Meginmarkmið þessarar greinar er að fjalla um námsleiki, þ.e. kennslufræðilega leiki
og frjálsan leik barna með fræðilegu yfirliti út frá kenningum Fröbel, Dewey, Piaget
og Vygotsky um frjálsan leik og hvernig kenningar Gagné um skilyrði fyrir námi og
kenning Csikszentmihalyi um flæði tengjast kennslufræðilegum leik. Þá er Aðalnámskrá grunnskóla skoðuð út frá leiknum og skoðaður munurinn á kennslufræðilegum leik og frjálsum leik. Einnig er fjallað um þróun og tilgang námsspilsins Taktu
til við að tvista. Það er námsspil sem tengir saman nám og leik og getur hentað vel
til upprifjunar á námsefni og til að auka þekkingu nemenda. Spilið má nota í öllum
námsgreinum og með öllum aldurshópum. Rannsóknarspurning sem þessari grein
er ætlað að svara er eftirfarandi: Hvernig getur nám átt sér stað í gegnum regluleik?
Markmiðið með spilinu er að ýta undir samskipti og samvinnu nemenda og að nemendur fái hreyfingu og útrás í kennslustundum. Einnig er markmiðið að auka færni
nemenda í viðkomandi námsgrein og að þeir séu virkir þátttakendur í eigin námi.
Niðurstöðurnar benda til þess að þegar kennslufræðilegir leikir eru notaðir til þjálfunar og endurtekningar á ákveðnum námsþáttum má auðvelda nemendum að öðlast
ákveðna færni í námsþættinum. Því má leiða líkum að því að nám eigi sér stað í gegnum leik og nemendur geti aukið við þekkingu sína og færni með þessari kennsluaðferð.
The National Curriculum Guide (Mennta- og menningarmálaráðuneyti [Ministry
of education and culture], 2013) highlights creativity as one of the main pillars of education, emphasizing that “Creativity is based on curiosity, challenge, excitement and
search. Grappling with the problem and finding a solution can, in itself, be the reward
of creation”. Learning through play and educational games can be an important
learning method, opening new dimensions where the joy of creation for children and
youth can come into its own. The aim of this article is to shed light on the complexity
of play and educational games through the theoretical background of what Friedrich
Fröbel, John Dewey, Jean William Fritz Piaget and Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky say
about play and how theories proposed by Robert M. Gagné and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi relate to educational games with a main focus on educational games. Gagné’s
conditions of learning theory, is imported for educational games, are divided into five
categories, all of which fall under the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains
as discussed previously. The five learning outcomes: intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, verbal information, motor skills, and attitudes can be learned through games.
Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory has nine elements that can also be learned through
educational play. The nine elements are; challenge-skill balance, action-awareness
merging, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, transformation of time, and an autotelic experience. The research question for this article is: Can education happen through
educational games? The difference between educational play and free play is that in
educational play there are expectations of performance, but in free games, the child
itself controls the creative process and outcome. The National Curriculum Guide
stated that: “To children play is a spontaneous means of learning and developing.
In compulsory school it is important to retain this method in school activities and
develop it as the pupils grow older”. The National Curriculum guide also stated that
play is as fruitful a means of development and understanding for a 15-year-old pupil
as it is for a six-year-old child. Play is a children’s way to learn both about themselves
and the world they live in. Through role-plays, the pupils can speak and respond as
conjured up from their own imaginations and experience. And through educational
games they learn to discover new methods of working towards achieving goals and
objectives in an interactive manner. The article tells us about games and about educational games and teachers’ role in relation to games and creative teaching. The
article also provides a website with an idea bank, instructions that can be used by
teachers and explanations of how to make the game from scratch and how to use it
(instruction manual). Let’s Twist Again is an educational game that links play and
learning, is suitable for refreshing study material and increasing student knowledge.
The game can be used in all subjects and suits all age groups. It could also be useful in
special education and for students of foreign origin. The aim of the game, Let´s Twist
Again, is to promote communication and collaboration between students and make
sure that students are given the opportunity to move around in lessons. The aim is
also to increase students’ skills in the relevant subject and to have them to participate
in their own learning. The website provides further information about the game, the
game rules, instructions for teachers and an idea bank. The website also illustrates the
development of the game and how it was developed with and for young children in
preschool and in math and language teaching in compulsory education in Iceland.
