GO Schools Go Game-based learning

Aims

GO complements standard school academic curricula, developing students thinking processes and enhancing their learning skills.

Here are a few benefits of the game in a school setting:

  • Small groups of 4-5 people
  • Hands-on learning experience
  • Option to claim under NDIS
  • Opportunities for “multiple intelligences”
  • Learning math problem-solving from a pattern-recognition perspective
  • Patience and tolerance

Why go?

The game of go has served for over 4,000 years to develop critical and creative skills, however remains little known in the West, while it is highly regarded in the East and considered as a Chinese cultural heritage.

Currently go is practices as a professional sport in China, Korea and Japan. This project proposes to bridge centuries of traditions to modern classrooms, using tangible tools of an aesthetic game to teach not only mathematical skills, but also “soft” skills, such as communication, negotiation and learning from different perspectives. The simple rules of the game will make it easy for anyone to learn, however the complexity of the strategy itself has won the reputation of go as the most challenging of all games.

Only recently Artificial Intelligence was able to defeat a human player (through the Alpha Go Deep Mind Challenge).

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Resources

The program will develop resources for teachers to teach critical and creative thinking, while providing links with Asia and Australia using tangible game-based approach. This directly support the aim of the Australian School Curriculum for STE(A)M education and to create “global citizens” in the Asian century through while providing bridge through a cultural heritage and artistic board game.  The proposal will support the development of teaching resources for schools to support learning outcomes in the Australian School Curriculum and produced using InDesign in a book form.

More specifically, the Go game-based learning supports the general capabilities of Critical and Creative Thinking  and cross-curriculum priorities of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia focusing on the learning areas of arts and mathematics.

General capability: Critical and Creative Thinking

Through the vehicle of the game go, students will have the opportunity to develop capability in critical and creative thinking, while  considering alternatives and solving problems. It will require students to use their skills and behaviours to apply reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas and in their lives beyond schools.

Cross curriculum priorities: Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

Through introducing the game of go, students will have the opportunity to examine art forms that have arisen from the rich and diverse belief systems and traditions of the Asian region. Learning to play Go also involves consideration of the aesthetic quality of this art form as well as its local, regional and global influence today. Students will engage in hands-on activity, using the artistic game of go, and be able to reflect on the value of this game and its place within broader social, cultural and political context.

Delivery

The Go Schools project focuses on delivering co-curriculum or extra-curriculum go classes, with the aim to foster problem-solving, sequential thinking, mathematic skills and imagination. The project will deliver regular Go classes, engaging children in hands-on-game with tangible tools for developing critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and mathematical thinking, while using their own creativity and imagination in social settings.

The combination of simple, yet complex nature of the game is a perfect combination for engaging young students, to sustain concentration and to build ‘hard’ skills associated with calculation, mathematical skills, solving problems (from very simples to very complex ones) but also to develop the ‘soft’ skills of communication, understanding different perspectives and creativity in approaching a go problem, which requires imagination. Go is a creative game, where players are required to form their own territories, while allowing their opponent to co-exist and to make significant compromises and often sacrifices. Winning can be by a very small margin (one or even half a point) and the main goal is to apply your own thinking to a critical situation, using both mathematical skills and imagination.

Introducing go to schools, community spaces, libraries or intensive language centres will: 1) assist with critical and creative thinking 2) foster cross-cultural communication 3) contribute to STE(A)M  learning.

This program can be adapted to different settings and different groups. It has applications not only in schools and libraries, but also in community centres, aging care facilities, as it can help with social isolation and connectivity, and promote of use of public spaces through games.

About the investigator Dr Silvia Lozeva

Silvia is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Western Australia in the area of social sustainability, international development and politics. She is a TEDx Perth speaker on the use of Go in everyday life (2019) and a founder and director of Institute 361: Gamifying Strategic Thinking.  She is the organiser of the Academic Go Symposium (2018 and 2020). Her interests are in the field of equity and diversity. Silvia is also serving on the Board of Directors of Multicultural Futures. Silvia is also a member of the UWA Social Care and Social Aging Lab. Silvia currently works at the UWA School for Indigenous Studies.

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