"In some ways games have the potential to go beyond the capability of movies in delivering a message in that they are interactive. Interactivity can provide a new way for children to assimilate information. Many developmental theorists have written about children learning through play and that through our development as children we learn a lot more by experiencing through play than being told or shown information.
Jean Piaget is widely acknowledged as a theorist who has had a huge impact on the field of child development. Piaget was unlike other theorists of his time (1896- 1980) because he wrote that instead of the child being an empty vessel which had knowledge poured into it, the child was active in shaping their own understanding (Evans, Keenan 2009) Piaget’s theory is referred to as the ‘construcivist’ approach as it consists of children constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences. (Siegler, Deloache, Eisenberg, 2010)
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development states that from birth children are mentally active as well as physically and that their activity contributes to their own development. (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg 2010) Piaget noted that three of the most important activities in a child’s constructive process are; generating hypotheses, performing experiments and drawing conclusions from observations. Piaget wrote about an observation he had made of his son, Laurent, playing. Laurent would drop several different objects from different heights and observe the way in which they would land to study the spatial relation. (Siegler, DeLoche, Eisenberg, 2010) This shows that children are capable of learning complex scientific reasoning through play and discovery on their own without being taught.
If a child is given five blocks and asked ‘how many are there?’ with us teaching them how to count the blocks, that the answer is five, has the child learnt the concept of number? According to Piaget the answer would be no, at least not in the same way that we as adults would understand. The child has simply learned a procedure in response to a particular question. There is not a conceptual understanding of number. (Wood, 1998) This shows that although a child can be helped to understand a concept the only true understanding comes when children experiment with something and learn it for themselves. The ‘constructivist’ theory of child development shows us how important play is to a child’s developmental process.
Lev Vygotsky is another theorist in the field of child development who took Piaget’s theories and adapted them further. He agreed with Piaget but felt that there was more of a need for societal interaction than he had accounted for. In Piaget’s theory the child learns only by itself whereas Vygotsky thought that children needed to interact and learn by experimentation involving those around them. (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg, 2010) Vygotsky noticed that children tended to engage in pretend play and specifically pretend play of a level beyond their own stage in life. Children often play at being parents or doctors rather than roles that are appropriate to their age. (Evans, Keenan, 2009) It is in partaking in play like this that children can make sense of the world around them.
“A child who pretends to be a baby has to follow the rules and go to sleep when the pretend Mummy tells them to, and a child who pretends to be a Daddy may have to pretend to cut the lawn. In other words, children’s play is constrained by the rules which guide behaviour in these roles.” (Evans, Keenan, 2009) Because of play like this children can learn about social norms and what is expected in terms of cultural activity.
We tend to regard play as something extracurricular but it plays a vital role in our development. Garvey (1977) describes the following characteristics of play: “it is pleasurable and enjoyable, it has no extrinsic goals, it is spontaneous and voluntary, and it involves some active engagement.” “Play only occurs in mammals with a higher brain function so this would suggest it has something to do with intelligence.” (Flanagan, 1996) Hutt and Bhavani (1972) found that children who were being judged as low on exploratory play when they were pre-schoolers tended to be low in curiosity and develop problems in their social interaction five years later. (Flanagan, 1996)
Play is an important part of the cognitive development process of a child. The theories and experiments detailed above show that children could improve their understanding of the world around them and also learn to develop emotionally through play. (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg 2010)
Does this prove that video games can be used to help children come to terms with important emotional issues? If a child’s cognitive learning is helped through play then are video games the next step in ‘exploratory play’?
An interesting use of video games within an educational environment is ‘Quest to Learn’ a school in New York designed by ‘The Institute of Play’ created by games designer Katie Salen, which focuses on games and learning. The aim of the school is to create a rich environment for education using concepts found in video games. Salen is the writer of several books theorising the importance of games and play including Rules of Play (Salen, 2003). She is now implementing her knowledge of what can be achieved using the fundamental rules of games and putting these into practical use to teach a curriculum to children. ‘Quest to Learn’ is trying to teach children how to solve problems in a similar way that video games do. In a game there is a problem that must be solved in order for the player to progress and Salen has taken this approach to education. Salen’s views on the current education system are that children are learning how to take tests or perform academically and not necessarily learning skills that will help them to perform later in life.
‘I don’t have to think; the teacher is going to tell me what I need to know to pass the test,’” Salen says. “They’ve never been put in situations where they have to solve problems, think on their own, or be in charge of their own learning. So they go to college or into jobs, and suddenly their manager is asking them to solve something, and they have no skills.” (Hall, 2012)
By taking some of the fundamental theories approached by constructivists such as Piaget and combining these with the ideas built on by video games, ‘Quest to Learn’ provides a new and interesting take on education and maybe it will be the start of more and more schools of its kind. This helps to prove that games can have a real positive influence on education and personal development."
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