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Professor
Javier Gonzalez Quintero has devoted his life to education
in different roles and at different levels. He first wrote
and published interactive text books with exercises that encouraged
discovery, in order to motivate an effective and innovative
learning of language. Although these publications found great
acceptance among teachers, Mr. Gonzalez' continued to research
ways to strengthen and make more interesting the learning
of reading and writing. Through years of continuous research
he developed a didactic game known as "abcdespañol"
("Spanish abc"). |
Why a game? The didactic game
encourages kind, creative, socializing, quick and effective learning.
These elements allow sustainable action within the four pillars
of Education: Learn to Know, Learn to Do, Learn to Live with others
and Learn to Be.
The design is based upon linguistic, didactic and epistemological
principles. When we learn language, we start by developing our ability
to perceive the iconic representation of reality and interpret conventional
symbolization, until we reach a comprehension of linguistic signs
which finally allow us to read and write at various levels of complexity.
In the "Didactic Game" learning comes freely; the game
is a discovery linked to the pleasure of knowing and to the acquisition
of skills that are displayed without the need for formal exams or
grades. It is an activity that causes no fear.
A game must
have certain characteristics to be considered as such: games are
free, and autonomous, can be repeated, and require order. Likewise,
a didactic game has clearly determined ingredients: well-structured
internal rules and results that can be easily evaluated.
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abcdespañol has an easily replicable
technique of use, without the danger of suffering alterations
in the essence of the game. This factor is empowering to communities,
as there have been sectors and neighborhoods where residents
have organized their own literacy initiatives and illiterate
members have attended with enthusiasm and confidence.
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| cCommunities embrace the game,
because of its effective, quick and cost-effective results
and the rewards it brings in the way of socialization, intellectual
enjoyment and sense of achievement. Community ownership and
enthusiasm in turn make the program of abcdespañol
highly SUSTAINABLE.
School drop-out rates have been reduced as a result of the
use of "abcdespañol" in Central American
schools. Literacy is achieved in an average of 90 to 120 hours,
playing 1 or 2 hours a day. In other words, the results are
accomplished in periods of 4 to 6 months. Such results require
1 or 2 years with conventional methods.
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General
Objectives
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A) To train a new educator that promotes and allows learning
and evaluation on one’s own.
B) To
encourage individual and collective learning, at the beginning
by trial and error, and eventually leading up to elemental
systematization processes.
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C) To highlight and value the importance of two
types of property: the collective and the personal. (The Didactic
game or Programmed Instructor can be used by a variety of groups
and in different situations. This requires care and conservation
by each and every one of the users: it is collective property. The
workbook is for individual use and is thus personal property).
D) To improve the use of human resources by means
of a methodology that is easy to assimilate, apply, evaluate and
reproduce.
E) To generate and facilitate solid habits of process
evaluation, observing tangible results in short periods of time.
Specific
Objectives
Development of logical thought, in order to:
1. Recognize the rules and norms required by the Game or collective
action.
2. Interpret iconic and arbitrary symbols.
3. Develop a mediate memory.
4. Create abstraction processes.
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a habit of procession information, in order to:
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1. Make the step from the sensorial to
the rational; from concrete to abstract; from the empirical
to the theoretical.
2. Organize a systematic learning process,
reinforced by an objective and immediate self-evaluation.
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3. Categorize contents based on the level of difficulty and the
characteristics of conscientious assimilation.
Learn Reading, Writing, and Mathematics, including:
1. Interpreting and representing reality with symbols and signs.
2. Relating images to images; images to words; words to words.
3. Interpreting, relating and organizing sounds, forms, words, phrases,
and sentences.
4. Interpreting, calculating and plotting quantities, numerals,
operations, and problems.
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