A recent conversation with a very good friend of mine inspired me to think about games in the classroom
in a new way. She’s a veteran SPED teacher and currently serves as a Director of Student Support
Services. Recently, however, she had been serving as temporary site administrator at a school for
students who have been designated emotionally disturbed..
Teacher burnout has always been a challenge at the school, and in one of her first walkthroughs, she observed a teacher struggling with the symptoms of burnout. Taking the opportunity, “get into the classroom and work with kids,” and to provide some support and coaching. She modeled how to organize learning centers: how they might increase engagement and reduce some of the negative behaviors. In addition to the centers, she also brought some games into the classroom.
She told me she opted to stay and play a game with a few of the students. When it came time for her to leave, the students began to bargain with her: “If I’m good this week, will you come back and play this game again?”
I asked what game she had played with them.
She quickly mumbled that they’d played Exploding Kittens, and kind of laughed, almost as if she was hoping I wouldn’t notice the specific game of choice. I laughed and told her that I too had had occasion to play the same game with some of my students with some positive results. There was a tongue in cheek sheepishness surrounding both of our admissions. The implication was clear between the two of us; both of us knew that many might argue that a game like Exploding Kittens is not educational and therefore, not appropriate to use with students.
Why on earth would a teacher choose to play such a game with students?!?!
Why indeed?
We spoke at great length about how our students had responded to the game. The kids, of course, love the game; it’s fun, funny, easy to learn, but it can also get intense.
Now, truthfully, I am an easy sell when it comes to play based or game based learning. People learn best when they are mentally engaged, social, and can make relevant connections between their learning and their lives. Games and play naturally create those optimal learning conditions. However, our conversation got me thinking about the power of a game itself as a vehicle for learning, regardless of what connections could be made to academic content.
In an age where human resource departments are often more interested in EQ over IQ, game-play helps to develop and improve executive functioning. Through game strategy, students can develop much needed planning and organizational skills. Healthy competition teaches tolerance and control over emotions. Nowadays, we talk a lot in education about Social Emotional Learning, Executive Function, and so-called Soft Skills. Game-play, regardless of content, is a powerful learning tool for these areas. A game, even a “non-educational” one like Exploding Kittens, can help develop turn-taking, patience, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, flexible thinking, valuing multiple perspectives, planning, coping, and memory. The act of play is a powerful learning tool in and of itself. And yes, when we layer in elements of curriculum and instruction that game-play can be leveraged to build even more learning. But perhaps, sometimes, the game is the thing, and sometimes we just can play a game for its own sake and still reap some pretty heavy benefits.
As a postscript to our conversation, she looked at me, smiled and said, “I’ll have to get another copy of
the game, the kids needed to keep that one.”
