Worth a fortune: active learning through origami fortune tellers
Worth a fortune: active learning through origami fortune tellers
Nayiri Keshishi
What is the idea?
A paper fortune teller is a form of origami and was introduced to the English-speaking world in the book ‘Fun with paper folding’ (Murray & Rigney, 1928). Their use in children’s education has been recorded since the 1950s, mostly as a game or role-play prop (Opie & Opie, 1959).
This idea will demonstrate how the device can aid active and playful reflection within higher education, specifically for Foundation Year Psychology students.
Why this idea?
Playful learning has increased in popularity and is often used as a mechanism for improving engagement and motivation (Rivera & Garden, 2021). The nature of play, with its core socially negotiated aspects, places itself within social constructivism, where knowledge develops as a result of social interaction and language use (Walsh, 2015). Though typically associated with children’s education, it is a powerful method to integrate in the transformative learning process, where prior thoughts, knowledge or ideas are challenged. It allows students to practise, apply and fully understand key concepts; in this case reflective thinking and writing (Meyer & Land, 2006; Piaget, 1962).
Inspired by the use of origami fortune tellers as a module introduction or career development activity (Gillaspy, 2020), I incorporated them into a reflective thinking and writing class for Foundation Year Psychology students. As part of their module assessment, students were required to write a reflective journal discussing their personal and academic development. The purpose of the fortune tellers, and the accompanying game, was to support them in understanding the assessment marking criteria and applying it to various reflective writing examples.
The explicit playful elements of the game helped achieve a psychological acceptance of play, or ‘lusory attitude’ (Suits, 2005). As many of the students had encountered fortune tellers before, it also brought a sense of childhood nostalgia to the classroom. This feeling of excitement and human connection is an important part of encouraging a playful environment. This is vital for a learning space to appear as truly playful and for the activities to become meaningful (Nørgård et al., 2017).
How could others implement this idea?
Divide students into pairs and give time for them to familiarise themselves with the marking criteria and to read the three reflective writing examples.
Share fortune teller templates (one per person) and give students instructions (written and visual) on how to fold/make it. Also share instructions on how to operate the device and how to play.
Before the class, parts of the fortune teller should be labelled with colours, numbers and questions that serve as player options (see Figure 1 as an example).
The person operating the fortune teller (player 1) should manipulate the device based on the choices of the other player (player 2). For example, if player 2 picks BLU