Game-based Curriculum: Lesson Plans for School Teachers
Games can be incorporated in both teaching and learning. There are many advantages for schools or teachers to adopt game-based pedagogy. The excitement of being able to ‘play’ improves the class atmosphere for learning. Games are generally motivating because children often find them enjoyable. Besides putting play back into the classroom, games help children experientially grasp skills and concepts relevant to their cognitive, affective and psychomotor development.
Schools or teachers interested in integrated curriculum models or sequential learning models should consider adopting games-based pedagogy in their lesson plans. Game-playing is an excellent example of an integrated approach to learning where cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning is activated simultaneously. It is also a good model of the sequential approach to learning, where learning competency at higher levels is dependent on prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.
Skills developed from playing traditional children’s games are compatible with skills targeted in various subjects, especially those at the primary school level. To help teachers take advantage of the rich repository of traditional children’s games in the region, the project offers a simple game-based curriculum for students of primary schools. The curriculum encourages the use of traditional games from the region as a teaching and learning resource.
For the convenience of teachers, the game-based curriculum is categorized by subject areas taught in school. The curriculum spells out how games can benefit the teaching of concepts and skills relevant to each subject area. A list of games relevant to the subject area is included together with pre-game and post-game activities which serve as warm-up and reflective tools respectively. Teachers may incorporate ideas from the game-based curriculum into formal classroom teaching or use it in co-curricular activities.
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Language
Developing skills in speaking, writing and listening (descriptive and instructional) through local dialect, vocabulary, songs, rhymes and nuances of language. Download
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Mathematics
Developing skills in counting, sequencing, estimating, quantifying, matching, sorting, process thinking and discerning patterns and rhythms by means of local ways of understanding mathematical concepts and solving mathematical challenges. Download
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Science
Developing inquiry, observation, classification, assessment skills (of props, players and environs) and skills in estimating levels, gradients, distances, location. These skills are acquired using knowledge of environment, materials and species, local measurement and mapping systems and tools. Download
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Social Studies and History
Developing skills in discerning social roles, relationships, connectivity and networking systems and understanding of concepts that shape history and society such as time and order of events, cause and effect, change, recording events and communication. Download
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Arts, Handicrafts and Local Life Sciences
Advancing fine motor skills (e.g. grip, manipulation, tool management, hand preference, etc.) and sensory skills (i.e. touching, tasting, smelling, hearing and seeing) through the acquaintance with local livelihood, local craftsmanship and the use of local materials. Download
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Physical and Health Sciences
Developing gross motor skills such as agility, flexibility, control, balance and understanding of the body by means of culturally appropriate or relevant physical skills and expressions. Download