APPLICATION OF EDUTAINMENT IN CURRICULUM DESIGN OF MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION

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Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 1462-1467

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.388 1462

A

PPLICATION OF

E

DUTAINMENT IN

C

URRICULUM

D

ESIGN OF

M

ENTAL

H

EALTH

E

DUCATION

Jinghui Shi, Yongjian Huang*

Abstract

Mental health is a key factor that affects the life and learning of students. The edutainment provides an efficient and scientific teaching method to enhance the mental health and positive behaviour of students. Based on the theory of cognitive psychology and game psychology, this paper applies the edutainment into the curriculum design of mental health education based on the theory of cognitive psychology and game psychology, creating a game-based edutainment teaching method. Next, the proposed method was compared with the traditional teaching method through a case study. The effect of edutainment on mental health and learning efficiency was evaluated based on the observed data. The results show that the game-based edutainment teaching method is in line with the cognitive psychology and mental features of students, and promote their enthusiasm in learning and abilities to internalize and absorb the knowledge; this method can also speed up the switch into the learning state and enhance the degree of concentration, pushing up the psychological satisfaction and psychological pleasure. The research results shed new light on the curriculum design of mental health education.

Key words: Edutainment, Mental Health Education, Cognitive Ability, Game Teaching. Received: 22-03-19 | Accepted: 12-07-19

INTRODUCTION

With the development of network

information technology, the minors have been faced with various information. However, their insufficiency in the mental capacity makes it difficult for them to discriminate a large amount of information and things, which may cause the distorted psychological ideology or negative value concepts (Hong, Kim, Jon et al., 2011). Due to the anxious atmosphere of today's social education and the lack of family education, children who should have grown up freely have been kidnapped by adult anxiety and vanity, and carried out endless tuition and extra-curricular training. This shall lead to serious mental health problems such as the school-weariness and even the world-weariness etc. Each child is like a

Institute of education, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330038, China.

E-Mail: [email protected]

flower, but the flowering periods are different. If you force it to bloom early, it will only cause the flower to wither before it blooms (Fowler, 1980).Therefore, the school should offer a mental health education course, aiming at understanding students' internal psychological

characteristics, timely detecting the

psychological problems, carry on psychological health education in a targeted manner, and intervene in or correct the problem behaviours caused by poor mental problems (Girotto Light, & Colbourn, 1988).

At present, most schools focus on the cultivation of cultural courses, but ignoring the mental health education courses. This is mainly because of poor understanding of the impact of mental health on student behaviour, and lack of professional mental health teachers, making mental health education courses superficial. Meanwhile, there was no exam about mental health courses; the teachers are just scripted to the books, while the students take a negative

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JINGHUI SHI,YONGJIAN HUANG 1463

attitude and low enthusiasm for learning and class activity, and they gradually lose their interest in studying mental health courses. All these cannot help to fundamentally cultivate students' sound personality and improve their mental health (Matsuda, Yarzebinski, Keiser et al., 2013).

The design of mental health education curriculum should follow the inherent potential of students, and the content of the curriculum should meet the physical and mental needs of students based on the edutainment method. It aims to create a pleasant and free atmosphere to complete learning tasks, recognize things through games, and exercise the abilities of

language expressiveness, independent

exploration and creativity (Lewis & Maylor, 2007). This helps students to construct a positive and optimistic learning psychology and positive

learning behaviour, and obtain inner

satisfaction, self-confidence and security from it, so as to achieve a positive and healthy state of body and mind. The edutainment method is conductive for students to learn spontaneously and comprehend slowly (Sindre, Natvig, & Jahre, 2009).

In view of the above, this paper attempts to study the application of edutainment to the curriculum design of mental health education from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It constructs the teaching content of mental health education based on the edutainment, and analyses the game-based teaching methods of fun games according to the psychological characteristics of students at specific stages. The enjoyable game activities can promote students’ psychological self-confidence, satisfaction and security, and improve their interpersonal

communication ability, teamwork ability,

language expression ability, logic thinking ability and emotional adjustment ability, which can ensure the students to develop a better mental and physical health. This study enriches the form of teaching, and sheds light on the application of edutainment method in the mental health education of students.

EDUTAINMENT METHOD BASED ON

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Austrian psychologist Freud proposed that games are good for children's physical and mental health (Ripple, 1964; Mays, 1954). Swiss psychologist Piaget pointed out that games are

an important means to promote children's intellectual development (Marshall, 1994). The

edutainment teaching method combining

thinking and behaviour needs to design the game mode based on the students' cognitive ability in a specific period during the process of students' cognitive learning, and focus on the shaping of students' internal psychological activities and psychological structures (Kilpatrick, 1964).

In the edutainment teaching method, the teaching content is presented in the form of games. In line with students 'cognitive psychology and mental characteristics, the edutainment method is easier to be accepted by students, stimulate students' interest in learning, and mobilize the existing knowledge structure, thereby promoting the internalization and absorption of the knowledge content taught by the teacher. This can not only improve the teaching efficiency of the teacher, but also stimulate the internal driving force of the student's learning so that the internalization and reorganization of the knowledge structure learned by the student can improve the student's active and independent learning and self-knowledge, as well as the quantitative or the qualitative change of the knowledge scope. Figure 1 shows the effect of the edutainment teaching method on psychological cognition.

Figure 1

.

The effect of the edutainment

method on psychological cognition

Teaching through fun

Existing knowledge structure An acceptable

way of teaching

Match students' mental characteristics

Constructivist education (game teaching)

Qualitative changes in knowledge Parallel expansion of

knowledge

Autonomous learning Reshape the new knowledge structure

inspire

The edutainment method of constructive game teaching plays a significant role not only in developing students' intellectual and cognitive abilities, but also in emotional control and concentration development (Gyr, Brown, & Cafagna, 1967). It stimulates the students' enthusiasm for voluntary participation, and encourages them to consciously abides by the

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APPLICATION OF EDUTAINMENT IN CURRICULUM DESIGN OF MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION ₁₄₆₄

rules under self-promotion, or learns with pleasant feelings.

APPLICATION OF EDUTAINMENT IN THE CURRICULUM DESIGN OF MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION

Edutainment teaching method based on game activities

The principle of the student-centred edutainment teaching method is first to set the corresponding game content based on the mental health factors of the students at the specific stage.

If the learning process is relatively smooth, students will have a sense of competence and thus be more diligent; if not, they will feel frustrated and inferior, and then give up learning. Therefore, in the curriculum design of mental health education, the edutainment teaching method can be used to set the games with setbacks, competitions and situations for training the students 'mental willpower. At the same time, the game teaching content should be set according to the students' mental ability and psychological needs, and have a game difficulty that is consistent with cognitive abilities, so as to improve student participation and enthusiasm. Table 1 lists the setting principles of the game teaching content in the student-centred edutainment method.

Table 1.

Setting principles of the game

teaching content in the student-centred

edutainment method

Object Mental factor Game setting

Student

Psychological feelings (sense of competence, sense of inferiority, sense

of diligence)

The game is set up with setbacks, competitive and situational games to

hone the will.

Level of psychological

knowledge

The game has a level of difficulty consistent with cognitive ability to

increase student participation and

motivation

The student-dominant game teaching

method inspires students to generate cognitive feelings on the interaction between internal psychology and external environment. This unique cognitive feeling and self-psychological

potential can mobilize external behaviour performance.

Table 2.

The principle of applying the

edutainment teaching method in the mental

health curriculum

Teaching

factor Game setting

Mental health education

courses

Moral education

raise

Regular order game activities to establish

order and rules.

Intellectual education

Have a level of difficulty consistent with cognitive ability to

increase student engagement and

motivation. Mental

health

Happy games release negative emotions.

When applying the edutainment teaching method in the mental health course, the games should be set on the basis of the principles: first, set the content of the game according to the students' mental health factors and the effectiveness of the teaching goals; then, use the fun attributes of the game to set up puzzle games for teaching design, increase students' curiosity and competition awareness, establish a good sense of order and concentration in the game according to the rules of the game, unknowingly obtain the sense of satisfaction and security brought by the game, and stimulate the active learning interest, so as to achieve the ideal mental health education effect. Table 2 shows the principle of applying the edutainment teaching method in the mental health curriculum.

From Figure 2, it can be seen that during the application of edutainment teaching method in the mental health courses, thematic game content is set according to the cognitive level of the students, and the students 'psychological needs are met through timely feedback to cultivate their motivation for learning; cognitive games can expand the knowledge of students and stimulate more curiosity; the competitive game activities are set to encourage students to explore and learn freely through imitation and competitive behaviour, and stimulate intrinsic potential; the students' motivation for further

learning is cultivated by praising and

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Figure 2

.

Teaching through fun games

cultivates learning motivation

Mental health education

Competition game

Behavior Imitation Expand

knowledge

Stimulate more curiosity

Cultivate learning motivation Accord with

students' cognitive level

Praise and praise students for their learning behavior Cognitive

game Games of

teaching project

Competition

Give timely feedback

Satisfy student's psychological

needs

Fun teaching through game

The edutainment teaching method based on games can break the single traditional teaching mode, enabling the students to explore the knowledge spontaneously through constructive methods, and gain self-confidence, competence, and pleasure. Also, it can improve students' creativity and resistance to frustration during the learning process, enhance their personal willpower through competition, and strengthen the cooperation and communication skills among team members.

The relationship between game-based edutainment teaching and mental health education

If the student's mental health problems are ignored, or the mental health curriculum becomes formalistic, the inner psychological problems affecting the student's mental health will be hidden, and cannot be resolved. With the problems accumulating, their mental health shall be in a negative state, and the constructive psychological cognition level and knowledge structure are relatively superficial, thereby outputting problem behaviours. As shown in Figure 3, if the psychological problems are ignored, and the inner mental health is not valued, the small psychological problems become more serious psychological problems

through accumulation. At this time, the mental health problems are manifested as problematic behaviours.

Figure 3

.

The state of behaviour when

psychological problems are neglected

OFF BIG

If students’ mental health problems are faced squarely, the psychological problems affecting students' mental health will be extracted

through psychological counselling of

professional teachers in mental health education courses. As these mental problems are corrected and weakened through the edutainment teaching method, the students’ mental health shall be in a positive mental state. Based on the

inner psychological cognition level and

knowledge structure, students construct the cognitive world and make the behaviour outputs. As shown in Figure 4, when the psychological problems are faced squarely, their mental health problems shall be resolved through intervention and improvement, so as to ensure the cognitive structure in a positive state.

Figure 4

.

The state of behaviour when

psychological problem is faced squarely

ON

The main objective of mental health education is to construct a positive and optimistic learning psychology and positive learning behaviours. The edutainment-based mental health education enables the students to

complete learning tasks in a pleasant

atmosphere, and each student's perception of the world is based on the learned knowledge structure, so as to constructs the world and directs the output of its own actions.

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APPLICATION OF EDUTAINMENT IN CURRICULUM DESIGN OF MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION ₁₄₆₆

CASE STUDY OF THE EDUTAINMENT METHOD IN MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION

The application of the edutainment method in mental health education courses focuses on the students 'ability to reshape the acquired knowledge during the game, rather than the grasp of specific knowledge points; on the students' psychological experience and feelings during the game, so as to guide students towards a positive and healthy mental state. A case study was conducted to analyse the effect of the

edutainment method on mental health

education through the feedback from the game teaching process. In this study, the students 'external behaviour during the game teaching process was observed and recorded, and interviews were made to record the students' self-confidence and learning efficiency. The analysis results indicate that the edutainment teaching method has a positive guiding role in mental health education courses.

Figure 5

.

Learning efficiency under the

stimulation of games

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Active learning(Game inspire)

L

e

a

r

ning

e

ff

ic

ie

ncy

/%

Mental health status/% Passive learning

(passive inspire)

By comparing the data records between the

traditional teaching methods and the

edutainment method, the value of influence on the learning efficiency was obtained, as shown in Figure 6, in which the first one-third of the curve shows the learning efficiency of students under passive learning of traditional learning methods, while the other two-thirds show that under the influence of the edutainment teaching method, the games stimulate active learning motivation, inducing higher learning efficiency and self-psychological feelings.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper explores the application of the edutainment method in the design of mental health education curriculum. For this, it analyses

the efficiency and scientificity of the

edutainment teaching method from the perspective of psychology, and also its effect on the mental health education curriculum. The specific conclusions are as follows:

The edutainment teaching method is in line with the students' cognitive psychology and mental characteristics, so it is easy to mobilize the enthusiasm of the students, and enable them to actively internalize and absorb the knowledge taught by the teachers.

According to the theory of game psychology, the edutainment teaching method helps students to establish a good sense of order, concentration, and subconsciously bring about psychological satisfaction and security, as well as

good interpersonal cooperation and

communication.

According to the data record curve of the students' external behavioural performance, it’s concluded that the edutainment teaching method has a positive effect on promoting the mental health self-confidence and learning efficiency of the students in the learning process.

Acknowledgement

Jiangxi Provincial College Humanities & social science key research base bidding project in 2014 (the training mode of “school-enterprise–school” league vocational education), NO: JD1489. Project leader: Shi Jinghui.

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