Recommended Reading

The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning by James E. Zull.

The book explores what scientists know about the brain and how this knowledge can influence teaching. It descibes the brain, highlighting its functions and parts and how they interact, relating them to learning in the classroom. It discusses the challenges of creating effective opportunities for meaningful and long-term learning and of dealing with students as unique learners. This book can be found in The Citadel library.

Alix Darden's Presentation on Learning Through Play

1. Learning Through Play

Little children, by age five, are able to define what is an alive animal and what is a puppet, which they learn through play. However, play decreases from age 5 to 18 with institutional learning. The challenge of teachers is how to incorporate play to enhance learning in the classroom.

2. Responsible Play

The two primary aspects of this type of play is to be creative and to maintain rules. In the research, students learn how much fun they have engaging in play, which tends to increase around age 21.

Learning in the Classroom

Forced Concept Inventory - Developed at Harvard; set as a baseline to change students' learning ability.

In physics, without interactive learning, the student grade curve tends to range between C's and D's. The idea is students do not learn by simply telling them the correct answer. However, with interactive learning, there is a shift in students' level of understanding the material, which affects their overall grades. The student grade curve shifts to mostly A's and B's, with few D's and F's.

In researching physics students' attitudes about science, one attitudinal survey asked the students what a biologist does and how a biologist thinks. It was discovered many physics students do not understand the material and their understanding of learning decreased over the course of the semester. A survey taken before one physics course indicated that students attitudes changed about learning physics during the semester. Therefore, it is important for students to understand what learning is in this field.

When incoporating motivational learning into the classroom, teachers should address if students' motivations are being changed by play. Different forms of play are appropriate in different situations. The goal is to make students think like a biologist, physicist, engineer, etc before they go into their chosen profession.

How do college professors institute institutional learning/play into their classroom?

Only 50% of students think abstractly. The challenge of physics instructures is to explain the material to students with much abstract thought. Dr. Darden's initially uses yarn for DNA and pipe cleaners for molecules in her class. The students connect with the material through visual and touch, which allows for more questions to better understand the material. Students must know the language before teachers can begin teaching. This demonstrates that in teaching gentics, for example, students must play first, then they will want to acquire the knowledge. Therefore, give surveys in the classroom to find out what is most difficult to learn and initially teach the difficult parts through play. Students can answer questions faster once they are first engaged in 'learning through play.'

Questions and Comments concerning 'Learning Through Play'

Children take things at face value untill they hit the 6th grade and then ask "why"? In middle school, children question things they never had before. Do parents need to focus on middle school as the critical period for learning?

It is important to be careful to separate abstract thinking from critical thinking. Most adolescents do not have the ability to think abstactly and, according to Piaget, 50% of people never become absract thinkers.

How can teachers elevate play/learning to a college level? What are the ways to improve the quality of students (K-12) entering college?

The better the quality of students coming into college, the better the quality of students are graduating from college.

It is important to keep in mind that CASTLE is better suited to the audience they are working with (college students).

Learning in eduation improves through collaboration. It is helpful to look to partnerships with other schools and faulty.

How do you implement institutional learning/responsible play without watering down the class? How can teachers maintain the integrity of learning?

With responsilbe play, you do not have to use tactile objects or toys. It can simply be throwing different ideas around in the classroom.