Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
Have you seen any impact in relation to learning?
Here we see the class teacher and the depute headteacher talking about how the game has impacted positively on children’s speed and accuracy of calculation in addition and subtraction and multiplication/division tables.
They also talk of enhanced confidence in learners who have worked with the Dr Kawashima game. The children talk freely of how they have ‘become faster and better’ at their sums and how this game has helped everybody get better at their work.
Why not download Adobe Flash Player and watch the video online?
Have you seen any impact in relation to behaviour?
An unexpected result of this project was the impact that it had on the children’s behaviour. The teacher talks about how the class became much more settled as they engaged with the game first thing in the morning. She says that the children are so busy working away that there is real quiet in her class first thing in the morning.
The depute head also speaks of some impact on behaviour in the course of the school day since the project started. The children are also aware of this and speak of their peers not fighting or arguing because they are too busy concentrating on the game.
Why not download Adobe Flash Player and watch the video online?
Has it helped to foster collegiality in the class?
Although this project created a climate where the pupils were interested in what their peers scored and had a desire to do better than them, there was a stronger intrinsic motivational drive to continually self-improve. This led to an increase in pupil self-esteem.
This clip also shows how learners are aware of what they need to improve and what strategies they have applied to do this: metacognition in action.
The teacher comments on how the children were encouraging and supportive of each other and of how she felt it bonded them and brought them together as a class.