QUESTION 1: DIFFERENT TYPES OF GAMES TO PROMOTE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING.

QUESTION 1: DIFFERENT TYPES OF GAMES TO PROMOTE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING.

"Tell me, and I forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand. (Confucius circa 450 BC).

The above saying by Confucius depicts the essence meaning of Experiential Learning. First of all, let us illustrate it by justifying our experience. It depicts four stages of Kolb's model, the Experiential Learning Cycle. We, as a future teacher, need to undergo practical teaching as a prerequisite element to certify us as an English teacher. So, before we went out to practical teaching, we were taught various approaches, techniques and methods of teaching. One of the subjects that benefit us the most is Microteaching class. We had undergone quite a number of teaching practices in front of our lecturer and several of our friends. This can be labeled as our concrete experience. Those practices made us realized that all the theories we have learnt was not enough and we need to improve. After every practice, the lecturer will give comments on our weaknesses, which represents stage 2, critical reflection. We understand that in order to improve our weaknesses, we need to do something for example varying the techniques to create a more interactive lesson. So, we began to look up on the Internet on the latest techniques to be used, fun activities to be carried out in class, and teaching tips. This can be categorized as step 3, abstract conceptualization. When the time for us to go for practical teaching, we applied those information and as a result we have complete it successfully. The application of what we have learnt is called active experimentation.

Apart from our experience, there are many other types of games that practice the Experiential Learning Cycle. They are movement games, card games, board games, dice games, drawing games, guessing games, role-play games, singing and chanting games, team games, and word games (Lewis & Bedson, 1999). However, it can be narrowed to only three types of games. According to Lorraine L.Ukens (2000), the three types of games in the Experiential Learning are ice-breakers, energizers, and group challenges. In the icebreakers games, the main objective is to offer the participants an opportunity to become acquainted and comfortable with their colleagues. This stage is important for the group's development as members in a group can build a sense of comfort as well as a sense of belonging towards each other. Besides, when the members in a group are comfortable with each other, it can generate an atmosphere suitable for collaborative learning. There are several purposes of this game such as to make the introduction of a session more interesting. Second, is to help the participants to remember their fellow friends from the beginning of the session and to highlight a fun way of getting to know the other participants. This type of game can be played individually or in a group. Examples of games in this category are Spider Web, Talking in Circle and Catch Me If You Can.


Meanwhile, the energizers are purposely conducted to invigorate the participants and to increase their attention levels (Ukens, 2000).It is useful as a transition between sessions or activities in the main program. Besides, it can be use as a transition to introduce new topic or activity. This kind of games can actually lessen the stress on behalf of the participants due to heavy input in a particular program and also can loosen stiff limbs after an extended and worn-out sitting throughout the sessions. It can be played within 5 to 10 minutes depends to the situations and the participants' condition. For the energizers, games that can be used for instance Crazy Counts, Mind Over Matter and Fitness Break. Besides, the riddles also can be used to boost up their attention and also to make the participants to use their lateral thinking in order to answer it correctly. This simple activity not only will help them to maintain their enthusiasm but also will make the situation becomes livelier.

Lastly, group challenges also exemplify Experiential Learning. This type of game has the objectives of helping participants to learn about themselves. Interpersonal skill is also taught so that the participants discover about relationship with group members, and how group function. The relationship here involves three areas. One is relationships between two people. Second, is a relationship between a person and a group and lastly involve relationships between groups. There are various types of group challenges games. They are group problem solving activities, ice breaker games, large group games, leadership games, role-playing games, team building games, and win-win games or better know as cooperative games. This includes 'Treasure Hunt' where it requires the participants to be in groups to solve tasks. Along the way of meeting the objectives of the game, the participants need to learn how to work in group and understand that each person has different behavior and style of problem-solving and learn to cope with it. To integrate group challenges games in classroom, there are several steps that teacher should take into consideration. First, the teacher must introduce learners to the topic by covering basic information or language input that learners must know beforehand. In other words, this step can be described as setting up an experience for the learners. After that, teacher can divide the learners into groups followed by engaging the learners into a realistic experience that provides deep involvement on behalf of the learners. It is because learners discover things best when seeing, hearing, and touching is involved at the same time. After the game, teacher should allow discussion of the experience took place. The discussion should involve the happenings that occurred and how the learners involved had felt. Instead of having the discussion after the game, the teacher can have it during the game by using time-outs especially to clarify problems. After having the discussion, the teacher can asked the learners to formulate concepts and hypotheses concerning the experience. Finally, the teacher should ask the learners to produce a group reflection as well as individual reflection.

In conclusion, it is difficult to categorize games in Experiential Learning because any activities that involve four stages that we mentioned above (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation) can be categorized as Experiential Learning.

Reference:
______. Energizers Game. Accessed on March 20, 2007 at
http://www.experiential-learning-games.com/energizers.html

______. Group-dynamic Game. Accessed on March 20, 2007 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group-dynamic_game
______. Icebreakers Game. Accessed on March 20, 2007 at
http://www.experiential-learning-games.com/icebreakers.html

Lewis, G and Bedson, G. (1999). Games for Children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ukens, L.L (2000). Energize Your Audience-75 Quick Activities That Get Them Started... And Keep Them Going. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.