Principles - Patterns -

Processes - Pedagogy

for Playful Education

Director Yishay Mor, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching, LevinskyAssociate Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård, Center for Teaching Development and Digital Media, AU

goo.gl/F8ktRD

Foreword:

How it all began & will play out

Agenda1. Setting the scene

a. Motivation of the talk: Troubles in educationb. Getting a vocabulary: Playful education

2. In search of a framework for new educational futuresa. Principlesb. Patterns c. Processes d. Pedagogies

3. Worked example: Game.Play.Design: ReThink4. Future work 5. Discussion

Chapter 1: Setting the scene

Troubling Trends vs. Playful Education

Motivation of the talk:3 Troubling trendsin education

1. THE LESSON: The contemporary default pedagogy of schooling (Thomson et al 2016)

The banking model of education - transmission of information (Freire 1974)

Curriculum objective, specific learning goals, training & tests, schooling ‘systems’

Makes education into a ‘non-place’ like airports or supermarkets & makes the learner into a de-humanised ‘no-body’

The default pedagogy promotes the non-place tendency - children and young people come to be seen primarily as outcomes and levels, a curriculum is something to be delivered in order to produce this data, and teacher-student and student-student relationships are merely means to league-tabled ends (Thomson 2016)

(instead: permeability, mobility, time-flexibility, hybridity, lived experience)

2. THE SURFACE: Only what can be observed - focus on visible acts of learning

Educational ‘systems’ promotes a culture of ‘circuitboard thinking’ & ‘theorycrafting’ where students learn to focus on and move most efficiently within the ‘rule structure’ or ‘game system’ of education to produce visible acts of learning

This carries within it the inherent danger of growing and promoting a ‘gaming-the-system’ mind-set to both academic practice and work. In many ways these mind-sets and approaches resemble the ones found within early ‘gamification’ where ‘Points, Badges, and Leaderboards’ (PBL) dominated the discourse and practice. (Nørgård, Whitton & Toft-Nielsen 2016)

(instead: meaningful choices, student ‘voice’ & academic value)

Motivation of the talk:3 Troubling trendsin education

3. THE SYSTEM: Playing it safe & playing to win: ‘gaming the system’ & ‘not to learn but to be assessed’

Everything becomes an assesment moment (eyes on the outcome - don’t fail!)

When thinking we will be judged, we tend to avoid risk (play it safe - don’t ask!)

Within education today, increased focus on quantifiable performance and assessment results is creating an emerging learning culture characterized by fear of failing, avoidance of risk-taking, and increases in extrinsic motivation and goal-oriented behaviours. This approach to education is performed and experienced by learners and teachers alike (Nørgård, Whitton, Toft-Nielsen 2016)

(instead: learning moments, ideational learning, boldness, transgression)

Motivation of the talk:3 Troubling trendsin education

Sidenote: assessment = feedback vs. assessment = judgement

Black & Wiliam, Hattie - formative assessment (feedback / feedforward) drives learning, summative assessment (measurement of achievement) impedes learning.

Gee: video games are characterized by constant feedback.

Play - conversation with a constructed situation. Constantly assessing ourselves, never judging.

Yes, but.. gaming the system is also learning

To game the system you need to understand it.

You develop high-level problem solving, risk management & creativity skills

diSessa: design for the unexpected; Python escapes the classroom

Beyond ‘transmission’ ‘surface’ & system’?From gamification to gameful designGamification: “The use of game design elements in non-game contexts” (Deterding et al. 2011). A set of concrete, specified means. ⇒ Adding a gamified layer / gamification plugin on top of an existing activity: PBL-gamification. Or: “Chocolate-covered broccoli 2.0”. Problem: Point-based incentive systems can undermine internally motivated learning.

Gameful design: Defined by an end; the design of affording “gamefulness” - the experiential qualities characteristic for gameplay - in non-game contexts. (Deterding, 2015). Problem: Goal-oriented, systemic thinking, rule-bound gameworlds, perfecting gameplay: Huizinga: serious play is ‘false play’ / ‘profane play’ = loss of playfulness

Playful education:Games or play?

Apollonian structuresRule-boundLudus mode/mood: progressionMental / rational: figuring outChess, narrative, RPGRules, structure, system, functionsIndividual, personalFiguring things outPerfectionThe system is monologic dictator

Dionysian improvisationsFree-formPaidia mode/mood: emergenceBodily / sensuous: acting outDance, improvisation, WiiRhythm, nature, process, sensesCollective, communalBeing in fluxTentative / iterativeThe player is monologic anarchist

Rule-bound gaming & Free-form playing Towards playful education

Playful education:Not play but playful

“Playfulness is a way of engaging with particular contexts and objects that is similar to play but respects the purposes and goals of that object or context”

“What we want is the attitude of play without the activity of play. We need to take the same stance towards things, the world, and others that we take during play. But we should not play: rather, we should perform as expected in that (serious) context and with that (serious) object. We want play without play. We want playfulness - the capacity to use play outside the context of play”

(Miguel Sicart, Play Matters, 2014)

Playful education is open-ended

Free play differs from open-ended play, as it stresses the freedom children have to play with whatever whenever they want. Open-ended play somewhat restricts children in their free play as it offers objects with design intentions. The challenge for open-ended play is to develop designs that are specific and easy to understand but also general enough to encourage imagination and creativity in how to use them. (de Valk, L., Bekker, T. and Eggen, B., ‘Leaving room for improvisation’, 2013)

Playful education is open-ended

Open-ended education emerges through a superposition of the apollonian and the dionysian as

• reflection & intuition, • rationality & passion, • intentionality & improvisation, • individuality & collectivity, • thinking & tinkering

becomes interlocked, entangled, and fused. What traditionally has tended to be dichotomy between free-form affective tinkering and rule-bound cerebral thinking is merged in open-ended education (Nørgård & Paaskesen 2016, p. 6)

(Dettmer 2005, p. 73)

Playful education is ideational

Core concepts for playful education: The magic circle (Huizinga)“The magic circle” is a metaphor for the creation of a specific social situation, in which participants across a virtual boundary into a secondary world or a ‘playspace’. This playspace is beyond profane seriousness and profane codes of practice, moral and ethical structures, and ways of being

This also means that the circle is not something that is not either intact or broken, but rather is a “fuzzy social process”, a boundary between the real world and the play-world (Remmele & Whitton: 2014). The magic circle is then a liminal space - a sacred space

The boundary of a liminal space is based on an implicit agreement between those engaged in play / the players. This is essential in order to preserve the sacred reality. In doing so, we adopt what is called a lusory attitude.

Core concepts for playful education: The magic circle (Huizinga)

The magic circle is interesting for education: Because it allows us to imagine a different kind of learning environment. Namely a safe, collaborative place, in which learners can take control, take risks and where failure and mistake-making is not only accepted, but customary.

Within this magic circle the learners can together conjure alternative futures and new worlds/words to explore new ways of being, doing and knowing through integrating lusory attitudes and engaging education playfully

Core concepts for playful education:The lusory attitude (Frissen et al)

Ludification of culture: playful attitudes, practices, and objects coming together in ludic worldviews that are potentially transgressive, sacred, revolutionary (Raessens 2006 & 2014)

Lusory attitude: playfulness is no longer restricted to childhood, but has become a lifelong attitude (Frissen et al 2015, p. 10)

Ludic technologies always embody freedom (Frissen et al 2015, p, 38)

• freedom to be playful, freedom to make decisions, freedom towards the world

• contains its own course and meaning - being in and out of control• being playful is beyond profane seriousness - in the act of play, profane

reality is enriched by a layer of sacred seriousness• being playful can become a genuine medium of scholarly inquiry into the

roots of philosophical activity (Frissen et al 2015, p. 24)• playing with the rules - playing with worlds - participatory cultures• potential ‘rite de passage’: a room for new combinations of actions and

thoughts - views of alternative models for living

Core concepts for playful education:The lusory attitude (Frissen et al)

Core implications for playful education:Playful education entails freedom to be playful, freedom to make decisions,

freedom towards the worldPlayful education contains its own course and meaningPlayful education is beyond profane seriousness - in the act of being playful,

profane reality is enriched by a layer of sacred seriousnessPlayful education become a genuine medium of scholarly inquiry into the roots of

philosophical activity (Frissen et al 2015, p. 24)Playful education play with the rules - play with/in worlds - is participatory

culturePlayful education as ‘rite de passage’: a room for new combinations of actions

and thoughts - views of alternative models for knowing, being & doing

Chapter 2: Frameworks

In search of an epistemic infrastructure

New educational futures?Presenting design principles

Episteme -> Techne; Values & ideals -> Imperatives‘‘...an intermediate step between scientific findings, which must be generalized and replicable, and local experiences or examples that come up in practice. Because of the need to interpret design-principles, they are not as readily falsifiable as scientific laws. The principles are generated inductively from prior examples of success and are subject to refinement over time as others try to adapt them to their own experiences” (p. 83). Bell, Hoadley, and Linn (2004)

Design Principle StructureInstructionGeneral rationaleTheoretical underpinningsImplementation details & considerationsLinks

Kali, Y.; Levin-Peled, R. & Dori, Y. J. (2009), 'The role of design-principles in designing courses that promote collaborative learning in higher-education', Computers in Human Behavior 25 (5), 1067 - 1078

Example principles

“Identify opportunities for transgressive play” temporarily letting go of social rules; entering a transitional space where

boundaries can be pushed and roles explored

“Provide choices and consequences in simulated worlds”

“Differentiate roles and distribute expertise in multiplayer games”

Squire, K.; Jenkins, H.; Holland, W.; Miller, H.; O'Driscoll, A.; Tan, K. & Todd, K. (2003), 'Design Principles of Next-Generation Digital Gaming for Education.', Educational Technology 43 (5), 17-23.

New educational futures?Presenting design patterns

Each pattern describes a problem that occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice.

— Christopher AlexanderContext

Problem Solution

● A three-part rule● A “thing in the world” and the

process to create that thing

Example Design Pattern: Guess My X

Mor, Y. (2010), Guess my X and other patterns for teaching and learning mathematics,

Example: try once refine once

Daly, C.; Pachler, N.; Mor, Y. & Mellar, H. (2010), ' Exploring formative e-assessment: Using case stories and design patterns', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35 (5), 619 - 636.

FOWLER, A., 2014. 4.2. 7 PATTERN: TRY ONCE, REFINE ONCE. Practical Design Patterns for Teaching and Learning with Technology, p.323.

Principles, patterns, narratives, scenarios

Practice

Values

Theory

Design Narratives

Design Patterns

Design Scenarios

Design Principles

Read all about it..

Warburton, S. & Mor, Y. (2015), Double Loop Design: Configuring Narratives, Patterns and Scenarios in the Design of Technology Enhanced Learning , in Yishay Mor; Marcelo Maina & Brock Craft, ed., 'The Art and Science of Learning Design' , Sense publishers, Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei

Mor, Y.; Cook, J.; Santos, P.; Treasure-Jones, T.; Elferink, R.; Holley, D. & Griffin, J. (2015), Patterns of practice and design: Towards an agile methodology for educational design research, in Gráinne Conole; Tomaz Klobucar; Christoph Rensing; Johannes Konert & Élise Lavoué, ed., 'Design for Teaching and Learning in a Networked World' , Springer, , pp. 605-608

Mor, Y. (2013), SNaP! Re-using, sharing and communicating designs and design knowledge using Scenarios, Narratives and Patterns , in Rosemary Luckin; Peter Goodyear; Barbara Grabowski; Sadhana Puntambekar; Niall Winters & Joshua Underwood , ed., 'Handbook of Design in Educational Technology' , Routledge, , pp. 189-200

New educational futures?Presenting signature pedagogy

Signature pedagogy“A signature pedagogy has three dimensions. First, it has a surface structure,

which consists of concrete operational acts of teaching and learning [...] Any signature pedagogy also has a deep structure, a set of assumptions about how best to impart a certain body of knowledge and know-how. And it has an implicit structure, a moral dimension that comprises a set of beliefs about professional attitudes, values, and dispositions” (Shulman 2005, p. 54-55)

“...one thing is clear: signature pedagogies make a difference. They form habits of the head, heart, hand [...] Whether in a lecture hall or a lab, in a design studio or a clinical setting, the way we teach will shape how professionals behave - and in a society so dependent on the quality of its professionals, that is no small matter” (Shulman 2005, p. 59)

New educational futures?Presenting signature pedagogy

Signature pedagogyHorizontally: A particular discipline (‘Pedagogy of the Professions’ Shulman,

2005)

Ways of teaching & learning cutting across institutions within a particular discipline, e.g. law (case dialogues) or design (design studio crits)

Vertically: A distinctive practice (‘Signature pedagogy / powerful pedagogy: The Oxford tutorial system in the humanities’ Horn, 2013)

Ways of teaching & learning which have such influence that they may in themselves shape disciplines e.g. ‘GO-IT’ or ‘playful education’ or ‘PAC’

New educational futures?Presenting signature pedagogy

Signature pedagogies = ‘habits of mind’: the ways of thinking, doing, being in education (as teacher / student and subsequently in the world (as professional / citizen)

‘I would argue that such pedagogical signature can teach us a lot about the personalities, dispositions, and cultures of their fields’ (Shulman 2005, p. 52-53)

‘To the extent that we identify signature pedagogies, we find modes of teaching and learning that are not unique to individual teachers, programs, or institutions’ (Shulman 2005, p. 54) => e.g. ‘playful teaching and learning’

‘We came to see, on the basis of our cumulative findings about creative practice, that there were something as distinctive about creative pedagogies as a handwritten signature’ (Thomson et al 2012) - this might also go for playful pedagogies

New educational futures?Presenting signature pedagogy

Signature pedagogy?

...entail public student performance (actively performing their role)

‘This emphasis on students’ active performance reduces the most significant impediments to learning in higher education: passivity, invisibility, anonymity, and lack of accountability’ (Shulman 2005, p. 57)

...pedagogies of uncertainty - create atmosphere of risk taking, foreboding, exhilaration, excitement (...designing intentional change in an unpredictable world)

‘When the emotional content of learning is well sustained, we have a real possibility of pedagogies of formation - experiences of teaching and learning that can influence the values, dispositions, and characters of those who learn’ (Shulman 2005, p. 57-58)

Sign

atur

e pe

dago

gy

Surface structures: concrete operational

acts of teaching & learning

Deep structures: Assumptions about ‘how

to’Implicit structures:

habits, ethics, values & ‘why’

Pedagogical

patterns: mechanic

s of playful

Signature pedagogy: methods of

teaching e.g.

‘playful teaching & learning’

Pedagogies of formation:

experiences of education

shaping the student’s head,

hand & heart

“Signature pedagogy in

the professions” (Shulman,

2005)

Chapter 3: Frameworks in use

Worked Example

3. An example of playful education:Game.Play.Design: ReThink

Game.Play.Design: ReThink (playful courses, processes and pedagogies)

The Public Library Exam-Exhibition (playful assessment & evaluation)

House of Game//Play Education Lab (playful activities, principles and patterns)

Introduction to the case

The aim:

The outcome:

The 4 weeks: Theorizing, Empathizing, Conceptualizing, Finalizing

Group examples: Designing for ‘games that hurt’ & ‘inter-generational bonkersness’

Theorizing the domain through playing with theory

Empathizing with people through playing in the world

Conceptulizing the design through playing with ideas

Finalizing the knowledge be dis-playing sacred worlds/words

Growing playfulness: from ‘what’ to ‘why’ through ‘how’ - processes

playfully curious (divergent thinking / imagination - the new & unknown) - digging in the dirt

playfully courageous (inclusion / diversity - the different & strange) - intercultural togetherness

playfully critical & creative (dialogue / reflection - the wise & sacred) - painful play / playful pain

playfully co-operative (sharing / remixing - the global & collective) - becoming bonkers in the world

A playful pedagogy: Subverting troubling tendencies

Transgressing existing borders & conventions to grow more playful. To (re)imagine the impossible as possible on the grounds of teaching/learning that is

• playfully curious (divergent thinking / imagination - the new & unknown) - digging in the dirt

• playfully courageous (inclusion / diversity - the different & strange) - intercultural togetherness

• playfully critical & creative (dialogue / reflection - the wise & sacred) - painful play / playful pain

• playfully co-operative (sharing / remixing - the global & collective) - becoming bonkers in the world

through creating education aimed at shaping the hand - the head - the heart. Educating future citizens/professionals, enabling them to critically challenge/change the normative assumptions of what counts as ‘proper’ in relation to being, doing & knowing (playful revolutions / radical literacy).

A playful pedagogy: Subverting troubling tendencies

Things emerging from the practice of playful education

Magic circles to become daring/adventurous and go into the world beyond the classroom / campus / confinements of education - playing outside

Lusory attitudes & actions to be empowered agents that create educational spectacles/events - dis-play

Ludic collectives to construct alternative belongings together: silliness, children, pain, passion, topophilia- Participatory Academic Communities (Aaen & Nørgård 2015) - playing together

Sacred/professional play to become virtuous academic citizens beyond assessment (Nixon 2008) - making education matter - playful commitment

Open-ended playfulness: no endpoint, no endings - being(s) in play with worlds/words

A playful pedagogy: Subverting troubling tendencies

A playful pedagogy: Subverting troubling tendencies

Playful education: Becoming someone doing something somewhere to conjure sacred worlds/words

Freedom to fail: To undertake activities that are not successful in the first instance without fear of reprisal or repercussions. Playfully becoming someone through courage: try-fail-try (THE ITERATIVE LOOPS)

Freedom to experiment: Provides the space to create and invent things, develop ideas, test theories and experiment (in a context where failure is okay). Playfully making something with curiosity: make-wonder-make (THE DIVERGENT-CONVERGENT DESIGN PROCESS)

Freedom of effort: Being able to decide how much effort to devote to play at any given time. Playing fully with something, then falls back to relax and rest. Playfully belonging somewhere through cycles: build-dwell-build (THE OPEN EDUCATION LAB & EXAM EXHIBITION)

Freedom of interpretation: Learning about the world at the same time as learning with/in the world, and interpreting the meanings of actions and activity within the play space. Playfully knowing the world/word through construction: world-word-world (ACADEMIC CITIZENSHIP & SACRED/VIRTUOUS BILDUNG)

(Building on Klopfer, Osterweil & Salen: 2009 + Whitton, 2014)

From pedagogy to principles

Establish a Lusory contractAdopt a lusory attitude to teaching

Set tasks with lusory requirements

Create a magic circleSet tasks where failure is a legitimate option

Establish a clear contract about what comes in / goes out

Lusory task requirements

“We are going to ship your prototype to India for QA. Please package it carefully and include clear testing procedures”

Failure is a legitimate option

Prototype testing in public spaceYou don’t know if it will work (that’s the whole point..)I don’t know if it will work (I would tell you if I did)If it doesn’t, you’re back to the drawing boardOh, and we’re doing this ourselves (MODELLING)

The line of the circle: porous but clear (and expanding)

Closed facebook group, open to scholarly / design / social activities

Open twitter streams, by informed consentConstant feedback, no judgementExperiment in the world, reflect in class, respect

privacyStart closed, end open

Design patterns for playful education

Breakable rules, unknown outcomesPrepare - simulate - go realStick to their story

Breakable rules, unknown outcomes

IN a small course, diverse participants, working in groups

You WANT TO afford participants a freedom to experiment and freedom to interpret, you want to inspire Bildung,

BUT

You need to provide some structure, some scaffolding, a shared experience

Breakable rules, unknown outcomes

THEREFORE,

Provide activities which have clear rules of process - but not of outcome.

Stress that the only criterion for the outcome is that it is coherent, consistent with THEIR STORY, and exciting

Note that this rule overrides the process rules.

Prepare - simulate - go real

IN a course where the final outcome is publicly presented, you WANT TO allow participants to playfully become someone, through playfully making something and playfully knowing the world/word. BUT play is foreign to prior serious educational experiences, not associated with being, making, knowing. Playing in the real world created tensions of face, identity, performance.

Prepare - simulate - go real

THEREFORE,Break down “big” public performances into smaller

tasks.Facilitate these tasks through time-boxed iterations.Interleave simulations of the public performance.

Stick to their story

IN a course where participants learn through group projects, you want to facilitate their freedom to experiment and freedom to interpret, allowing them to playfully become someone through playfully making something.

BUT Bildung requires sustaining a critical and rigorous stance. Freedom and playfulness does not mean “anything goes”.

Stick to their story

THEREFORE,

Sequence activities that guide participants through formulating their story: the context in which their project is situated, the actors that inhibit it, their concerns and resources.

Point to gaps or inconsistencies in their story.

Assess (provide feedback) participants choices, actions and products in reference to their story.

Chapter 4:

Future Work

We just started..

We need to:

Consolidate the framework

Articulate the signature pedagogy (inputs from ethnography & philosophy)

Identify, express and validate the principles

Distill and validate the patterns

Map the system

EduPLoP.dk

http://eduplop.org/?page_id=98 Sandbjerg Gods, Denmark, 9-13 NovDrafting a Design Language for Hybrid Pedagogy

Playful learning networkResearch & development, cross-disciplinary & cross-sector conversations. Exploring the themes of:

Playful learning / teaching

Hybridity

Trans{formitive, gressive, cendal}

Empowerment, emancipation

Critical educational design

Principles-patterns- (Signature) pedagogy-process

Epilogue:

Discussion

Thank you!

http://xkcd.com/1753/

Rikke Toft Nørgård, rtoft@tdm.au.dkYishay Mor, yishay.mor@levinsky.ac.il

goo.gl/F8ktRD