Coping with the Pandemic using Playful Approaches

Realities of Remote Teaching and Learning in Schools

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Overview

The UNIMAS Gamification Centre builds on creative pedagogies. The centre trains educators to embrace resilience and empathy in developing future skills using playful approaches and tools.

The pandemic has forced many educators to rethink the way they plan, present and deliver learning content. With their varying limited digital skills, lack of system support and limited Internet and technologies, many educators had to reassess their pedagogical knowledge and skills supporting fully online teaching and learning during the pandemic.

Despite these unprecedented challenges, one common observation emerged – that students are constantly curious. Their curiosity should be harnessed through creative approaches, even when they could not physically attend school. Nurturing curiosity is fundamental in all levels of learning; without it, cognitive, affective and psychomotor developments would not be sustained, offline or online. And adding playful elements in the way they learn would spark their creativity to keep learning and asking questions.

The UNIMAS Gamification Centre uses an evidence-based approach to initiate, challenge and impact how people teach and learn. Using empathy as a critical tool to design playful learning, we at the centre use localised research to gauge current thoughts and practices.

These videos from Malaysia feature initiatives from fledging to experienced educators, who shared stories of their effort to reach out to students and peers during emergency remote teaching. Their stories exemplify resilience and patience in dealing with the emerging learning needs of their students, fuelled by their passion for educating.

Their stories feature how creativity and curiosity were nurtured, using the best means available at their various locations to support remote learning experiences to happen. The Gamification Centre continues to learn, unlearn and relearn from such experiences to inspire creative and empathic pedagogical approaches to nurture future skills.