TeamPlay Ground
BELONGING for Learners ages 3-10
“Through BeLonging learners learn and learn to lead; some learn best by thinking, by doing, and by loving; while others learn best by loving, doing and only later thinking.”
BELONGING Classroom Project Commission, 2004-2005 Mirano, Venice, Italy.
TEAMPLAY GROUND (TPG) provides teachers with a new kind of classroom management practice, one that operates solely in the social dimension, independent yet purposefully supportive of all academic directives. This effective social application is radical in many ways.
Most notably, research demonstrates that we can scientifically support an optimal configuration of 33 learners and 1 teacher. TPG fundamentally transforms classroom dynamics by transferring responsibility for the social dimension of the learning environment to the learners themselves.
TPG focuses on global imperatives and cultural traditions, with all 'roles' and 'tasks' culturally determined locally. Roles and responsibilities are designed for blended classrooms, challenged, average and gifted students, as well as learners with physical, emotional and mental challenges.
Through this process, students discover why traditional 'leadership' represents an outdated paradigm—one that relegates the majority to a caste of 'followers' with an almost infinite number of sub-castes. Instead, TPG cultivates a collaborative environment where every learner contributes meaningfully to the collective experience.
During the school year, students are assigned one of eight roles, accepting this responsibility for a week with most having a different 'task' every day. The TPG calendar ensures every learner fulfills every role and gets to do all 33 of the tasks.
Students express feeling a sense of 'inpowerment', as it unites the diversity of personalities, temperaments and abilities. A rich sense of co-creation arises and classrooms become cooperative and healthy places kids want to be part of!
TPG recognizes that there are two types of learners—students who are cognitively oriented and usually think about something and then do it whether they love doing it or not; and intuitive learners—kids who love doing what they love to do, and seldom "waste time" (in their mind) thinking about it. Cognitive students typically have fewer problems with standardized testing, while intuitive learners—those who are more artistically or musically minded—often struggle in traditional assessment environments. How these two types of learners adapt and interact socially is often a universe apart.
When students see peers given authority and responsibility for roles they never imagined others succeeding at, respect naturally increases as all learn through the process. Emotional progress has been far beyond what we dared to imagine, with students reporting they love learning and are learning to appreciate, understand, and love those they had previously judged as outsiders.
Classrooms are transformed into effective, self-organizing environments where learning becomes fun, and cooperative discovery replaces unhealthy, socially driven rivalry. Bullying and social mobbing soon become things of the past. Unity in diversity is something magical to behold, especially when the learning endures!
Instructions, training, templates and tools for TEAMPLAY GROUND are free to teachers in the EDUCARINGexperience.
Note: Time and again our experience makes it clear that while the 'game' looks easy, it fails when teachers do not personally understand the dynamic principles at play—rules that make the 'game' workable.