INNOVATIVE TEACHING METHODS AND GAMIFICATION

Learning through play is a term used in education and psychology to describe how a child can learn to make sense of the world around them. Through play children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments. According to proponents of the concept, play enables children to make sense of their world. Children possess a natural curiosity to explore and play acts as a medium to do so. Teachers today face quickly-changing expectations and need a broad and sophisticated set of competences with an ability to adapt to different learning environments in order to maintain their high quality teaching. To respond to the changing demands teachers need good support and opportunities for Continuing Professional Development. For this reason Eurokey Community offers a course on: Learning by playing, Learning by doing. The course aims to teach effective methods to Learning through play, it will develop into a series of lessons acts to enhance the methods of communication of the participant, and enhancing working capacity of the participant.

The methodology of the training is based on a combination of three important elements:

• Provision of knowledge required (theory)
• Use of training tools, such as case studies, videos, games, animations & exercises (practice – hands on experience)
• Feedback/reflection (review)

• Help children recognize the concepts that emerge as they grapple with the environment, make hypotheses, recognize similarities and differences, and solve problems
• Using games to teach social Skills
• Provide social knowledge while allowing children the opportunity to learn the physical and logical-mathematical knowledge that helps them understand the world around them
• Choose the best materials and tools in order to provide the motivation for children’s exploration and discovery.
• Using game to teach foreign languages
• Using game to teach literature