Serious Design for Serious Play

Lloyd P. Rieber Michael J. Matzko


In this article the authors present their approach to designing a physical science lesson according to specifications that were outlined to them in a special issue. They also would go onto discuss their learning and design philosophy and how they work and make their decisions.
This article asks the age-old question, how to make the material fun/exciting to keep the students focused? Many teacher’s manuals come with somewhat of a time line of how the class should be moving, but I don’t agree, each student is their own person and learn at their own pace, therefore you cannot rush them through or take it to slow. Each teacher must figure out there own way, there own niche in the classroom. I did like the fact that the authors tried to allow for some tweaking of the lesson plan and some alterations while in class. I thought it was great that the authors used the phrase “thinking outside the box,” if more teachers think this way then our students would stay motivated and be excited in the classroom.
The authors use the term “serious play” as to what I perceive to be a learning style. The authors say that, “serious play is purposeful, or goal oriented, with the person able to modify goals as desired or needed. Most important, the individual views the experience of serious play as satisfying and rewarding in and of itself and considers the play experience as important as any outcomes that are produced as a result of it.” I like this and totally agree with this, students should be goal oriented but should not be scared of altering or changing those goals. I agreed with this article, the authors worked on figuring out how to make students learning better, while challenging the students to think outside the box, at the same time while having the teachers think outside the box. I think that the authors are trying to do away with conformity and let people know that doing things your own way can work, you must be fired up as a teacher in order to get your students fired up to be in your classroom.