Models of Role-structure in Project-based Games for Children in Kindergarten about 5-6 Years Old

In this paper we will report on the use of Project-based learning in teaching kindergarten students about 5-6 years old. In our program, we have shifted the ideas of Project-based learning into a more suitable form for young... [ view full abstract ]

In this paper we will report on the use of Project-based learning in teaching kindergarten students about 5-6 years old. In our program, we have shifted the ideas of Project-based learning into a more suitable form for young children and named it “Project-based game”, since playing is actually the primary method of learning for young students. Project-Based Game is essentially a set of games devised by us making use of the principles of Project-based learning. It is a program that aims to enrich the children’s ability to collaborate and communicate with each other throughout the process of problem-solving. To participate in Project-based game, the children are divided into groups and different teams will be assigned with different roles and tasks. From here, they will start learning how to combine their resources effectively to gain advantage over other teams. We then collect relevant data based on their performance, and try to find out how to tap the maximum potential of each team member. Based on the roles played by students in the process of game-play, we can build models for the structure of these roles to help them acquire desired skills. This study has accomplished the following tasks:

First, with the importance of grouping and role-assigning in mind, we have interviewed teachers and children from different classes. After the interviews, we have tracked a number of project-cases in kindergarten and recorded our observation. To complement our data, we have designed questions and tasks for the children to get more responses. Through analysis, we have finally obtained the result of our study “Models of Role-structure in Project-based Games for The Children in Kindergarten about 5-6 Years old”.

Keywords: Project-based games,Models of Role-structure,Children,