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ERIC Number: ED167479
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1972
Pages: 31
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Concientizacao and Simulation/Games. Technical Note No. 2.
Smith, William A.
This paper examines the relationship between Paulo Friere's philosophy and methodology in "Pedagogy of the Opressed" and the use of simulation games for consciousness raising. Friere suggests that the supposed insurmountable barriers facing oppressed peoples are as much a product of their perceptions as they are of the oppressor. The role of the educator according to Friere is to change these perceptions through a liberating form of education in which (1) the relationship between learner and educator is based on mutual respect and openness, (2) the content of education comes from the learner's experience and grows outward, and (3) the methods of education pose open-ended problems related to the basic contradictions of life. In this paper, Smith suggests that simulation games provide the experience to achieve these three tenets since most simulation games are replications of real life experiences. They combine information transfer, analysis, and synthesis of information in which the learner evaluates his own and others' actions, increases verbal and interpersonal skills, and grasps implications of facts and events as they are related to one another. A description of the development of a simulation game, Hacienda, presently in use in Ecuador, follows Friere's methodology of devising problem-solving models through investigation of a target area in which a team identifies contradictions within the community and then pictorially represents them to elicit response from villagers. (KC)
Center for International Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 ($1.00)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Collected Works - Serials
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Agency for International Development (Dept. of State), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Massachusetts Univ., Amherst. Center for International Education.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A