Emergent social practices of Singapore students: The role of laughter and humour in educational gameplay

Abstract This paper discusses our investigation of the role of humour and laughter when students interacted with DinoPlates in the classrooms of an all-boys secondary school in Singapore. DinoPlates simulates and lets learners control Earth’s geological processes and search for dinosaur fossils to support playful learning of Earth science concepts. We contend that the learners transformed classroom social practices during gameplay, which exhibited their playful engagement by shaping their own activities in the classroom. Findings indicate that different pairs playing the game altered the intended goals and outcomes of the game; these instances are often accompanied by humour and laughter, and transformed the social structure and solidarity of the classroom. We discuss the opportunities that the design of DinoPlates afforded for emergent social practices in gameplay and the roles that learners’ laughter and humour played in transforming their practices.

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