Nurturing A 21st Century Learner

“We need to reframe the conversation around play and games and their role in education going forward”.

My fondest memories of my childhood are often related to experiences I shared with my family and friends. I remember playing draughts (checkers for the Americans) and ludo with my mum, shooting pool and playing table tennis with friends and family, which often resulted in petty gambling — a story for another day. I also remember taking my passbook to school on Wednesdays eagerly awaiting the bank’s bus so I could deposit my 10 kobo, working on choreography with friends to perform at the infamous social days where the reputation of the school and club firmly rested on our shoulders. Or so we thought.

Looking back, I realise these types of shared experiences helped shape my understanding of self and how I’d like to interact with the world. My evenings playing board games with my mum required my A game, especially with draughts (yes draughts, not chess). You know what they say about Policemen and draughts. Anyway, playing with my mum meant I needed to think through the game moves ahead, scenario planning at speed, learning sometimes winning requires sacrificing a piece or 2 during the battle. It’s interesting how a simple game can teach timeless lessons and refine our ability to make decisions to achieve our desired outcomes.

I attended Command Primary School in Ikeja in the 80s, every Wednesday my mum would hand me my passbook and a little money to deposit into my account through the “mobile” bank bus that came to school. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I loved running out to get in line to make my deposit, get my passbook stamped etc. and when I handed my mum back the passbook later, she would spend some time explaining what I had done (savings). She would explain why it was important to put a little money away, we would discuss the balance sometimes and whatever little interest appeared. This experiential approach to learning was fascinating to me because it is evident through my personal experiences that I learned and retained more cognitive and social skills through this approach.

As a parent now, with more understanding of developmental psychology, I’m a believer in a play-based approach to learning. It is a critical and foundational aspect of education because new experiences help children build neural pathways. Exploring the world helps the brain grow.

I am blessed with 3 amazing boys aged 13, 10 and 7. In 2009, my first was 3 years old and we spent a significant amount of time visiting primary schools with preschools in Lagos between Ikeja and Yaba axis. We must have visited over a dozen schools asking specifically about the curriculum, how the children are taught, what would be considered important performance metrics in the child’s early development etc. Quite a few schools in theory stated they had a Montessori approach, however, the more we researched, the more we realized that a higher priority was placed on the child being able to recognize and read numbers 1–10 or 1–20 as an example, rather than on the method or approach to learning.

Eventually, we went with Avi-Cenna because their pre-school structure was built around play and the outcomes for under 5’s were a bit fluid. They emphasized how the child learns, the safe and conducive environment, social interaction, colours, puzzles, play! The next year, they implemented the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework which focuses on communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design. According to Dr. Perry (Thomas S. Trammell Research Professor of Child Psychiatry), “Shared discovery gives the greatest pleasure. In the classroom, the curious child will want to share her discovery with you. The attention, smile and shared joy you show will provide a powerful reward to the child. This is an important part of the cycle of learning. You will encourage positive exploration with your attentiveness.”

Over the last decade, as parents, we’ve seen changes and differences in how each child learns but what is reassuring is that the play based method of learning ensures they possess the requisite intuition, knowledge and tools to think critically, choose, learn and adapt. Children are ‘hands-on’ learners and play satisfies a basic human need to express imagination, curiosity and creativity, which are key resources in a knowledge-driven world.

According to the UNICEF Lego Foundation Learning through Play research, ‘learning through play’, or ‘playful learning’, is central to quality early childhood pedagogy and education. “Educators are re-thinking how to teach young children to tap their enormous learning potential. Play is one of the most important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. For this reason, play opportunities and environments that promote play, exploration and hands-on learning must be at the core of effective pre-primary programmes.”

Researchers and theorists agree on the key characteristics of playful experiences; Play is iterative, Play is socially interactive, Play is actively engaging, Play is joyful and Play is meaningful. On the continuum of playful learning, there is an evolution from child-led play to Child-led and adult support, to adult designed (e.g. games), to adult designed and controlled.

Speaking about games, we introduced the boys to the game Monopoly (Lagos edition) a few years ago. To any parent who hasn’t done this, I strongly urge you to. The days we play are exciting for us as parents and for them as kids but more importantly, it’s been a truly enlightening and immersive journey of understanding their character, assessing judgement, devising strategy, understanding their motivations, all whilst having fun.

The same can be said for video games, take Minecraft; the popular kids game with over 91 million monthly users. The success of minecraft is tied deeply into curiosity. “ It’s a system for fitting pieces together to create something from nothing. Minecraft provides endless building blocks and a blank canvas. It’s up to you to create something incredible or silly.

My 10 year old has been a Minecraft enthusiasts for about 4 years and hand on heart, the game has enhanced his mastery of academic concepts and built in him the motivation to try, build and learn. It has birthed in him or maybe brought out something innate, an interest to solve problems through building workable, pragmatic solutions with a level of understanding of materials and their properties. As a trained architect, a lot of these concepts I didn’t grasp until much later in my adult life.

The research from innovation charity conducted by NESTA in the UK contrary to existing biases reveals that those who play video games are better educated, no less wealthy and more likely than non-games players to participate actively in culture.

Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of Ukie, said: “We welcome this research that dispels the assumed stereotypes of people who play games. Games are creative, innovative and immersive experiences that enrich our everyday cultural life, and inspire new ways of understanding and interacting with the world around us. It is not surprising that this research indicates that players are more likely to be actively participating in other cultural media. Ukie has for some time been able to educate policy makers and investors of the economic value of the UK games industry, and with this research we now have robust evidence championing the social and cultural value of our world-class sector.”

I’ll conclude with an experience we had earlier this year, my lover of Minecraft son also belongs to a Lego Robotics co-curricular in school (year 4–6). I got a call from his instructor who informed me that my son was the only year 4 child who registered for Lego Robotics. I was quite shocked and a bit saddened by the discovery. It occurred to me that even interested parents would enrol kids at a younger age and class but by Year 4, most would move them into “more serious” activities e.g. football or Math support.

It is worth mentioning that 2 decades ago, we could easily replace Lego Robotics with Football in this story. Where our parents didn’t want their children (us) having anything to do with football because it was not a respected profession or maybe it just wasn’t seen as a viable opportunity. Fast forward to today and the story around football has changed, there is little or no stigma associated with playing football. The global ecosystem and relevant local role models have helped in shaping its perception, also the overall impact of sports in youth development and empowerment as can be seen in China, Australia and a lot more countries have sipped into our consciousness as a nation.

Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the Olympics believed that building character in people with the goal to make the community stronger should be the desire of the educational system. Coubertin recognized the importance of building character. Developing the spirit of fair play and justice is a battle in every society. This he tackled through introducing sports into education and ultimately, creating The Olympics.

We need to reframe the conversation around play and games and their role in education going forward, especially in a nation like Nigeria where our projected population is set to almost double to 400 million by 2050. We need to build a nation of computational thinkers and problem solvers, these will be enhanced by appreciating and introducing play based learning into education.