Former Fellows

The project proposes to develop an educational board game for teaching higher order thinking skills (critical, metacognitive and creative thinking) and social skills (effective communication, confidence, leadership, teamwork) through the close reading of literary texts. The game will not be limited to one particular literary work, genre or approach – it will provide an expandable toolkit of analytical instruments, applicable to any literary text. Moreover, the game will not be limited to one particular level of instruction – the target audience of the project are university students, but it will also be possible to use with secondary school students and people outside the educational system.

The project is based on two major premises. First, traditional passive, content-based, teacher-dominated, individualistic forms of learning need to be counterbalanced by active, inquiry-based, student-centred, collaborative forms of learning. Second, the sense of freedom and enjoyment associated with play and games holds an enormous potential for enhancing learning and student engagement, which remains unused in higher levels of education.

Within the framework of the project the game will be created, tested in the classroom, its pedagogical effects will be measured and discussed in a research publication, and a model for assessing student participation will be proposed.