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When we play chess or cards, we can feel like we are racking our brains.\u00a0But is it true that they stimulate our mind?\u00a0Can playing board games help us train memory, attention or impulse control?<\/p>\n
Play, in addition to a recognized right of childhood, is what allows us to learn from our environment from an early age.\u00a0By playing we interact with what surrounds us, we interact with other people, we put different abilities into practice and discover their results in a safe environment.<\/p>\n
Although free play is wonderful and we should recover public spaces for it, guided play is also a powerful learning tool.\u00a0And there is no better example of a guided or regulated game than a board game.<\/p>\n
In a previous\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0we talked about research in childhood and older people that concludes that playing board games could favor the development and maintenance of executive functions and educational skills.<\/p>\n That’s why game-based learning (ABJ) or gamification are so fashionable, two methodologies to which in\u00a0our research group<\/a>\u00a0we have paid special attention.\u00a0These active learning methodologies are based on the use of complete games in a playful context (ABJ) or game elements (for example, rewards or narrative) in a non-playful context (gamification) to work on certain educational content or competencies.<\/p>\n We are not only talking about learning mathematics or reading comprehension, but also about training basic cognitive processes for good academic performance and personal development.<\/p>\n Although we are aware of the importance of playing as children, it seems that, as we grow, we choose to reduce that playing time considerably.\u00a0Life runs over us and we have to prioritize what is productive.\u00a0But what if what is apparently playful is also productive?<\/p>\n When we consider bringing games to the classroom, doubts may arise about their educational benefits.\u00a0If they play, are they losing class?\u00a0What’s the point of playing a memory game with cards if what I want is for my son or daughter to know how to add and subtract?\u00a0How is a commercial game designed to entertain going to be educational?<\/p>\n Scientific literature suggests that\u00a0executive functions<\/a>\u00a0are a key element in educational performance, job success, and good mental health.\u00a0There is a significant relationship between good development of these cognitive processes (working memory, inhibitory control and flexibility) and mathematics, reading comprehension or science.<\/p>\n Today, we have a wide variety of modern board games that could help us launch these cognitive processes.\u00a0We are talking about card, board or dice games with different themes and mechanics, for all tastes.\u00a0Education and psychology professionals rub their hands with everything they can do with them to help the development of boys and girls in a stimulating and attractive way.\u00a0But is there evidence of its use in the classroom?\u00a0Or do the eyes deceive us?<\/p>\n To answer this question, in 2019 a research project was started with the Almeria association\u00a0AFIM21<\/a>\u00a0, the board game publisher Mercurio and the NeuroPGA research group at the University of Lleida, called\u00a0\u201cConectar Jugando\u201d<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0Their objective was to study the effectiveness of using modern board games in the primary classroom to train executive functions.<\/p>\n To this end, intervention studies were carried out during school and extracurricular hours and a committee of experts in psychology, education and research was held to evaluate a wide selection of commercial board games.<\/p>\n The\u00a0first study<\/a>\u00a0of this project was carried out in Almer\u00eda.\u00a0Teachers from four primary schools, with the support and coordination of AFIM21, implemented a neuro-educational program with board games in the classroom with 283 boys and girls at risk of social exclusion.\u00a0After the intervention, a significant reduction in the students’ executive dysfunctions was detected, which means that playing could have helped them present fewer difficulties in their daily behaviors associated with cognitive deficits.<\/p>\n In this first study we were missing a control group and a more objective criterion in the selection of the games.\u00a0Therefore, in the following studies we base ourselves on the evaluations of a\u00a0group of experts<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0To do this, they assessed the cognitive processes that could be activated in each game.\u00a0And then they chose the games with the highest scores in each one.<\/p>\n As we all know, 2020 was not an easy year.\u00a0Nor for those investigations in which data from other people were collected in person.\u00a0How were we going to study the effectiveness of games in the classroom when we still didn’t know our viral enemy well?\u00a0Contagion prevention measures included restricting group activities that involved contact.\u00a0So it was time to get creative.<\/p>\n The games were adapted to be used by videoconference during after-school hours.\u00a0During the 2020-2021 academic year, we carry out\u00a0online sessions<\/a>\u00a0with groups of between two and four boys and girls and compare pre- and post-test results with a group on a waiting list.\u00a0In this way, we realized that games could favor certain processes such as flexibility or verbal fluency, but that this online methodology was not showing results as promising as previous face-to-face studies.<\/p>\n What could have influenced the results?\u00a0Was the sample small?\u00a0Perhaps the previous experience with the games that the participants had?\u00a0Or perhaps the limitations of working remotely were what influenced these results?\u00a0Everything indicates that playing a board game in digital format is not as beneficial as playing it face to face with our friends.<\/p>\n At this point, we already knew that board games could be tools with great potential in school to benefit our brain, but more weighty evidence was lacking.\u00a0So, when Covid-19 gave us a little respite and it was safe to enter the schools, that’s where we went.\u00a0Nine educational centers in Madrid and Lleida (some of them\u00a0rural<\/a>\u00a0) participated in this project, in total 621 boys and girls from first to sixth grade.<\/p>\n When we compared the group that participated in the cognitive training program with board games with the group that continued with their regular classes, we found that the boys and girls who had played significantly improved their basic executive functions, especially working memory. .\u00a0Not only that, but the group that played during class hours was also the one that showed the greatest increase in the number of correct answers on math and reading tasks.<\/p>\n The\u00a0results<\/a>\u00a0of the \u201cConnect Playing\u201d project provide, for the first time with quantitative data, a considerable sample and rigorous scientific methodology, evidence on the cognitive and educational impact that the use of board games can have in the primary classroom.\u00a0Board games could be as good as, and even more effective than, traditional methodologies for training our brain and practicing our math and language skills.<\/p>\n However, many new questions arise, as in all research.\u00a0Is it by stimulating executive functions that math and reading improve?\u00a0Is it because these educational competencies are working directly with these games?\u00a0Is this methodology appropriate to address the diversity of the classroom?\u00a0What benefits can it have on children with learning difficulties or\u00a0neurodevelopmental disorders<\/a>\u00a0?<\/p>\n There’s still a lot to do, so let’s roll the dice and find out what’s coming.<\/p>\nWhat have you done at school today?\u00a0Play!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Board games in the classroom, yes or no?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Board games make us better at math and reading<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Games in the classroom yes, and now what?<\/strong><\/h4>\n