Teachers and students of Tucheng High School make a self-made integrated education board game to show empathy in the game

Nan City Education Bureau and Tucheng High School teachers and students released the independently developed "Integrated Education Situational Board Game". (Provided by Nanshi Education Bureau)

In order to bring inclusive education into daily school life, the Tainan City Education Bureau and Tucheng High School teachers and students jointly released the self-developed "Inclusive Education Situational Board Game", which designed common emotional frictions and communication difficulties on campus into game tasks, allowing ordinary students and special education students to practice expressing feelings, empathizing, and learning to understand and accept each other's differences through situation simulation and role play.

Tu Yilang, principal of Tucheng High School, said that the idea for developing the board game came from teachers and students observing the pain points of class interactions at the integrated education site. He hopes that through specific actions, children can learn empathy and tolerance through game communication. In the future, he also hopes to promote this set of cards to teaching sites of different age groups, so that more students can understand differences through interaction and implement equal rights in education.

Instructor Wang Xuejing pointed out that classroom observations revealed that teachers are faced with class management pressure, special education students have difficulty expressing emotions, and ordinary students may also have friction due to lack of understanding, which can lead to anxiety. She led students to transform real campus situations into game tasks, allowing participants to practice speaking out their feelings in a safe and comfortable atmosphere, and explore positive solutions to turn conflicts into opportunities for mutual understanding. The team will continue to make adjustments based on trial feedback to make the teaching aids more relevant to teaching needs.

Tucheng High School seniors Wu Mingrui, Li Hongxuan and Chen Yourui, who participated in the research and development, shared that in the past, they often felt overwhelmed when seeing special education students having emotions. However, through the design and trial play of the board game, they discovered that everyone has emotions when facing pressure, but they just express them in different ways. The publication of their results gave them a sense of accomplishment, and they hope to help more students learn empathy and tolerance.

Wang Jiaping, convener of the Disability Education Resource Center, said that emotional adjustment and interpersonal interaction are important keys to deepening inclusive education. The center will continue to provide professional support, assist in the optimization of table games and campus promotion, and accompany children to grow together in understanding and acceptance.