A new narrative for a new school
LiveLab, together with its network of partners, is developing a narrative that intends to be able to bring post-pandemic education to the discussion table, with innovative pedagogical solutions, already foreseen in the new BNCC, mainly active methodologies, in order to increase its capillarity and applicability in the pedagogical practice of the country’s education departments. And all this through a playful process, the main learning space in childhood and adolescence and a refuge for adult creativity. Experienced by playing, reality becomes more visible, devoid of filters imposed by acquired paradigms that cloud our gaze.
For this reason, the X Program for Training Game Masters begins with experiencing a game that proposes an epic adventure, with challenges to be experienced in the real world. The rescue of the curious, adventurous, daring, uninhibited, fearless child, which still exists in every adult, can only be revived by the potential space opened up by playing. In this space everything is possible! It is the space of creativity, where, for example, the goddesses of the Arts live.
The preparation of this narrative about the rebirth of and at school must begin now, preparing masters, apprentices, mothers and fathers for an integrated form of learning that, associated with traditional teaching, will raise the educational level of the new generations.
The program aims to address:
1. Successful learning experiences where living and playing played a fundamental role
2. A new way of being at school: welcoming the school community and the community surrounding the school, seeking acceptance and transformation through the arts, local culture and sports.
3. Electives, Technologies and Life Project
• These disciplines are fertile ground for us to establish pedagogical concepts and practices that are more consistent with the generations of the 21st century;
• Engage apprentices in continuous processes of reflection and construction of their life project, strengthening their ability to aspire, plan and achieve present and future goals, including the continuity of their studies;
• Provide educational experiences that are meaningful, attractive and relevant for adolescents and young people in the 21st century, in order to increase engagement, learning and the development of socio-emotional skills, in addition to reducing school dropout and dropout.
A program that inspires transformation
The magic of a program that inspires transformation must be multifactorial and multidimensional. Exceeding expectations is a key factor, but how to overcome participants’ expectations? How can people who have gone through so many courses and programs, inside and outside Brazil, feel “balanced”?
Structure, themes, didactics, type of facilitation, sequence of activities, guest speakers, what can deeply move people, press their beliefs and assumptions, in a short period of time?
Perhaps the magic is already born in the provocation created by the experience of the game and by the reflections on significant themes experienced among the apprentices and in their relationship with the teachers. Inciting the questioning of the beliefs and convictions that lie dormant within each one brings a restlessness and a temporary loss of references that, if at first it causes fear and uncertainty, in the next instant it awakens human curiosity and leverages the search for the new.
A smooth navigation from the concrete to the subtle is necessary, shaking the foundations of the building of absolute truths, opening spaces to sow a new orchard of knowledge. For this, the presentation of new theoretical and practical references through the language of play, the arts and emotions is the foundation of all human memory and plays a decisive role in the success of a project that seeks transformation. The possibility of revisiting apparently insoluble problems that, seen from other angles, open up to horizons of solutions never thought of. It is also imperative to have a balanced measure between philosophy and pragmatism that encourages an in-depth reflection on people’s relationships with themselves and with the outside world.
Finally, perhaps a refined blend of all these factors, combined with a high degree of awareness in its design, can explain the transcendent magic of a program that inspires transformation.
Certainly, conscience is the compass that guides any professional who seeks excellence and which, combined with serenity and presence, connects the educator – here called “Game Master” – with something greater that appears to the audience through an inexplicable feeling. , but absolutely true.
The intention of provoking people to a transformation, not only of the mental model, but of their level of conscience, gains aspects of the beginning of the journey, which can be continued by reading and, mainly, by the effective exercise of the principles and values on which reflections will be focused.
The presence of a “Game Master” maintaining the main lines of a group and encouraging reflections and abstractions of the different themes, in their various forms of presentation, allows the learner to immerse himself in the dialogues, exposing his points of view in an almost unconscious way, where his “felt world” appears in the cracks of his “lived world” in everyday life. Circumventing the logical-rational grids requires true involvement from the participant, who needs to feel safe in the environment in which he will expose his rational, intuitive and existential beliefs and doubts.
Other text
What is a “Game Master”?
Thus, what we call the “Game Master” here is the conventional teacher revisited and adapted to new learning processes, playing an absolutely fundamental role in an active and iterative educational project, with different actions, such as:
• Using Socratic didactics, drawing themes from the group, always emphasizing the most important ones for each moment, giving the learner the chance to reflect on their competences, skills and abilities, active or in process, allowing the questions asked by them to circulate among the others, adding value to them and returning them to the audience for everyone’s reflection.
• When starting each day, review the previous one, seeking to review the themes to complement them and, if necessary, use them as stimuli for the new themes, creating a coherent transition.
• Search for a dynamic and intelligent use of video resources (technical and artistic), experiences, dialogues and notes, suggesting “logbooks” to record the reflections, mainly the “insights” of the group.
• Warn the learners that the topics will not necessarily be exhausted (closed) when brought up for discussion; this allows leaving “on hold” issues raised prematurely by the group, without the learner feeling bored or neglected in their placement.
• Always walk from the concrete to the subtle, progressively; deconstructing and reconstructing on deeper foundations.
Valuing each student’s contribution, even those that seem off-topic or even provocative.
• Create a strong empathy with the group, keeping learners attentive, in the “present”, avoiding monotony and composing an energizing, happy and relaxed climate.
• Taking care of the language, with the aim of highlighting basic concepts that facilitate the dialogues and reflections of the groups of learners; align the themes with a specific language for the profile of the learners.
• Be attentive to the pertinence of the group’s discussions with the program, aiming to create a sequential line of reasoning, where the subjects form a network with conceptual coherence;
• Use real stories to exemplify situations in which conceptualization does not seem sufficient to clarify doubts.
• Ensure that conceptual dialogues are quickly visualized in practice, using a return to daily routine as a reference.
• Always seek to bring the discussion to the essence, avoiding superficialities in dealing with issues.
• Linking the context of the program to the contents of the different information centers, mainly videos and experiences.
• Keep the focus on the theme for which the stimulus (video, experience) was designed, reinforcing this theme so that it does not get lost in the many statements of the group; seek to bring the discussion to the essence, avoiding deviations in dealing with matters.
• Navigating from the individual to the systemic, trying to show the connections between individuals, organizations, communities, society, Humanity, Nature and the Universe.
• Be permanently available to the group, using their experience as a basis for harmonizing apparent contradictions.
• Pay attention to the abstractions made from the metaphors inserted in the different materials, checking some concepts through specific questions.
• Frequently encourage learners to write down individual ideas arising during discussions (insights) for later reflection.
• Try to prevent the monopolization of dialogues by some apprentices so as not to inhibit the more timid ones.
• Stimulate the development of challenging equations for the lives of learners, inspired by the examples presented in the experiences and videos.
• Make a smooth and coherent transition from theme to theme, leaving one, but already preparing the other (like a good pool player, who pockets a ball, already positions the white for the next move).
• Encouraging reflection and dialogue, avoiding the formation of poles or polemics, trying, for this, to raise the level of awareness of the discussion, seeking the confluence of ideas; ensure that dialogues are quickly visualized in daily practice, using the return to everyday reality as a reference;
• Be attentive to unusual situations that will occur and work with them intuitively at the moment or write them down for later approach.
• Remember that among learners we have a range of perceptions ranging from the most skeptical to those who want to try everything. And that, among them, there may also be people better prepared than us, including in leading groups.
• Perceiving and inhibiting prejudiced or ironic reactions that may embarrass people’s participation.
• Allow the slow absorption of the syllabus, as the information is offered during the course of the course, avoiding precipitation in the discussions of fundamental themes.
• Provide the learner with the chance to reflect on their own skills, abilities and capabilities, whether active or in the process of being built.
• Always reinforce the focus on abstractions to make it happen; avoiding ready-made recipes and always proposing to bring the concepts to daily experiences through their own solutions.
• Periodically return to subjects covered by videos or experiences, discussing new topics within the context of presentations.
• Work with the different stimulus materials (videos, experiences, dialogues and notes) varying the ways of approaching the themes and seeking the best possible time/benefit.
• Incessantly research new stimuli.
• Approach all necessary theoretical topics in three ways: technical approach (expert video), metaphorical approach through the arts (photos, videos or films of dance, music, or on the theme) and experiential approach (in reality or through simulators or group games).
Program Principles
Principles for creating the X Program for Training Game Masters
1) As the focus of this training is an active gamified pedagogy, which moves from the concrete to the subtle, the program must be based on a compatible didactic structure, since the origin of this training is the Jornada X Gymkhana and the Jornada X itself.
2) In this way, it must be started with the Gymkhana of Jornada X or with Jornada X itself, using the mission cards that will be accomplished during the game, both in the virtual world and in the real world.
3) Teachers should experience something similar to what young players on Journey X will experience, including teamwork,
4) At the same time, they must understand the skills needed to be Game Masters in the game and in everyday life.
5) Groups (Leagues) for study and reflection should be set up, using dialogue rooms on the internet or at school.
6) There must be a “logbook” of the Game Masters leagues to monitor the evolution in carrying out the missions.
7) It is essential that during the game, teachers learn to use as many tools as possible on the Internet (Google Education, TED Talks, Facebook, Tik Tok, Youtube etc).
8) It is also very important that this program help teachers in the construction of different training itineraries, since this is one of the characteristics of the new secondary education.
