Education Begins With Teachers
As an educational practice designed for Integral Education, Auro.Games puzzles offer joyful, experiential and play-based learning. Puzzle pieces can be put together in infinite ways, like the turn of a kaleidoscope, to allow the mind to open up and become flexible, to see different perspectives, possibilities and solutions using imagination. It's Yoga for the mind - improve your concentration, creativity and spatial awareness through regular exercise.
Auro.Games Research
Starting with inspiration from the original unfinished prototypes and sketches, extensive participatory research and development has shown us the potential and possibilities of this material. The past three years moved the research from an explorative stage towards understanding the deeper values of the material both as a mindfulness activity, and as a tool to develop creative thinking. During 2022-2023 over 100 teachers explored Auro.Games, giving valuable feedback that has been integrated.
We are during the year 2023-2024 taking the research to its next level, doing an in-depth study with 500 children and their teachers in different school settings. We are investigating how we can bring our puzzles as an integrated part of the school curriculum in India, taking the experience of Auro.Games into the mainstream classroom (NEP2020) by offering an enriched educational program.
Through this research we aim to more clearly identify the benefits of Auro.Games in areas like teacher and student motivation, joy of learning, concentration, creative thinking / problem solving and spatial awareness. Using imagination (mental visualization), the materials explore geometric concepts such as rotation, symmetry, mirror images, pattern construction and deconstruction, can be included as a part of the mathematics curriculum, and work through art-integration.
Auro.Games Teacher Workshops
Professional development for teachers combines theory and hands-on learning. Through exploration with Auro.Games puzzles, we facilitate self-discovery while exploring transformative education principles. These concepts can be applied to various teaching and learning contexts, enhancing your self-awareness and inspiring new teaching and learning approaches. With the training you not only widen your understanding of the foundations of an integral education, but also become well practiced in Auro.Games puzzles.
Through the workshop teachers learn to bring awareness to the operations of their consciousness. Learning and growth is the conscious work of self-discovery, increasing self-knowledge through interactions with the world. It can not be taught, only experienced. Based on techniques for whole brain activation, the teachers exercise and stretch their mental faculties of seeing, thinking and understanding - to observe, consider and find solutions from many different perspectives. To develop flexibility and open-mindedness, the puzzles allow to decompose, create and recreate infinite patterns. Teachers learn to let go, become open to change, and see the beauty created in their own puzzles. The training will equip them to use puzzles as a tool for social and emotional learning (SEL) and education for sustainable development (ESD) by bringing focus to transformative qualities, and to systems-thinking through the kaleidoscope effect.