Children Learning about ‘Urban
Sustainability’ through Playing and Re-constructing a Half-Baked Microworld
Georgia Liarakou, liarakou@rhodes.aegean.gr
Pedagogical Dept of Primary Education,
School of Humanities, University of the Aegean
Maria Daskolia, mdaskol@ppp.uoa.gr
Environmental Education Lab, Dept of
Pedagogy, School of Philosophy, University of Athens
Anna Papanikolaou, premnt10018@aegean.gr
Pedagogical Dept of Primary Education,
School of Humanities, University of the Aegean
Abstract
The study reported in this paper is based on the implementation of an educational activity which was
designed to engage Greek students of the 6th grade in collective
meaning-making processes on the concept of ‘urban sustainability’ while
collaboratively playing and de-constructing a game microworld. A half-baked digital game on the idea of sustainable city was created
by the researchers based on the Sus-X microworld template. The study’s findings
indicate that the students’ understandings of what 'sustainability in a city'
pertains seem to evolve as a result of the processes involved in the
constructionist activity. Patterns of their interaction with the microworld
show that the students managed to realise in varying degrees the existence and
interplay of the three axes of sustainability (environment - society -
economy). We discuss the learning gains of treating complex and abstract
concepts, such as that of sustainability, through applying constructionist
pedagogical designs.
Keywords
Sustainability, sustainable city,
Constructionism, digital games, half-baked microworlds
Introduction
Constructionist frames of epistemology and
learning have been traditionally applied to subject domains such as mathematics
education, science education and computers education. Extending constructionist
thinking beyond these fields to social sciences, humanities and the arts is a
major challenge yet to be undertaken. This is particularly true for educational
domains that promote interdisciplinary, systemic and critical knowledge about complex
concepts and issues related to contemporary realities such as those dealt
within the context of Environmental Education (EE) and Education for
Sustainable Development (ESD). Does Constructionism offer new tools along with
a new platform for thinking about how to gain new ways of understanding these
concepts and issues and consequently how to design learning in these domains in
both appropriate and more effective ways? The study reported in this paper has been designed to explore the
implementation of a constructionist framework in teaching and learning about
the concept of urban sustainability within the context of an EE activity.
Sustainability has become a fashionable
word in environmental policy discourse over the last two decades not only among
scientists, politicians and policy-makers but also among the general public. It
is nevertheless a notion by nature ‘difficult’ to work with as it lends itself to
numerous interpretations (Daskolia, Kynigos & Yiannoutsou, 2012). As a means to overcome the inherent vagueness of the concept, it is
suggested to be approached through its core dimensions. There is some consensus
that sustainability brings together three different axes: environment, economy
and society (UNESCO, 2005). They constitute the tree pillars of sustainability, three interdependent and overlapping systems, the proper functioning of all three is a necessary condition for achieving sustainability. The environmental axis refers to the effective protection of nature
and the physical environment as well as the prudent use of natural resources. The
economy axis stems from the need for establishing a prosperous and viable
economic exchange which has to take into consideration the limits of economic growth and to be based on a redefinition of the personal and social levels of consumption. As far as the society axis is concerned, sustainability has to be founded
on healthy communities and to promote democratic
and participatory
systems and processes that allow free expression of views and the rigorous building of social consensus. Human welfare and rights, peace and the establishment of a sense of security among
the citizens, gender equality, cultural diversity and health
are some of the aspects which are closely related to the societal axis.
Over the last twenty
years the concept of sustainability has been closely associated with education.
Learning about sustainability is acknowledged as an essential strategy for
achieving sustainable societies and as a tool to enhance quality in educational
practice (European Council, 2010). However, current school practices face many
difficulties in promoting sustainability due to the resistance placed by
traditional school structures, which remain greatly normative and conservative,
to respond to this challenge, as well as to the reluctance of teachers to deal
with ‘difficult’ concepts and issues (Stevenson, 1987).
In order to
address this problem innovative approaches and pedagogies need to be explored
so that children and young people are encouraged to get involved in meaningful educational
processes aiming to promote sustainability (Kynigos & Daskolia, 2011; Daskolia, Yiannoutsou, Xenos & Kynigos, 2012). Digital game-based learning is among those fields whose potential
for sustainability education rests to be further explored, as it is argued to support
the development of important skills, such as strategic thinking, planning,
communication, negotiation, group decision-making and data-handling (Kirriemuir
& McFarlane, 2004). It is worth noting that the number of digital games on
themes related to sustainability has grown exponentially over the last years.
The learning potential of some of these software tools lies in that they provide
players with opportunities to ‘experiment’ with applying sustainability principles
and virtually experience the consequences to them otherwise impossible to occur in the real world; or that
they evoke their involvement as prospective citizens into individual and
collective action associated with sustainability goals (Liarakou et al, 2011).
One of the most
popular themes addressed by current digital games on sustainability is the urban
environment (Liarakou et al, 2011). Contemporary cities
as complex agglomerations of human-made and physical environmental systems are among those cases offering many
opportunities for identifying, defining and testing the application of sustainability. According to Yanella and
Levine (1992) all initiatives towards sustainability should be centred on
strategies for designing, redesigning and building sustainable cities. Although
many would see the city as an ecological entity or as the extended version of
an ecosystem (Newman, 1999), the idea of the sustainable city calls for a more
elaborated and systemic conception of all its interconnected components
(social, cultural, economic, and environmental) and for
a consideration of the impact of our choices and
everyday practices on each of them. For a city to be regarded as sustainable
it has to be designed, run and lived by people who not only take into account how to protect its natural environment and how to minimize their inputs (in terms of energy and other resources) and outputs (in
terms of the waste produced and the pollution caused)
(Register, 1987). In a sustainable city people have to
regain control
of their communities, cultural diversity needs to be protected, urban violence
to be reduced, while the economy has to be self-sufficient and contributing to
local wealth, energy conservation and reutilization of resources.
In this study we designed and implemented
an educational activity with the aim to engage students in addressing the complex
and multi-faceted character of ‘urban sustainability’. Playing and re-constructioning
a game microworld were employed as pedagogical strategies to incite students to
identify and delve on the game’s embedded concept of sustainability and to help
them frame their own view of a ‘sustainable city’. Our approach moves within a
constructionist perspective viewing learning as an experiential
process of collaboratively constructing knowledge through active engagement
with the construction and de-construction of meaningful digital artefacts with
the use of microworlds, that is appropriately designed technological
environments and tools (Papert, 1993; Kynigos, 1995). By following this approach
we made use of the technological and pedagogical construct of ‘half-baked
microworlds’ (Kynigos, 2007), that is pieces of
software explicitly designed so that their users/ learners would want to build
on them, change them or de-compose parts of them in order to construct artefacts
that better suit their ideas of the concept, phenomenon or situation
represented by the microworld. In this sense, the microworld grows along with
the knowledge of its users (Hoyles, 1993).
The study
A half-baked game microworld (Perfectcity)
was created by the researchers based on the idea of the sustainable city. Our
aim was to employ it as a pedagogical tool within the context of an educational activity focusing developing understanding among 6th grade students on the concept of sustainability. The
main research question was to explore whether and in what ways the students’ collaborative
play, de-construction and construction of the Perfectcity microworld could support
learning about sustainability.
The Perfectcity Microworld
We constructed the Perfectcity game
microworld (see Figure 1) based on the Sus-X template (http://etl.ppp.uoa.gr/_content/download/eslate_kits.htm),
a digital authoring system for SimCity-like games. This
is a game template which leaves open to user manipulation, construction and de-construction
the part of the mechanism that contains the ‘model of sustainability’ upon
which the game is built, while keeping away the syntax and the information that
might be noise for the users. Perfectcity consists of
the map and the main sites of an imaginary city. In order to play the game users
have to decide which sites to visit in a city in a sequence of 10 possible
moves. While playing users have to take into account (a) the indicators and
values of each site, (b) the changes in their “resources” caused by visiting
sites and (c) the possible risk to run out of “resources” before the time set
for ending the game.
The idea of the city represented by the
game is one allowing for a few sustainable and many more unsustainable choices.
The eighteen city-sites that were chosen by the researchers to appear in the
city map are: the power station, the recycling plant, a landfill, a car parking
area, a park, the car and the metro (as two means of urban transportation), as those
city-sites referring more to the axis of environment; home, cinema, a library,
the City Council and a volunteer work agency, as those sites referring to the
axis of society; and the office, two shopping centers (the Mall and Golden Hall),
two fast foods (Goodies and Mc Donald’s) and a supermarket, as those sites more
related to the axis of economy. The criteria against
which each of the sites was evaluated were chosen by the researchers to represent
the three axes of sustainability (environment, society and economy). The environmental
dimension was expressed by the criteria of ‘energy’ and ‘waste’; society was
assessed by the criteria of ‘contentment’ and ‘citizenship’; nevertheless, no
criteria for evaluating the economic dimension of the city-sites were used. The
specific criteria were chosen by the researchers because they were considered
important for a good function of the city and at the same time easy to be
understood and employed by 6th graders.
Figure 1. The Perfectcity
microworld
Perfectcity is based on the principle of
purposefully inciting students to identify and question the sustainability idea
on which the game’s model of the city was built as they interact with it. In
doing so the students are expected to discuss and reflect on it in terms of
both the infrastructures provided by this city and the practices its citizens
are involved in. In the study reported in this paper the students were first
asked by the teacher to play the game, then they got into a discussion about
the sustainability of the city with the moderation of the teacher, and finally
they collaboratively deconstructed and re-constructed the game microworld to
better express their own conception of a sustainable city.
Participants to the study and stages of the
educational activity
Six students – three boys and three girls- participated
in the study. They were all 6th graders from a Primary school
located in the wider Athens area. Participants were asked
to take part in a study and contribute to the design of a new educational digital
game. The activity took place in a school classroom and the necessary equipment
for running the study (such as laptops) was brought from the school’s computer
lab. The students worked in pairs during two
face-to-face meetings for about five hours in total.
In their first two-hour meeting the students
played Perfectcity. They were given 10΄ to decide and select ten sites to visit by taking care that their choices
would not make them run out of resources. They could complete at least four
successful paths. While playing
the students were asked by the teacher/ researcher to think about how ‘perfect’
this city was and what kind of problems it may face. After the play the teacher
(3nd author) initiated a discussion among all students about the
model of the city represented by the game, how far from the ideal this city
was, what were the problems identified by the students and what changes they
could make to improve it.
During their second (three-hour) meeting the
students were told they were able to modify the idea of the city represented by
the game to get closer to sustainability. The teacher/ researcher introduced the
students to the functionalities of the Sus-X microworld template and explained
the variety of options they had. No special technical skills were required for
the students to use the Sus-X template to design and construct a new game. Although
they were allowed to make as many modifications in the game as they wanted to,
the students focused mainly on those having to do with whether to keep or change
the city background, whether to keep or replace the sites on the city map, or
whether to alter the criteria already used by the game and the values
attributed to the sites.
The whole activity was moderated by the
teacher who provided all necessary information to assist the students in their
task, she posed questions to initiate meaningful discussion among them and
supported the groups in identifying their own ideas of the sustainable city.
Data collection and analysis
Audio recording and screen capturing
software was used to collect information on the students’ discussions and
actions while interacting with the microworlds. In addition the teacher kept notes on the process. The audio
recorded data were transcribed and thematic analysis was applied to them (Boyatzis,
1998). The screen capturing data were analyzed to identify the students’ moves
and choices while interacting with the microworld.
Findings of the study
Students play with Perfectcity
The students’ response to
the teacher’ suggestion of playing Perfectcity was quite enthusiastic. However,
each group engaged with it in a different way. Although all three groups
succeeded to complete four paths as they were asked to do and they all developed
an awareness of the internal logic of the game, each of them followed a
different approach. As a consequence, both their degree of familiarization with
the game and their choices with regard to it varied.
The first pair of students
(two boys) got familiar with the game and how they should play to win quite
easily. They tried seven different paths, four of which were successful. After some first failed attempts they came out with a
strategy to play the game. Following that, their choices were not random but based on a careful consideration of
the points they would gain if selecting a site and on an
estimation of their overall performance (the aggregate score) on the game. The selected
city-sites selected showed a greater concern for the environment compared to the other two axes. The criteria that
were mostly employed by this group were predominantly environmental (energy and
waste). The next episode is quite characteristic of showing this group’s
concerns while playing Perfectcity:
S2: We got 90 [in
terms of energy]. Isn’t it a good score? And now our score in ‘waste’ becomes
50…
S1: What do you
think if we go back and visit the ‘landfill’?
S2: Right, yea, that’s cool
my friend!
Satisfaction from visiting
the various sites was also an important criterion that led this group’s
choices. Least attention was given to ‘citizenship’ concerns and, not
surprisingly, the choices in terms of the sites selected did not include any economic
aspects of the city life. Their strategy was mainly focused on reducing waste and increasing energy.
The second pair of students
(2 girls) met various difficulties while playing the game. Compared to the
other two groups it took them more time to grasp and understand the internal
logic of the game. As a consequence they followed twenty two (!) different
paths while only four of them were successful. Their game play performance was
characterized by deliberately ignoring almost all warning messages and by
randomness in most of their choices. Their final and more successful attempts were
mainly characterized by environmental concern. In terms of the criteria used
this group cared more about the energy consumption and waste production impact
of their choices.
S2: We have to choose to
visit a site to get more energy.
S1: What about the ‘power plant’?
S2: If we select the ‘subway’? [she
clicks on the ‘subway’]...
What is its ‘energy’ value? -30. Mmm! We’ll lose much of our energy if we go there…
S1: Look at this, that’s the one we
need [she clicks on ‘power plant’]… It will give us 50 points on energy!
S2: Yes, let’s pick it up. [‘power plant’ is selected]
The third group (one boy
and one girl) faced some difficulties in getting into the game’s rationale. After
several unsuccessful attempts they managed to complete four paths. It took them
many random choices to realize how it works and in order to identify a “winning”
path to follow. As opposed to the other two groups, this group did not spend
much time in looking at the criteria and the values of the various sites in
order to decide what to choose. However, despite the initial randomness in
their choices they gradually came to realize that
there is some kind of interdependence between
visiting a site and getting or losing points in the various criteria. They ended up considering the economic dimension of living in a city and they even examined which sites
would augment the economy of the city. During their second successful path they managed to realize that many economic activities have an
environmental impact:
S2: Economy, we
should add some economy…
S1: Economy. Yes, ok!
But, how do we add economy in this city? If we visit ‘the Mall’? [They click on
‘the Mall’]...There is a lot of economic transaction going on there… I’ve told
you so.
S2: Yes, but there
is also a lot of waste produced there…
In
another iteration of their game play this group concentrated mostly on the ‘energy’ dimension and
tried to get the highest score on this criterion. They applied the same
strategy (focus separately on each particular criterion). What is quite
interesting is that at the end they put together all the various criteria and
combined them in their last iteration of playing Perfectcity. By doing so they
actually managed to view urban sustainability in a more holistic way, by taking into account all three axes of sustainability.
S1: [They click on the ‘recycling plant’] Yes, it gives us 20 points on
‘citizenship’. We should select it. You see? It decreases ‘waste’ as well!
S2: Yes, you’re right! It reduces
waste!
S1: We’ll have -5 on ‘waste’.
S2: What about the economy? What we gain in terms of this? [They refer
again to the recycling plant]
S1: What does it mean having -5 on
waste? [they ask the teacher/researcher]
Students construct their
own Sustainablecity games
During the second phase of
the activity the teacher explained that the students could intervene in
Perfectcity, de-construct it and construct a new game. This was a real
challenge to the students to which all groups responded with much enthusiasm. A
discussion among all was preceded with the moderation of the teacher during
which the students were aided to realize how “imperfect” the city model
represented by Perfectcity was and to identify possible changes to improve it
and make it more sustainable.
All three groups decided to
change the picture/map of the city in Perfectcity. The teacher provided them
with 15 alternative pictures of cities and asked to select the one it was closer
to the city their view. Subsequently, all groups either deleted or added new sites
on their new city map. None of the three groups did they alter any of the
criteria already incorporated in the game or introduced new criteria. However,
the students had the chance to re-think of some of the criteria, such as those
of ‘energy’ and ‘economy’, and admit that there was some confusion,
misunderstanding or doubt about the actual meaning of them. For example, almost
all the students equated the ‘energy’ of the city with the individuals’ personal
energy while some of the students confused economy as a structural societal
process with home economics or money-saving practices. There were no major changes
by the groups in terms of the initial values, check conditions and end conditions
of the game, probably because of the time limitations of the activity.
As far as the changes
implemented by each group, the first group retained twelve sites and added ten new
ones. As a first step they decided to leave out two sites related to car
transportation in the city (car and car parking area). Instead, they suggested the
use of metro and bicycles as the most appropriate means of transportation in a
sustainable city.
S2: That’s why
we don’t need cars. Because all the people commute on their bicycles.
The
students kept those sites related to energy production – the energy plant and
the landfill – and added one more, photovoltaic, as a greener (renewable)
energy source. They also deleted one site related to society – the town council.
However, they added seven new ones: the primary school, the high school, the college, the gym, the ice skating rink, the
playground and the health center. It is worth noting that among these sites
there are three purely educational contexts (primary school, high school and
university) and three sites combining recreation with sports (ice skating ring,
playground and gym). It is obvious that their selections were based on some
kind of projection of the students’ everyday zone of experience in the city.
This is why places of economic activity, such as the office and the second
shopping mall, were left out. Since the students were least concerned about
these places there was no point of keeping them on the map. An additional
reason why the students left out the second of the two malls was its perceived negative
environmental impact.
G1-S1: The city has two shopping centers, which both produce a lot of waste and consume much energy. We could have just one, downtown, and whoever wants to shop could go there.
It is worth noting
that although the students’ choices during game playing were mainly
concentrated on the environmental aspect of the city, their engagement with the
microworld while constructing their game made them consider the other two
dimensions of sustainability too (society and economy). The game created by the
first group consisted of six sites referring to the environment aspect, twelve sites
referring to the society aspect and four sites referring to the economy aspect. The new values added in each of
the criteria were not realistic or a result of thought. Some of them were
chosen only for the sake of the game’s usability without the students being
able to specify the true values (e.g. the value given to University on
‘satisfaction’ was -35).
The second group kept seven
sites of Perfectcity and added ten new ones. Similarly to the first group they retained those sites related
to energy production while they added photovoltaic. They showed particular
concern on transportation as they identified it a major culprit of urban air
pollution. As a result they deleted all means of transportation of Perfectcity and
added a cycling road.
R: We live in Athens, which is a big city. What problems do we face in this city?[from a discussion
between the teacher and the students]
S2: There are a
great number of car vehicles; their exhaust gases pollute the atmosphere.
The groups deleted four
sites having to do mostly with the social axis: cinema, town council, library
and home. Similarly to the first group they added seven new ones: the swimming pool,
the playground, the ice skating ring, the private high school, the health
center, gym and the water sports center. Again, their thinking parameters for
selecting these sites were that they were related to education and entertainment,
both close to the students’ way of life.
In terms of the city sites that
mainly related to economic transactions, it was this group’s choice to leave
out the two fast food restaurants, one of the two shopping centers and the
supermarket. Instead, they added ‘hotel’ on the grounds that tourism is among
the main sectors of a city’s economic development. Their game consisted of
seventeen sites, six of which were closer to the environment axis, eight to the
axis of society and three to that of economy. Again, this group moved from
focusing only on the environment when playing Perfectcity to recognizing
society as among the city’s sustainability dimensions. The values the
students gave to the criteria for evaluating the city-sites were decided
based simply on how much they added to the game’s usability.
S2: We have given much higher values
to some sites…
S1: We’d better use some negative
values too.
S2: Yes, because otherwise the game
won’t work.
The third team made fewer changes than the
other two. They kept twelve of the initial city-sites and added four new ones. Similarly to the other two groups they kept all sites that were adding
to the city’s energy. They were also concerned about transportation: they deleted
‘car’ and ‘car parking’ and added a new one, the ‘cycling road’.
S1: Did you leave the
‘car’? Delete the ‘car’. This city doesn’t have cars. [They also delete ‘car parking’].
We don’t need cars.
From the society axis they deleted three sites: home, cinema and the
volunteer work agency. They replaced them with gym, a football pitch and the
school. They also left out the second fast-food restaurant (Mc Donald’s). The
game they constructed consisted of sixteen sites, six of which were much
related to the environment, five to the society and five to the economy axis.
They managed to apply a more balanced representation of the three
sustainability components in the city. As far as the values with which they
valued the criteria, they came out from much discussion and negotiation among
the students.
S1: What value
should we give to this site on ‘energy’? Should it be positive or negative?
S2: Negative.
S1: Ok, negative.
S2: -20? -25?
S1: I suggest -25.
Concluding remarks
This small-scale study
applied a constructionist framework to support primary education students’ learning about ‘urban sustainability’ through playing and re-constructing
a digital game microworld. The findings of our study indicate that interaction
with the game microworld as an “object to think with” (Papert, 1993) aided the
students to be introduced to the abstract and difficult concept of
sustainability through engagements with more situated, appropriate and
enjoyable learning activities, and to gradually develop a more balanced understanding
of it, by identifying the interconnection among its various components
(environment-society-economy). They almost unanimously
started with equating sustainability with its environmental dimension whereas
at the end of the activity they were almost aware of the interconnections among
all three axes. This can be viewed as a learning gain since research confirms a
strong tendency from either learners or the general public to ascribe
sustainability solely to the sphere of environmental management (Liarakou,
Daskolia & Flogaitis, 2007).
Our study provides some evidence that the constructionist
perspective applied to the pedagogical design of the activity supported students
in identifying and formulating their ideas on ‘urban sustainability’ and in implementing
them along with the design of the game. The microworld environment (the Sus-X
template) offered not only the actual context where the students could
construct their artefacts but also a structured agenda for them to think and
share their ideas about the concept at stake. Thinking and learning about such
an abstract and complex concept became more situated and thus more appropriate
to the students’ developmental readiness to deal with it. The students were more
motivated to learn by being engaged in a playful task, far away from the
instructionist logic of their curriculum. However, there seems to be an
additional pedagogical potential in treating the microworld as a digital
artefact both with a hidden conceptual and ideological logic that remains to be
revealed and with an overt structure of specific functionalities that rests to
be employed for re-construction and for the construction of new artefacts. In our
study, the students were scaffolded to express and discuss their ideas on
sustainability ‘in the context of’ playing Perfectcity and while employing the
Sus-X template to construct their games. They wouldn’t do so otherwise or
anyhow, as it is not a natural process for them to focus and delve on the
coordinates of such an abstract theoretical construct. However, they were aided
into unravelling these dimensions and ‘tinkering’ with them both while playing
the game and when considering what concrete changes to implement in the
microworld in terms of the map to upload or the sites, criteria or values to change
or add. The social context that was created from the teacher’s intervention
throughout the implementation of the activity and the exchange of views among
students within the three groups facilitated the initiation and sharing of
ideas.
This study gives some insight into the
development of children’s understanding of the complex concept of
sustainability as a result of engaging with game-playing and game-design
processes. However, more future research is needed to explore how the
development of knowledge about environmental and sustainability concepts and
issues is enabled during such processes, whether and
how these knowledge gains are transferred to everyday life or other contexts, as well as to investigate all possible benefits EE and ESD can have
via applying constructionist learning frameworks.
Acknowledgements
We would like to
thank Professor Chronis Kynigos for his decisive theoretical and methodological insights in designing and conducting the
study.
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