Article: Do the Math by Elizabeth Kirkland.
The focus of this particular article was on the way that this group of teens and twenty-something kids based in Jackson, Massachusetts teach mathematics through games. The group is called the Young People's Project and the whole premise of their organization is that when people aren't intimidated by the subject, they"ll learn the math. As one of the founders of the organization said "If young people are having fun, that's what they want to keep doing. We use the games as a tool to get their attention.".
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Vygotsky's basic assumption of internalization was clearly illustrated for me in this article. That the learning begins as a social activity was evident in this young group's method of teaching math. They were creating the social/fun activities in order to facilitate learning. And the learning was internalized. .
Using games that looked like crap tables, students were using probability to calculate their chances of rolling a specific combination on three color-coded dice. They used hula-hoop games to teach averaging skills and were then able to plot their data and perform linear regression to determine a line of best fit, which illustrates trends in data. With this information they could try to predict what would happen in future rounds. These challenging mathematical concepts and critical thinking skills were being learned - and remembered - amidst laughter and fun. .
This whole concept of student involvement and thinking outside the state-mandated curriculum was a theme is several articles that I read. Having it work for teaching math concepts was fascinating to me, as math is often such an intimidating subject with certain concepts that are difficult for many people. Using this supplemental teaching through games was successful in that the student really learned and understood the subject. Plus, as an added bonus - the teachers were able to evaluate what they learned by participating in the games themselves.