MIND LAB: LEARNING TO LEARN BY PLAYING

Mind Lab is an innovative practical center where we teach children ages four to fourteen how to think through interactive play.


Using a series of international board game carefully selected children are taught the basics of planning, problem solving, decision making, teamwork and communication. These games are an appeal to the hearts and minds alike, providing inner motivation to expand their thinking skills and strategies for capitalizing on the daily lives of children. The students love to learn, and parents love the results.


SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION


In a research project conducted by Yale University, children who were taught thinking patterns Mind Laboratory improved their performance in problem solving tests from 69% to 88%, while the control group improved only point during the investigation period. The study was conducted in three stages:


• In the first stage, all children were presented with the computerized version of the game "Rush Hour". This advanced version monitors the performance of children and inserted into a database.

• In the second stage, children in the research group were taught abstract models for solving problems and their similarities to real life situations. Then showed how these models could be directly applied in games. Children in the control group simply participated in gambling sessions free-play.


• In the third phase, all children were taught a new problem to solve the game, "freezing moon". Both groups received identical instruction.

The results clearly show that children who were taught in the laboratory of the mind, meta-cognitive methods significantly improved their performance levels relative to their counterparts in the control group.


The Laboratory of mind also develops social and emotional skills. The games involve strategic communication, cooperation, competition and environment 'safe' practical skills as a graceful way of winning and losing, the ability to manage emotions, delayed gratification and increased determination, perseverance and self-discipline effectively.

IN BRIEF:


Mind Lab is a system for development and training of thinking skills and life skills.
It is the notion that the most effective way to learn is through an immediate and authentic experience (GAME).


The game-playing experience provides a fertile ground for the formation and application of thinking skills and life skills.


Plato articulates with the educational philosophy of Mind Lab with his words, "not by force that children learn, but through play."


http://www.mindlab-group.com/index1.php?page_id=203


COMMENT:


After 2010 the Mind Lab system has been implemented in Peru, has trained teachers for its implementation in the curriculum of educational institutions and its flagship Peruvian respective execution.


STRATEGIES IN THE MIND LAB METHOD


1) STRATEGY MILESTONES

 For the overall vision and momentary separation of the details. Recognizing the "milestones" that define the problem to solve.


“WELL PUT A QUESTION ANSWERED IS HALF”


2) TEMPORARY PARKING STRATEGY


It consists of stopping the step by step troubleshooting sequence.


3) PARETO PRINCIPLE


With 20% of the effort is properly directed reach 80% of the desired results.






       1) METHOD TRAFFIC LIGHTS (MIND LAB)


The semaphore is a method of decision-making system, a structured process that allows us to make better decisions. The strength of this method, unlike other methods for making decisiones, lies in understanding that every decision-making process begins with the care, attention is the greatest resource of this process and it is important to properly orient .


OBJECTIVES OF THE METHOD


Initially directing attention outward to the environment, and then inward, through a process of analysis and consideration of alternative actions.


UNDERSTANDING THE METHOD


RED: Stop before you act - Care of the environment - focused awareness.


AMBER: Preparing (stage of insight). Analyze the information and plan an action plan


GREEN: Go - revise the plan again and Action - Final Decision - Implementation (stool).


IMPLEMENTATION OF THE METHOD


Any life situation can be used to implement the method in new situations as traffics light.Both in familiar situations.


TRANSFER TO DAILY LIFE


Children have difficulty in the first stage, because they have lots of energy and want all the time running out, others will have difficulty to analyze the feelings of their peers, etc..


RED; impulsivity Beware of the students, working students' impulsivity reiterating that faced with a problem in any situation the first thing to do is stop.


AMBER: keep in mind the environment and context in which we find (keeping in mind the other in making decisions).


GREEN: act decisively and value (address issues of shame, laziness, fear or any other reason that could cancel the action).


TIP OF IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE FOLLOWING GAMES:


All thinking games that involve making a decision.


SOURCE: Summarized from "IISS Educational materials for the Ministry of Education Flagship" PERU 2009




2) THE METHOD OF DETECTIVE (MIND LAB)




METHOD OBJECTIVE


Skill in problem solving is a matter of practice. The ability of children to delay satisfaction is not usually developed and tend to quickly lose patience with a difficulty they see as unsolvable.


You can determine orderly processes of solving problems.


The detective method creates a process of orderly work. That is creating an orderly process of thought, but does not address the content of thought. On a psychological level reinforces the child's confidence in itself motivates you to think optimistically, and face problems without despair because with cognitive tools to address them,


One such tool is the detective method.


UNDERSTANDING THE METHOD


The most important step of troubleshooting is to understand that every problem can be decomposed into several subproblems that can be best addressed.


PROBLEM SOLVING STEPS FROM THE DETECTIVE METHOD:


1 .- DEFINITION OF PRIMARY OBJECTIVE


2 .- FIND OBSTACLES TO REACH THE OBJECTIVE


3 .- DIVIDE THE MAIN OBJECTIVE IN SECONDARY OBJECTIVES. (Use maieutic Socratic method, asking questions it raised and addressed)


METHOD FOR TRANSFER OF DAILY LIFE


Examples: the doctor will need to ask several questions to make the diagnosis of disease.


TIP OF IMPLEMENTATION AT THE GAMES: Jam-Zafari Challenge






3) METHOD OF FILMADORA (Mind Lab)






UNDERSTANDING THE METHOD:


Method of thought oriented results.






Before taking action, we imagine the desirable situation to which we must reach, such situations are defined as objective situations.


It presents the process as a sequence of images that are derived from one another.






TRANSFER TO DAILY LIFE


If you want to prepare a surprise party, you must first display the party and the boy caught her lleganda. in the previous scene waiting for the honoree's friends, and so on.


This establish the previous step and the sequential order to solve a problem of everyday life.






TIP OF IMPLEMENTATION TO MIND GAMES LAB: Reto Jam, Zafari, Quoridor, Gobblet, Damas.






4) METHOD THE MIRROR (Mind Lab)






OBJECTIVES OF THE METHOD


Help introspection to try to neutralize the emotional barriers and discover the mistakes we make while we do things.


UNDERSTANDING THE METHOD


The mirror method is used to analyze the actions and learn from experience.


It helps us to overcome the difficulty of admitting a mistake.


The actions have a purpose, a purpose and we may succeed or fail, our students must understand that every action we can learn something new about the world and ourselves.


STAGES OF THE METHOD:


1) Stage of Recognition: The need to learn and correct our thinking and acting, is the engine of the first stage of the mirror method.


1.a) The failure Recognize


1b) Recognize Success


2) Analysis Stage: After recognizing the failure (or success) we try to analyze what led us to failure or success.


The difficulties in analysis is expressed in two ways:


2.a) To break existing patterns of thought


2.b) To eliminate the psychological barriers.

How can we overcome mindsets?


TOOLS TO OVERCOME SCHEME PARAMETERS OF THOUGHT:


A) Document the facts: Make a list of everything hiicimos and what were the assumptions that guided us


b) Review objective: Do not be afraid to question the fundamental assumptions.


c) ask questions themselves: Was it what to do?


d) Locate the error and find the alternative route.


3) Stage Repair and Learning:


We will implement what they learn in introspection, to implement the change with courage and sincere desire to improve.


TRANSFER TO DAILY LIFE

Measured by the defeat.
Cooperation, teamwork.


TIP OF IMPLEMENTATION AT THE GAMES:

Thinking games that involve making a decision.




SOURCE: Summarized for Marga Ysabel López Ruiz from "IISS Educational materials for the Ministry of Education Flagship" PERU 2009