Lesson Investigation #6

Jingyu Yuan

Lesson 6 is mainly talks about learning from hobbies, clubs, video games, team sport

activities, and sporting events.

This is another playful way of learning that may give people a bad impression that children

just having fun instead of learning. Not all of the games are not useful for learning and not all the

“play time” is not a way of learning. Using those opportunities wisely is the most important thing

for either children or educators including parents.

In the first article talks about learning club that helps students that struggling with reading

and writing. Literature circles and book clubs are often used interchangeably and share similar

grouping procedures, and they both offer spaces f or students to participate in facilitated

conversations about common texts, which are genera (Casey. K, 2008). The way they work in a

smaller group helps student share their thoughts and communicate better. Teacher as a facilitator

in the group and then students can work on their own which is motivating students engaging more.

Joining learning club is a great way for interested students to build their learning habits and learn

about team work. They have to work with different people which helps them develop the team

work skills and leadership skills.

And then, another way of learning is through video games. Good games trigger deep

learning that is itself part and parcel of the fun (Gee. P, 2005). Learning by its design helps students

learn more about the games other than playing it. There are so many good games that giving players

some learning objectives that really straight forward like learning math, team work, problem

solving, etc. when players play in massive multiplayer games, they often collaborate in teams, each
using a different, but overlapping, set of skills, and share knowledge, skills, and values with others

both inside the game and on various Internet sites (Gee. P, 2003). Good games are motivating

which means they help players learn. When they are playing video games, they are engaging their

hands and minds, so they can win the game on their own or with the team. They will learn about

team work a lot when the games have required them to be a group. They can figure out what’s the

role they have in the group and do their jobs.

All the learning is connected, the personal, social, cultural, and tangible dimensions

provide a foundation for understanding learning in a computational culture that values

participation in terms of both production and connectivity (Kumasi, K. 2014). Being part of the

group and using other “non-formal” way of learning is the chance that connect all the dimensions

together which is really helpful for students develop their skills in a comprehensive aspect.

As we can see from all the research articles, playing video games, join club, or doing sports

are both informal ways of learning. This could be really helpful when the students are motivated

and interested in the learning objectives. They will take away from the activities much more than

we can imagine.
Reference:

Casey, H. K. (2008). Engaging the Disengaged: Using Learning Clubs to Motivate Struggling

Adolescent Readers and Writers. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(4), 284-294.

Gee. J. P. (2005). "Learning by Design: good video games as learning machines". E-Learning,

Volume 2 (Number 1), p. 5-16.

Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York:

Palgrave Macmillan.

KUMASI, K. (2014). Connected Learning. Teacher Librarian, 41(3), 8-15.