Voces y Silencios. Revista Latinoamericana de Educación

Voces silec. rev. latinoam. educ. | eISSN 2215-8421

Transformation of classroom social norms. A formative evaluation of a game-based intervention

No. 1 (2020-03-01)
  • Ana María Velásquez
    1Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (ana-vela@uniandes.edu.co) ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6868-6198
  • Sergio Fabián Lizarazo
    2Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (sf.lizarazo10@uniandes.edu.co) ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3588-7479
https://doi.org/10.18175/VyS11.1.2020.5

Abstract

Education for coexistence has become essential for peace-building processes. This study set out to design, implement and evaluate a school coexistence pedagogical intervention. Specifically, a game-based learning approach was used in order to improve the classroom social norms, particularly those exhibited and reinforced by individuals in the group who act as social referents. The study was conducted with the participation of 92 tenth grade students from three classrooms in a public school in Bogotá, Colombia. The board game “¡Aye!” was integrated in the curricular activities of the social science class, with the purpose of developing democratic leadership competencies in students identified by their teacher as high-status social referents, as well as social competencies in the whole group of students. A formative evaluation of this pedagogical innovation was carried out, by collecting pre- and post- intervention data through quantitative (i.e., sociometric and peer nomination) and qualitative (i.e., open-ended questionnaires) instruments. The results evidenced the potential of the game to produce transformations in the classroom norms modeled by high status social referents. In particular, these students showed improvements in their leadership competencies, as well as in their aggressiveness and prosociality. In addition to this, participants reported awareness and reflective thinking in relation to the importance of democratic leadership, teamwork and communication skills for peaceful coexistence. These results are discussed in light of the need to incorporate innovative pedagogical strategies to promote both individual and contextual transformations.

Keywords: education for coexistence, game-based learning, classroom norms, leadership, social referents

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