I realise this is probably a bit late for most of you, but here’s a game to play with students to teach them a valuable lesson about how education works.
I was taught it about a decade ago by David Jaques, but never had a) the equipment, or b) the opportunity, until last week, at our Departmental awayday.
You’ll need a piece of string long enough to go comfortably around the room you’re using (which will be a bit longer than you think), plus blindfolds for everyone. On the latter, I had hand-made some out of old t-shirts, but then I checked on Amazon and found that as a side-effect of Fifty Shades, you can get multi-packs for a few pounds. Avoid the fluffy ones, and also be prepared to see your suggested purchase algorithm take a hit.
Before the game, arrange furniture with tables and chairs, so that the string can be threaded into a big loop. I had cut my string into several sections and tied them back together, so that when I tied it all into a big loop, that last join wouldn’t be exceptional. Leave some way to allow access to the central of the space.
Then you bring in the participants, with their blindfold on and join them to the string.
The instructions you’ll have given beforehand are as follows:
“You’re in a burning building, and thick smoke means you can’t see at all. However, there is an escape route: follow the string to the end. If you need help, just stick up your hand.”
Once everyone’s attached to the string, off you go. Or off they go.
Now, as I’ve explained it to you, you know there’s no end to the string, but what do you think they’ll do?
That’s right: spend 20 minutes blindly chasing around the string, trying to find the end and getting annoyed with you/me.
Keep reminding them of the rules, as set out above. I certainly found myself putting more and more emphasis on the last sentence (because that’s the key one).
When someone puts up their hand, then go over to them, whisper to them to take off their blindfold, then gestue that they have escaped and should let go of the string and step silently to one side and watch. In my game, that took 15 minutes before anyone did that, and it took 30 minutes before the final group decided to ‘concede’ and ask for help.
The point of the game is, obviously, that if someone offers you help, then you should take it.
I have always liked the idea of the game, because it’s very clear in its purpose (seen from the end), and I’m really keen to try it out on students, especially since I now have a pile of blindfolds. It opens up a conversation about learning styles and interpersonal dynamics: do the people you think will ask for help do so? Is help cheating? And so on.
It might be a bit late for the start of semester, but if my colleagues are anything to do by, then it’s never too late to try out.