A puzzle a day

A puzzle a day keeps failing at bay!

In his brilliant book “The Art and Science of Teaching”, Robert Marzano explains the principles and importance of student engagement on the learning process. It is of course not exactly rocket science to understand that engaged students learn better, but it is actually more difficult for teachers to engage students than we think.

The way content is delivered to students is a far bigger challenge for teachers than the content itself. Not everything we learn at school is interesting. Far from it actually, a lot of information we pass on to our students is just plain boring! Multiplication tables, grammar rules, geography facts, the last 25 presidents of Transylvania, are not exactly exciting and engaging types of knowledge. So the million dollar question is how to make (boring) content interesting enough to engage our students?

Marzano states that people are universally interested in games and puzzles, be it crossword puzzles, word searches or video games. Games and puzzles stimulate curiosity and mental appetite. This stimulation or mental appetite is known as the psychological principle of clozentropy.

That puzzles stimulate cognitive development is a well known fact in the educational world and beyond. Solving puzzles means actively putting pieces together through a process of trial and error. The application and evaluation of possibilities enhances logic and problem solving skills. But above all puzzles are fun, students love to do puzzles or play games. When learning material is presented in the form of puzzles and games, students will be more engaged, show more interest and intrinsic motivation.

So the real challenge for teachers, in any subject is to present learning materials in game format. Why not adding a crossword puzzle, or word search to the standard materials such as worksheets and workbooks? Why not using a puzzle as a form of assessment? It’s actually quite easy to make learning materials that are fun and in puzzles format. There are tones of websites that can be used to do this.

You can make a word search in less than a minute. Other websites take this even a step further and have already made puzzles and games involving subject content.
A large number of math puzzles and games, for example, can be found on the website www.mathinenglish.com. The makers of this website have tried to turn relatively ‘boring’ math exercises into puzzles such as word searches, crosswords and brain teasers. The students have the impression to play a game, to solve a puzzle but are actually doing their normal math work. The students love these exercises and seem to be fully engaged.

Educational experts all agree that our brains work in such a manner that we love to fill in the gaps. Marzano calls this “ missing information as a stimulus for engagement”. Teachers on the other hand face a more and more challenging learning environment, where it seems harder and harder to challenge and engage students. The time we are living in is a time of fast information and short attention spans! Engagement as an essential component of the learning process seems harder to get than ever.

Educators will have to understand the changing perceptions and attitudes of their students and will have to rethink, innovate, their teaching methodologies and learning materials. Don’t just use the standard materials and books given by the schools. Create and innovate and get your students engaged! One thing is universal and will never change: we like to play games! So use this to your advantage! A puzzle a day keeps failing at bay! When learning is presented as a puzzle and students love to do them, this will lead to