Literature Review: V-Web Game (Word Stem)

Learning through experience is, perhaps, the most ideal learning process that guarantees much success in comparison with other learning processes. As Margot and David (cited in David et al. 1985) put it, “The old adage of ‘experience is the best teacher’ still holds true to some extent”. David et al. (1985) further suggests that drawing upon learner’s prior experience and engaging learners actively throughout the learning process are inherent to achieving desired learning goals.
But two questions are worth noting. What is it that actually turns experience into learning? How learners apply their prior experiences in new contexts? Perhaps Duley (1981) provides the best answer to the aforementioned questions when he mentions the process of reflection as the vital element in learning. He points out that reflection is the most essential experiential learning skill that is often overlooked. Reflection is what it takes to turn most of our prior experiences into learning besides assigning meaning to the new learning contexts.
According to Grundy (1982), the notion of reflection in learning can be traced to Aristotle’s discussions of practical judgment and moral in his books ‘Ethics’. She asserts that Aristotle himself explicated the process of practical judgment within the framework of reflective thinking process. Aristotle believed that only by reflecting on all the experiences that one comes to a conclusion of his judgment. Aristotle’s concept of reflective thinking gains support from modern-time thinkers particularly John Dewey. Dewey (1933) argues that reflective activity involves the perception of relationships and
connections between the parts of an experience. He further asserts that it is this activity that enables effective problem solving to take place hence improve learning.
Through the V-Web game, learners are actually made to bring in all their previous experiences with words. As they are required to derive as many different words as possible from the word stem, learners are tested on their ability to utilize their concrete experience (knowledge of words learnt earlier) in accomplishing a new task. In the course of utilizing these previous experiences (knowledge), learners are likely to extensively deal with reflecting upon their recent learning. This conforms to the Kolb et al. (1971) learning cycle, which emphasizes on the use of observations and reflections to conceptualize or generalize new experiences encountered.
The fact that this game requires learners to derive as many words as possible just adds to the game promoting for strong collaborative skill. Working in pairs is indeed an evidence of the game incorporating some elements cooperative learning. The competition for deriving the most words makes the pairs constantly working closely together to ensure the attainment of personal and group’s success.
Deutsch (1949) and Thomas (1957) both argue that working in groups to accomplish group’s goal leads to learners expressing norms in favor of doing whatever necessary for group’s success. This holds true with regard to the V-Web game where each pair is motivated toward achieving success by working on as many derivational words as they could from the word stem. Learners will even take turns to jot down the words while the others work hard thinking for all the possible words. In fact, learners will also work tolerantly with their peer’s ideas (in this case learners will pick the words that scores the most marks and that do not violate the rule of the games) so as to ensure an
accomplishment. This could help weaker learners feel that their classmates appreciate them and want them to learn and contribute to the team (Slavin, 1983b). Besides, Wadsworth (1984) stresses that as learners interact to decide on what constitutes the best, cognitive conflicts will arise, inadequate reasoning will be exposed, and higher-quality understanding will emerge.
On the whole, this literature review forwards two major learning approaches- experiential and cooperative learning. In regard to the former, this game involves every individual learner to actively experience working on the words. In so doing, each individual learner has to activate their schemata of previous learnt words to derive as many words as possible from the given word stem. Reflection, then, plays the vital role in helping learners to accomplish their task. As far as the latter approach is concerned, this game groups learners into pairs. This, then, reflects the game’s motive to subscribe to the cooperative learning principles whereby learners are to exchange their experiences and work on deriving the most words for their team. It is while working on the best suitable words that this game tries to make learners acquire the essence of learning cooperatively in the classroom.






REFERENCES

David, B. et al. (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York:
Nichols Publishing Company.

Margot, P. and David S. (1982). Debriefing in Experience-based Learning. In David, B.
et al. Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York: Nichols
Publishing Company.

Deutsch, M. (1949). A theory of cooperation and competition, Human Relations, 2, pg.
129-152.

Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. Boston: D C Heath.

Duley, J. S. (1981). Field experience education. In Chickering, A W (ed) The Modern
American College. San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.

Grundy, S. (1982). Three Methods of Action Research, Curriculum Perspectives, 2, 3, pg.
23-34.

Kolb, , D. A. et al. (1971). Organizational Psychology: An Experiential Approach. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Slavin, R. E. (1983b). When does cooperative learning increase students achievement?,
Psychological Bulletin, 94, pg. 429-445.

Thomas, E. J. (1957). Effects of facilitative role independence on group functioning,
Human Relations, 10, pg. 347-366.

Wadsworth, B. J. (1984). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development (3rd ed.).
New York: Longman.