Roleplaying as a Teaching Aid

[Mithras]

Has anybody had any experience, or heard of any situations in which roleplaying games of any form have been used to teach in school.

I'm biting the bullet and doing research for a book on the subject. I've got a few ideas of my own, and been experimenting with RPGs at my own school, but that's a drop in the ocean ...

Using an RPG with 30 school-kids? Getting kids to split into groups and GM their own games simultaneously? Get them all to create a character from a period in history (without actually using them), hot-seating, roleplaying a community, with the class becoming the members of that community ..

There must be lots of other ways to get across a subject (history especially) using roleplaying techniques of one sort or another. No idea is too wacky!

Please help!

(if you frequent RPG.Net my apologies, I've asked the same question there)

 

[maransreth]

My wife used to work for a computer helpdesk for schools in Australia and one day she was asked why do the schools block sites relating to D&D and Wizards.com in particular from a schoolteacher in far north Queensland. She gave the standard reply and then asked why he wanted to know. His response below.

The school was trialing an experiment where the kids were taught to roleplay after school hours. They found that the kids did better in group assignments as they were more socialable with each other, encouraging ideas and generally being more creative.

This was being conducted at a primary school for the higher grades, so ages 10 to 12 basically. I am not sure if the teacher was doing it with permission from the kid's parents and I really doubt he was doing it with the education department's approval. D&D has been banned in schools in Queensland for nearly the past 20 years (I think). I can remember 15 years ago when it was definitely banned.

 

[F5]

Check out Better World Roleplaying's website. They're a group that's been working on using RPGs as teaching aids for a while now (since the inception of the OGL, I think). I haven't poked around there in a while, but it's worth looking at.

 

[Fast Learner]

See GAMA's "Games in Education" page:

http://www.gama.org/gamesed/index.cfm?fuseaction=home&nodeID=5

 

[Emerald]

Me and my husband are planning on homeschooling our children and see countless oppertunities to use D&D and a teaching aid. Especially math related topics, to hopefully make it more fun. I would be very interested in any information you find in order to get ideas on ways to use D&D in a homeschooling setting.

 

[Jenale]

How many kids do you have (i.e., enough for a small party)? I've got four, but only the oldest is old enough to get into playing (he's 9-1/2). I did run him through the solo adventure in the old red Basic boxed set, and he loved it. Now I just need to get some other players to go along with him.

 

[Emerald]

This is a long term plan, we currently have one child (18 mo.) but are planning on having two more. Our D&D group also has several young children in it, so I can see as they get older, having the older kid, running the younger ones through some adventures while we play our game. Also, I see that you could use Iron DM style rules for a creative writing lesson. (Write a story using a sad elf, a lost magical ring, a ruined town, and a young dragon) Or simply making word problems in math using the D&D rules. (If a wagon stops and lets a dwarven rouge off, he then sneaks through the woods along the side of the road, 10 minutes later the wagon continues down the road, 15 minutes after the rouge got off, where is the wagon in relation to the rogue.) Much better than those lame, two trains leave NY at 4pm question I remember getting as a kid. I am sure there are plenty of other uses for D&D materials.

 

[Tonguez]

When I was teaching 11 & 12 y olds I would get them to create 'new' cultures and develop the various Economic, Political, Education and Recreation systems that culture used.
Only once have I taken things to a level whereby these cultures actually meet and engage in diplomacy and war


I also did an Ancient Egypt unit in which each member of class researched a 'job from Ancient Egypt' the Assessment was for them to dressed up in appropriate garb and then give a five minute explanation of why they should be appointed as the next Grand Vizier.

 

[Jotun]

http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/SeriousGaming.shtml

This article has some information that is relative.

 

[ergeheilalt]

I did a bit of Role-Playing in Eight Grade. We all did a bit of role-playing through out the year, and I was called in during the "Discovery of the Americas". Everyone was given a part and had to dress up for the event and such. I was Hoey Shinn (sp?), as Chinese explorer rumored to have explored the east coast of modern day US, Mexico and Chile I had to explain why I was there, what proof there was, and why Columbus, the Indians, and Eric the Red were all liars . Others had to create members of the Constitutional Congress and explain their view points, some created war veterans from the American Civil War.

There was not dice rolling or DMing, but it was a good learning experience. It took history one step beyond "Columbus discovered he Americas in 1492" to "Why did Columbus go, what was his purpose, what is the proof, etc". I'm all for role-playing in education, however I dont know how you could take a game like D&D and make it relate to history.


My 2 cents

Erge