Discover Top Posts Tagged with #meaningfulplay

Sullivan Healthcare Specialists provides placement for nursing occupational & physical therapy to health care facilities located in South Ca

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Designing Meaningful Play: A Lesson from Texas High School Football

Like many generations of young men who grew up in Texas I experienced a state of play through high school football that was so immersive it was hard to realize the experience was in fact a game. The context of the game from the multi-million dollar stadium, to the uniforms, and film sessions gave the whole experience a greater sense of importance, but larger context aside on the micro level the individual game play has clear and obvious meaning. Your actions as an individual have discernible outcomes. Missing a block results in a loss of yards which is visually communicated to you by down markers and verbally communicated to you by a rather unpleasant coach and the spectators. These outcomes are also integrated into the larger context of the game as that missed block and lost yardage could result in poor field position and different play calling. These outcomes made incremental improvement measurable through statistics which keep players engaged even when facing negative outcomes like losing.

Certain types of play tend to be more meaningful to some people than others. The competitive nature of football or as Roger Caillois, the French sociologist, categorizes it, Agon aids in fully immersing oneself in the state of play while participating in the game. These competitive rivalries pervade our culture and become part of how we identify ourselves. This is evident in the way we connect with complete strangers through a shared love of a school or team.

I would suggest that the implications for education that we can gather from analyzing high school football in Texas are immense. Context is very important when initially engaging students. The context of Texas high school football is big and grand. It is important to establish a culture where your core values are celebrated and students and staff are recognized and invested in.WE can also learn a lesson from high school football about progression. Just like the down and distance markers on a football field denote forward progress, it can be very beneficial for students to have the same transparent progress markers. Some schools or districts tackle this through standards-based gradingwhile the educational technology industry continues to make visualizing learning through mind maps and flowcharts even more accessible.

We invest in sports and extracurricular activities to sharpen life skills like teamwork, critical thinking, performance, and perseverance because we know it builds character and sparks interests, but we need to find the right way to give the education going on in schools the proper context for students to immerse themselves in the experience.

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