Teaching Pedagogy

Game Based Learning

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."

- Benjamin Franklin

Games and projects can help children learn through three major reasons: motivation, content mastery, as well as higher order thinking and social skills. 

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This method of teaching requires students to be problem solvers and use soft skills that they will need as adults. We think that this is great way to encourage a “mastery” mindset, rather than a focus on grades.

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Characteristics:

• Interactivity - students perform an action in order to get feedback

• Resilience - being willing to try and learning from mistakes

• Learn by doing - learning from real-world experiences

The Experiential Learning Cycle

David Kolb's Learning Model (1984)

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”

Kolb states that learning involves the acquisition of abstract concepts that can be applied flexibly in a range of situations. In Kolb’s theory, the impetus for the development of new concepts is provided by new experiences. Learning is viewed as an integrated process with each stage being supportive of and feeding into the next. It is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it through its logical sequence. However, effective learning only occurs when a learner can execute all four stages of the model. Therefore, no one stage of the cycle is effective as a learning procedure on its own.

How our Classes are Structured

Drawing upon David Kolb's Model, our curriculum is designed to enhance learning

Our approach for teaching our students coding concepts and problem solving skills is based on projects, games and activities. Students go through the learning cycle numerous times as they learn through doing. Lessons are structured such that students have to learn to code through trial-and-error, observing and learning from their mistakes. They then apply the lessons immediately through experimentation forming new experiences once again.

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We think this method of teaching is not just effective, but engaging and interactive for our students. We provide a learning environment that truly makes learning fun - a phrase that is commonly heard, but less commonly executed well.