For those who wants to know
more about this school there are two articles:
Article about Danish school (page 12):
http://www.solmukohta.org/pub/Playground_Worlds_2008.pdf
Another article:
http://knutepunkt.laiv.org/2009/book/ElementsOfHarryPotter/
But, despite few exceptions, i think that parents and even some kids are
not interested in something like this... In Brazil the good education is
that who makes the young to pass the university exam test. This kind of
education proposed by Susan demands a lot more resources, better
educators, and small classes (most public schools here have about 40
people per class... but some private ones can reach 200). The
government, in a "market way of thinking", wants more people with
diploma (diploma in not equal to good or even real education) expending
less every year. They are not interested in real good human formation...
It is not good for the government or the corporations...
I see some projects like this of Susan working, but only in small
private schools with a no profit policy (generally these schools are
formed by association of educators and parentes, and all the profit is
reversed to improve the school)
But how to make this work in a larger scale? How make the people and the
governments to listen? Vygotsky wrote his book in 1930, and he was not
the only ane... In Brazil we have Paulo Freire also stating that formal
education must have a true meaning and use for those who are engaged in
it.
Don't know if my ideas are clear, but here are my 2 cents
contribution...
Wagner
Em Seg, 2010-02-08 às 06:03 -0500, Peter Smagorinsky escreveu:
> MY Times Op-Ed Contributor
>
> Playing to Learn
>
> o
>
>
>
> By SUSAN ENGEL
>
> Published: February 1, 2010
>
> New Marlborough, Mass.
>
> THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the
> success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on
> those assessments. It's great that the administration is trying to undertake
> reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to
> overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach - and the
> testing that is driving it - is completely at odds with what scientists
> understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and
> has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
>
> In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators
> should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science:
> developmental precursors don't always resemble the skill to which they are
> leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help
> children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during
> toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school
> is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking
> and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.
>
> So what should children be able to do by age 12, or the time they leave
> elementary school? They should be able to read a chapter book, write a story
> and a compelling essay; know how to add, subtract, divide and multiply
> numbers; detect patterns in complex phenomena; use evidence to support an
> opinion; be part of a group of people who are not their family; and engage
> in an exchange of ideas in conversation. If all elementary school students
> mastered these abilities, they would be prepared to learn almost anything in
> high school and college.
>
> Imagine, for instance, a third-grade classroom that was free of the laundry
> list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students, and that was
> devoted instead to just a few narrowly defined and deeply focused goals.
>
> In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories
> read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and
> reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being
> immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment;
> the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is
> given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more
> time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become
> good readers.
>
> Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual
> meaning to them - stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons,
> letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and
> to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.
>
> In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of
> time each day practicing computation - adding, subtracting, multiplying and
> dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to
> turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science:
> devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting
> things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities
> children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.
>
> What they shouldn't do is spend tedious hours learning isolated mathematical
> formulas or memorizing sheets of science facts that are unlikely to matter
> much in the long run. Scientists know that children learn best by putting
> experiences together in new ways. They construct knowledge; they don't
> swallow it.
>
> Along the way, teachers should spend time each day having sustained
> conversations with small groups of children. Such conversations give
> children a chance to support their views with evidence, change their minds
> and use questions as a way to learn more.
>
> During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has
> shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the
> material or activity they are learning. Play - from building contraptions to
> enacting stories to inventing games - can allow children to satisfy their
> curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also
> help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable
> hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else's perspective and
> thinking of alternate solutions.
>
> A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to
> collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or
> reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to
> one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at
> the corners of the day.
>
> The reforms suggested by the administration on Monday have the potential to
> help liberate our schools. But they can only do so much. Our success depends
> on embracing a curriculum focused on essential skills like reading, writing,
> computation, pattern detection, conversation and collaboration - a
> curriculum designed to raise children, rather than test scores.
>
> Susan Engel is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the
> teaching program at Williams College.
>
>
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> Using Talk and Play to Develop Minds
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> Published: February 7, 2010
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> Eleanor Rudge
>
> Re "
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02engel.html?scp=1&sq=playing%20t
> o%20learn&st=cse> Playing to Learn," by Susan Engel (Op-Ed, Feb. 2):
>
> I agree that our schools should try to develop our children's ability to use
> their minds constructively rather than trying to fill those minds with facts
> they will never use. But there's a problem.
>
> It's hard to test thinking skills, and education needs tests. Without them,
> it cannot be managed. Teachers cannot tell how well students are doing.
> Principals cannot tell how well teachers are doing. And governments cannot
> tell how well schools are doing.
>
> So, until we develop good tests to measure student thinking skills, our
> schools will probably continue to try to fill their students' memories with
> facts. Perhaps the Department of Education could do some constructive
> thinking about that. Peter Kugel
>
> Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 2, 2010
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> "Playing to Learn" is simply one of the best opinion articles ever to appear
> in The New York Times, at least during the 50-plus years I've been reading
> it. It is smart, succinct, powerful and vitally important.
>
> Anybody with authority over elementary school systems, classrooms or
> children should commit to doing everything needed to put it into effect
> without delay. Those in authority who don't agree should tell us why, with
> substantive explanations, not excuses or fingerpointing. Penn Rhodeen
>
> New Haven, Feb. 2, 2010
>
> The writer, a lawyer, is a lecturer at the Yale Child Study Center.
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> As a Bank Street College graduate, I agree with many of the points Susan
> Engel makes in her essay, especially regarding play, literacy, children
> constructing knowledge, and the importance of collaboration and cooperation.
> But I fear that much is missing from her proposed curriculum. Her goals are
> simply too few and too narrow.
>
> Most important: social studies! Where is it?
>
> In addition, in any mathematics curriculum, including early childhood,
> children are capable of learning much more than the four basic operations.
> Where are geometry and early algebra? What about logic, measurement and
> estimation?
>
> Yes, let us make elementary education less tedious and more engaging, but
> there is no need to constrict the curriculum as drastically as this.
>
> Deborah Dunnell
>
> Alstead, N.H., Feb. 2, 2010
>
> The writer is a retired early childhood educator.
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> As the debate about education reform rages on, I appreciate Susan Engel's
> vision. But I do see some problems with her processes and prescriptions.
>
> A main challenge we face is preparing students for their future. That future
> includes an increasingly technological workplace where science, technology,
> engineering and math opportunities will predominate.
>
> The short shrift given math in Ms. Engel's schema is emblematic of why the
> United States is lagging behind many countries in math and so many
> technology jobs are leaving this country.
>
> Curriculum is something that should be developed by teachers, not imposed on
> them. No one knows a student's needs better than his or her teacher.
>
> What should be determined from on high is the standards - in other words,
> what students should know and be able to do. Leave it to the teachers to
> figure out how to get there. Sam Jones
>
> Westport, Conn., Feb. 3, 2010
>
> The writer is a math teacher.
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> I agree with Susan Engel's suggestion that elementary school curriculums
> should emphasize, among other things, class discussion and verbal
> expression. Far too often teachers and administrators regard their primary
> task as managing children as a group, rather than engaging them
> intellectually as individuals.
>
> The results for intelligent children often include chronic boredom and
> disdain for the very adults who vaunt their authority.
>
> Educators of young children frequently underestimate, and sometimes seem to
> fear, their own students' critical and analytical faculties.
>
> Gregory J. Shibley
>
> North Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 2, 2010
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> As an educator and the mother of a child in her final year of elementary
> school, I found Susan Engel's essay to be powerful and insightful.
>
> Another crucial area of play about which too many schools forget is time at
> home. Despite solid research showing that homework in elementary school,
> apart from reading, offers no benefits and can, in fact, be detrimental,
> children arrive home exhausted and with too much homework.
>
> They are left with little time to partake in nonacademic activities that are
> also necessary for their development, much less what we all need and no
> child should be without: relaxation.
>
> Jennifer Trachtenberg
>
> Wynnewood, Pa., Feb. 2, 2010
>
> The writer is a high school guidance counselor.
>
> .
>
> To the Editor:
>
> In "Playing to Learn," Susan Engel imagines her ideal third-grade class, in
> which students spend lots of time reading, writing and playing, and a little
> time on math. As a third-grade teacher for the past 10 years, I agree that
> third graders certainly need all of these experiences.
>
> But nowhere does Ms. Engel acknowledge that children universally crave
> learning about something - whether it's sharks, World War II, China, fossils
> or baseball.
>
> Children want and need knowledge of the world they live in, and not just
> skills.
>
> Miriam Sicherman
>
> Brooklyn, Feb. 2, 2010
>
>
>
>
>
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