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