Educational Alternatives, Volume 20, 2022

Streszczenie: The teaching and learning needs of the 21st century have changed significantly from those a few decades ago. Changing economic conditions, new technologies, and labor market demands have changed the competency expectations. There is an increasing emphasis on independent creative work, critical thinking and collaboration. The education of the younger generation, including vocational training and adult education, should support the achievement of these goals. Competence development and effective education of both children and adults is a central issue in pedagogy. An appropriate tool for this are games, which is an internal learning method for people. Children play instinctively, it is a genetically encoded activity that does not need to be taught. Our research focuses on the methods of game-based education. Within this, the development of a new skills, development methodology and its practical applicability. In our work, we explored what effective teaching and development approaches are there through games and how cognitive skills can be developed. During our research, we develop and test various games, and we have concluded that at the present which are the games that perform best in competency development and individual development in general. The research result to be presented is based on the Castle of Mind (COM) board game we have created, which also functions as an educational aid and development tool. Thanks to the unique gameplay of COM, the hit doesn’t (necessarily) happen where the move is. That is, the consequences of actions during the game can occur in a location other than the move, which, in addition to developing attention, improves several abilities. Based on our research results, playing with COM effectively develops concentration, logic, relationship insight, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The game is one way to develop competencies effectively and in a lifelike way through playing for both children and adults.