Games designed to be educational games 

Board games are a terrific learning tool. And I’m not just talking about board games that have been specifically designed to be educational. In fact, while there are some good ‘educational board games’, others fall sadly below my definition of a good game. In many respects, good games that haven’t necessarily been designed to be educational may be a more valuable learning tool than games created specifically with an educational aim in mind.

Let’s look at it this way… Quite a lot of dedicated ‘educational games’ have been designed by people with an educational remit. These may be subject specialists or teachers who are trying to deliver specific content, but often they don’t have much experience of game design. Now, there are some wonderful educational games around – Fraction Formula is a simple push-your-luck game with some not-so-simple maths calculations, for example. But there are also a lot of pretty boring ones. Interestingly, teachers usually report that even these terrible games go down really well with learners. Well, of course they do. If it’s called a ‘game’ then the expectation is that it will be fun. But it’s more than that…

Bertie playing with the Hexapawn

What makes a good game? 

Having been disparaging about some educational games, it’s worth having a quick look at some of the ingredients that, in my opinion, make a good game. Here are my top three…

1. Choice. Players must have some interesting, gritty and ideally difficult choices that they can make in the game. There’s no ownership in a game of pure luck. To feel like you have had any kind of control over your own destiny in the game, you must be able to make decisions – to influence your own journey.

2. Multiple routes to victory. Players like to have the ability to adopt a different strategy from other players, or a different strategy from ones they have taken before. If there is only one optimum strategy – one that will always triumph, then that’s not very exciting. Part of the fun is to have the ability to experiment with new strategies and test things out to see what will happen.

    

3. Feeling like you are still in the game. Some games – like dexterity games – may well reward people with advanced skill, but I don’t want to feel like an observer. I want to feel as if I’m doing something.  I may realise early on that I’m not going to win this one, but I want there to be a reason for me to continue.

Hanabi from AbacusSpiele requires memory for players to triumph

Processing speed

On the Learning Works for Kids website, Dr Randy Kulman writes, “Games with simple rules that emphasize rapid visual detection and rapid motor response, with additional demands on focus, can help children improve their ability to perform a cognitive task automatically. According to research, these are the keys for using board and card games to improve processing speed. In simple terms, games that require players to look and respond quickly while maintaining concentration can impact the speed of processing.”

Alfie & Sam playing Chess – a game that relies on logical thinking & reasoning

Critical thinking

In his article, Board Games for Kids: Can they teach Critical Thinking? –  Gwen Dewar suggests that playing board games, when combined with metacognition will boost critical thinking. “Research strongly suggests that kids become better learners when they believe that intelligence is malleable. And studies show that kids learn more when they attempt to explain their reasoning processes. So we might make board games a more powerful learning tool if we teach kids that problem-solving ability is like a muscle: It can be strengthened with practice and learning.” This is echoed by Barry Hymer and Peter Wells in their book, Chess Improvement, which has a whole chapter on the importance of metacognition for improving chess ability.

In Cottage Garden from Stronghold Games, players fit polyomino tiles into their garden. 

Verbal and communication skills

All board games spark conversation and some will require it to be successful in the game. Some games require players on a team together to take different roles. In Captain Sonar, your ability to communicate with your teammates clearly and in a timely fashion will save your submarine from attack. In their article, Using tabletop games as a technology to understand play in education, Lean, Illingworth and Wake say: “The social aspect of tabletop games, in that they often require player interaction (be it collaborative or competitive) was certainly helpful in generating conversation and debate. Here, the relative ‘weakness’ of tabletop games (that they lack the obvious sensory immersion, which is perhaps the appeal of their digital counterparts) might be perceived as a strength. Of course, this doesn’t alter the fact that many learners will be familiar with, and attracted to, digital environments, but it seems reasonable to suggest that when players are tasked with ‘running’ the games that they play, the group dynamics and responsibilities are likely to shift in interesting, and productive, ways.

Tokyo Highway from Itten depends on concentration (and a steady hand)

Problem-solving

In this article, teacher Aisling McQuaid says, “The advantages for maths are in developing problem-solving skills.” Indeed board games are really all about solving problems. You understand the victory conditions, but how will you achieve the victory? You need a certain amount of resources to perform a critical action, but how will you acquire those resources? You need to be in a certain position at a certain time, but how will you make sure you get there? You’re making decisions within a framework in order to solve a series of problems in your attempt to triumph.