Games and dopamine - What's missing?

When playing games, our brain releases dopamine. Dopamine is connected to pleasure but also to addiction. According to David, L (2016) “in an educational setting where games are used for learning, the structure of the classroom might help prevent students from being too obssesed with a game.” Students have to know that they are playing and not gambling. The teacher is responsible for acting as a mediator.

9-year-old students played what’s missing? The group is divided into teams. A student takes out a flashcard from the board after asking the opponents to close their eyes. Then, he/she asks them to open their eyes and says: what’s missing? The winner is the team with more right guesses.

References 

David L (2016) "Dopamine, Games, and Motivation," in Learning Theories, February 2, 2016, https://www.learning-theories.com/dopamine-games-motivation.html.

Alaka Zam in the secondary English classroom

Accoriding to Dr. Facundo Manes 

We have to propitiate social contact. It makes us feel good to look at somebody else's eyes, to shake hands or to give a hug. And it also makes others feel good. These situations free oxytocin, low cortisol levels, reduce stress, increase confidence levels and release dopamine, which is responsible for feeling happy. When we interact with other people, lots of chemical messengers are released which reinforce our immunologic system. (2018)

14-year-old students played ALAKA ZAM (idea retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-flashcard-games/) to revise pronunciation.

In this game, each student has to pick up a card and pronounce the word correctly. The rest of the students have to tell him/her if the pronunciation is okay or not. If it is okay the student keeps the card but if it is not he/she puts it back to the pile.

When a student finds an ALAKA card he/she can steal 3 cards from an opponent and if he/she finds a ZAM card he/she can exchange cards with those of an opponent.

The winner is the student who collects the most cards.

References

Facundo Manes. (2018). In Facebook. Retrieved September, 5, 2018 from Facundo Manes

Every time a synapsis is repeated it is strengthened. 

The following two games have been played in different classes by a group of 10-year-old students to recognize and recall routine items.

ALAKA ZAM (idea and rules retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-flashcard-games/ in this case students have to look at a picture related to routine actions and say the correct word e.g have lunch)

MEMORY GAME (students have to match word partnerships e.g GO TO SCHOOL) 

Why games? 

"Los juegos consolidan y afianzan las interrelaciones sociales, disminuyen los impactos por diferencias ideológicas o conductas dispares. Asimismo, es un medio útil a enseñar a tolerar lo adverso, fomentar el equilibrio emocional y el fortalecimiento del espíritu," (Labath, Asociación Educar, 2014)  

Labath, L. (2014). ¿De qué habamos cuando jugamos?. Asociación Educar. 

How to recognize and use vocabulary items?

First of all, remember that working memory has a capacity of four chunks in young adults and fewer in children and old adults and that we always have to take our learners emotions, tiredness, way of perception into consideration because each student is unique. 

To teach family members to 9 year-old students I've used flashcards, tape, chalk and the board. Firstly, I presented the family members to my students. I introduced the words: grandfather, grandmother, mother and father saying: "This is (Lucy)'s (grandfather)."

Then, I asked my students to close their eyes and I took out one of the members. After asking them to open their eyes I said: "Is (Lucy)'s (grandfather) missing?" Students answered "yes" o "no" to my question. 

Finally, I repeated the action above but this time I  asked: "Who's missing?" Students answered: "(Mary)'s (grandfather). 
When first exposed to vocabulary, students establish new neural connections. Upon hearing the same words on a second occasion, students recognize those words. They now recall the words which will be reproduced later.