Board Games in the Process of Learning
By creating a special gaming environment, board games can develop social skills and creativity, which is a consequence of direct live communication and collective creativity.
Why Are Games Important in the Learning Process?
Millions of people went through the school of life in the game, learned about the world around them, and studied human relations. The game is the eternal companion of childhood.
Many personality traits of the child are formed in the game. The game is a kind of training school. The game develops resourcefulness, endurance, and activity. The game is a school of communication for the child. Many teachers have the opportunity to find board games templates at https://www.storyboardthat.com/create/game-posters.
The game makes it possible not to turn any business into a harsh necessity, to give an exciting character to your pedagogical goals, and then the upbringing of children becomes creative.
Any gaming relationships help to establish contact, and bring together, special qualities of the mind are required, such as observation, the ability to compare and analyze, find connections and patterns, etc. — all that in the aggregate constitute creative abilities.
It is known that games are different: role-playing, mobile, didactic, etc. Many experienced teachers suggest using board games in the classroom. They are suitable for every subject. The teacher will have to make up only questions, and you can start the game.
The Role of Board Games During Study
A distinctive feature of board games is the live joint communication of players taking place in an unusual environment — a simulated reality, recreated thanks to the rules, game attributes, the imagination of the participants, and the talents of the authors-developers.
At the present stage, combining high figurativeness (pictures) and scenario flexibility, the board game allows you to talk about fictional and real events, and simulate situations, so that players, using their imagination and the imagination of the authors of the game, can gain unique knowledge and experience. It is this circumstance that allows us to say that board games have a very large educational potential, which, unfortunately, in our opinion, is used to a very small extent in the pedagogical environment.
What Is the Potential of Board Games?
The educational potential of the board game is seen in the fact that, with proper use, the corresponding technique can creatively visualize any process with significant savings in time and material resources.
The forms of implementation of these games are different: combining especially symbolic attributes (field, chips, cards, etc.) and unique rules, they can be embodied in independent types of educational board games.
So, a board game that imitates the passage of process schemes, as close as possible to the realities of the profession, may well be considered a modification (type) of a business game.
Board games, having many common features with business and computer games, are characterized, at the same time, by several specific features:
- The board game provides solutions to various cognitive tasks that require the development of metacognitive skills (spatial, logical, sign-symbolic, etc.);
- The optimal solution of specific tasks provided for by the game involves the construction of a game action plan by each participant, the development of strategies and their transformation in the process of game interaction, taking into account the position of the other when developing a strategy;
- The collective form of conducting requires the mastery of various communication skills (cooperation with others, the ability to work in a group, taking into account the position of the other);
- Competitive motivation in a situation of winning/losing in several games requires, on the one hand, the development of emotional self-regulation, and, on the other hand, contributes to its formation.
Board games differ from most business games in their special symbolism (conventionality), the need to strictly follow the rules, the material embodiment (they exist physically in the form of fields, cards, chips, and other devices), the special pace of the game, and the sequence of actions.
Board games do not imply active immersion of players in the gaming environment, the actions of players are most often not related to playing roles, but are subject to the algorithm and rules of the game itself. Such games can become a tool for educating a person, instilling in him a certain style of thinking and problem-solving.