Oh Bear! Documentation Book

PRE THESIS PROJECT 2019 OH BEAR!

A social-emotional card game STUDENT:

VINATI PYDIKONDALA

PROJECT:

Kinderworld

SPONSOR:

Self initiated

PROGRAM:

Undergraduate Professional Programme

AWARD:

Visual Communication and Strategic Branding

GUIDES:

Riddhesh Adarkar

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Copyrights 2019-2020 Student Document Publication (for private circulation only) All Rights Reserved Final Thesis Project (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, scanning, photography and video recording without written permission from the publishers namely Siddharth Singh and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore.

Written, edited and designed by Vinati Pydikondala Printed at Printo, Bangalore

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT I, VINATI PYDIKONDALA, hereby declare that the content of this student documentation and final design/artwork submission is my own original work and has not been plagiarised in full or part from previously published/designed/manufactured material or does not even contain substantial propositions of content which have been accepted for an award of any other degree or diploma of any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this thesis project. I also declare that the intellectual content of this Thesis Project is my own original work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style and presentation is acknowledged and that this thesis project (or part of it) will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT I, VINATI PYDIKONDALA, hereby grant Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology the right to archive and to make available my Thesis Project in whole or in part in the institute’s databank and website, and for non-commercial use in all forms of media, now and hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act.

Name: Signature: Date: 5

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Contents 01

Project Abstract

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Understanding Children

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Identifying Area of Research

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Ideation

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Introduction to the Project

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Explorations

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Outcome

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Reflective Statement

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Project Abstract Visual Design holds a pivotal role in the domain of education.

More or less everyone is a visual learner since birth. Learning spaces and institutions facilitate and support this initial learning journey in the life of a child. Experiential learning spaces have proven to be pedestals for all rounded learning in these formative years of a child’s life. This project looks at enabling schools as spaces that lay their academic foundation on alternative education methods through visual communication.

Through the duration of this project, we look at empowering the stakeholders of the school by building efficient, interactive and informative academic visual aids.

With different age groups of students of the school as their potential target audience, this project is an opportunity to design interactive learning tools in the form of games, toys, books, digital interactive content, interventions in learning environments and spaces like classrooms and playgrounds, audio-visual and motion content, activities, workshops and much more.

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Understanding Children As for many of us, childhood is a time of learning and adventure. With their innate sense of curiosity, children are keen to learn and try new things and experiences. As children develop from infants to teens to adults they go through a series of developmental stages that are important to all aspects of their personality - physical, intellectual, emotional and social.

Approaching the project brief required us to first and foremost understand the inner working of a child’s mind.

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Books Child: How Children Think, Learn and Grow DESMOND MORRIS This book features age by age profiles of children which shows a clear view of the changes they go through as they mature. It deals with different aspects of development from physical, emotional or intellectual development and had a lot of interesting titbits about toddler development

Child Psychology: Child Development CHARLES. E SKINNER PHILIP HARRIMAN. This book talks about the whys behind child development. Physical, motor, dynamic, language, emotional, mental, intellectual, social, moral, religious, aesthetic, and play aspects of wholesome personality development are traced. It also gives suggestions for intelligent guidance of child development.

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Visits

Master Classes

Children’s Libraries

Preschools

Manjari Singh

Ilse Maessen

Visits to children’s libraries like Hippocampus and Lightroom helped us identify common themes and topic that are covered. We saw the vast range of books, games and activities and understood the scope of effective, interactive and engaging games for children.

For this project we partnered up with Shantinikethana Global Preschool to create learning tools and interactive material for the school. Through multiple visits to the school we gained first hand experience of children’s behaviour and characteristics inn a preschool setting.

Not only the dean of Srishti, Manjari is also an expert when it comes to younger children. With her boundless information on children behaviour, in this master class we discussed the fascinating world of a child, and how it evolves, and opened our eyes to a childs world in a different light.

In this master class, we discussed methods of research with children. How to keep them involved in your research process and interpret their responses.

We discussed gaining insights from interactions with children, and went through the process of a few projects she worked on.

Insights • Common themes addressed in children’s material • Language and tones of voice used

Insights • Child personalities in classroom • Student-Teacher Dynamics

Insights • Child behaviour and development through the ages

Insights • How to talk to children for a more insightful research

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Shantinikethana Global Preschool Shanthinikethana Global preschool is an experimental learning space for children of 1.8 years to 5.10 years of age. The school has based its curriculum on the alternative education method of multiple intelligence. The pre-school’s goals seem to be clear in theory – working towards the holistic development of students, but is still to be determined in practice.

The school has adopted Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences as core ideology and offers strong academic programs in all basic fields of study which provide spiritual, mental and physical growth. The school focuses on 3 major types of intelligence; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic around which the syllabi are made.

THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES The theory of multiple intelligences by Dr. Howard Gardner Suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence is far too limited. Instead Dr. Howard Gardner proposed eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are: • Linguistic intelligence (word smart) • Logical-mathematical intelligence (number smart) • Spatial intelligence (picture smart) • Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (body smart) • Musical intelligence (music smart) • Interpersonal intelligence (people smart) • Intrapersonal intelligence (self smart) • Naturalist intelligence (nature smart) The theory of multiple intelligences proposes a major transformation in the way our schools are run. It suggests that teachers be trained to present their lessons in a wide variety of ways using music, cooperative learning, art activities, role play, multimedia, field trips, inner reflection, and more.

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5 AUGUST 2019

Reflection on Visit to the Preschool NEEDS/ DISCONNECTS ... I am also a little unsure of the method in which the teacher addresses the students. In most classes, kids were being ordered to do activities. I understand that inculcating discipline in a child is important but there has to be a better way to introduce this power dynamic to a child, where the teacher understands that establishing herself as their voice, overpowers theirs. Intrapersonal and Interpersonal abilities need to be given more attention to nurture individuality and self-confidence in kids. Their method of dealing with reinforcement dismisses a child’s emotions and instead forces rules upon them. Even in pre-primary, teachers seem to suppress the child’s emotional responses to situations and impose themselves upon the child. This might be due to lack of training in these matters, and each teacher having cultivated her own method of dealing with the emotional wellbeing of the class.

• Changing obedience and compliance oriented disciplining techniques • Classroom conflict resolution does not involve children as much as establishes teachers authority

INITIAL OPPORTUNITIES • Teacher training for dealing with a child’s emotional and mental well-being too.

• Emphasis on development of intrapersonal intelligence in students, just as much as other • Intervention that helps/ makes aware of the need to involve children in conflict resolution

The importance of a teacher’s job hadn’t really struck me until then. A preschool teacher’s job is to start the foundation for a child’s future not only in school but in their everyday lives.

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The 5 Year Old It is clear that ways in which children grow are complex, but by providing a stimulating environment and recognizing natural stages of growth parents and teachers can encourage development.

The 5 year old child is usually egocentric and almost unable to see someone else’s point of view, in which case introducing the child to concept of morality would be futile. By the age of 5 and above children become less egocentric9. Hence developing moral thinking capacities in 5 to 7 year olds will be most effective. There are many other developmental milestones that the 5-year-old child hits that helps us understand their moral development • They begin to define if an act is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in terms of whether or not it will evoke punishment.

• They can think and express themselves in higher levels • They grasp the concept of rules and want to follow them to please authority • The can grasp the when-then connection: when I misbehave, then this happens • They want to please and be liked by their friends (though they may sometimes be mean to others)

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Empathy Map

Stepping into the shoes of a 5 year old This activity involved looking at things from a 5 year old’s perspective. When you transform yourself into a 5 year old, suddenly you start noticing that its the small things that matter.

The life of a 5 year old basically revolves around 3 settings - the home, the school and media in this new age.

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Identifying Area of Development

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Why Moral Education?

Human beings, unlike other animals, are not only able to make well thought out actions, but are also able to reflect on and make judgements about those actions. As a result, we are able to differentiate between right or wrong and make thought out moral choices. But how do we learn morality? How do we learn right from wrong? How do we come to understand what is good, and what is not?

The aim of moral education is nothing more than the moral development of the child, that is, to provide a base to enable the child to make self-determined, moral choices. We see the effects of underdeveloped morality all around us. Lack of work ethics and accountability, the universal corruption in our public life, increasing disparity in acts of justice, local and global escalations of violence all mirror the moral state of our society. Our increasing rate of innovation also demands the need for moral policing in every sphere of our society. The calmness with which we unthinkingly accept these situations points to a desensitization that clearly points to our moral debauchery as individuals and as a nation.

When we talk to children about rightness, using methods of perspective taking, empathetic concern and emotional sharing would do good to help foster moral reasoning and ultimately help them make well informed choices. How we ground and justify moral claims is tremendously important. It makes a huge difference if we insist a child share because it would

make the other child happy, or just demand the child share as it’s a classroom rule. Teaching through urging children to be good often means listen-to-what-Isay-and-do-as-you-are-told. It tells our children that beyond compliance and obedience, there is no sense of being good, and to suppress ‘unacceptable’ feelings and desires. Moral development should be assessed not in terms of obedience or compliance but the struggle towards a commitment to honesty, forthrightness, integrity, authenticity, keeping one’s promises, not stealing, not cheating or hurting others in any manner and so on.

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How moral education is typically taught

• Role modelling good conduct.

• Through the telling and retelling of stories that explain the when then connections.

• Urging children to be good. ie listen to what I say and do as your told.

• Often confused with compliance and obedience

What else needs to be included

• Children need to be a more active participation in talking about what is right and wrong, as feeling are a large part of this discussion.

• Helping children with empathy fostering.

Perspective taking. Talking about others feelings.

• Acknowledging feelings is an important part.

• Choices and consequences of choice

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Primary Research Evaluating Decision Making Skills Using the app MixUp, where the child chooses the path of the story I was able to understand how children make decisions better. They incline towards visuals, they are excited by suspense, and like repeating tasks to find new outcomes. They are also open to choosing seemingly bad paths in the story.

Story Telling and Story Comprehension They tell stories with detail, and can recall stories that have been told to them. They are most entertained by dramatics. Books that require them to read, distract them from the storyline although it improves their reading skills. Indian contextualization is very much needed in terms of words used, sounds made etc.

Something You Did Today To Help A drawing session where I asked the children to draw out scenarios of kindness, doing the right thing. This helped me understand them better

Observing Play During play, children often face conflict. However, this conflict is not long lived. When parents intervene, it’s even shorter with the goal to just resolve conflict.

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Case Study: Honesty I analysed content for children under a narrower umbrella of honesty to understand common tones of voice, plots and characters when talking about what’s right and wrong

INSIGHTS • Moral behaviour at preschool age is driven by incentive. However, incentives do not always have to be materialistic things like sweets or gifts. They can come in the form of compliments, and encouraging smiles too from adults they admire.

• Children understand when- then connections.

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• Children have inbuilt moral compasses, and feel complex emotions like guilt and envy.

• Its important to address how actions impact others too so they can learn to empathise in such situations, and step into others shoes.

ANALYSING EXISTING BOOKS BOOK

WHY DISHONESTY

WHAT KIND OF DISHONESTY

HOW THE BOOK ENDS

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

By Aesop

To test the boundaries of lying

Repeatedly lies to get attention and fool people

Loses trust. When actually in trouble noone helps him

Pinocchio

By Carlo Collodi

To get out of trouble

Telling false stories to hide the truth

What brought him back was his altruism - sacrifices he makes

Edard Fudwupper Fibbed Big

By Berkeley Breathed

To cover a misdeed (breaking)

Blaming mistakes on imaginary scenarios, exaggeration

Exaggeration comes to life. The world was going to end because of his fib, but his sister fibs to save him.

Punishment for both follows

Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie

By Laura Rankin

To cover a misdeed (stealing)

Denies stealing, Blaming

Feels guilty, sad and bad. Owns up. Is forgiven

The Lying King

By Alex Beard

To impress

Telling tall tales

The truth is revealed. Noone believes him, becomes social recluse

Princess K.I.M and the Lie That Grew

By Maryann Cocca-Leffler

To impress

Exaggeration

Feels guilty. Owns up, and everything goes back to normal

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Proposal ABSTRACT Moral education has always been a perennial aim of early education in India. However, the model which is commonly practiced in many early education practices incorporates the habituation model for behavioral formation. Children are taught good traits but not to question the reasons for their actions and why they should do them. Children are pushed to memorize moral values without critically thinking about them.

What happens when two moral concepts conflict each other? Hence, such morality consists only of black and white conceptions. This is the gap that has become focus of my research.

CONTEXT All children are born with a running start on the path to moral development. For example, Newborns cry when they hear others cry and show signs of pleasure when they see laughter. This empathy- the capacity to experience another person’s pain or pleasure vicariously – is a part of what makes us moral human beings.

Some of the earliest, most significant hallmarks of the social development of a child are (1) the beginning of empathy, (2) the development of the concept of other people, and (3) the formation of the attachment bond .

As the child grows, moral development becomes more complex, with the understanding of intention, motives, and circumstances. Thus begins the formation of one’s 26

identity, as a moral being.

To start, lets first define morality. Morality in simple terms is the highest good that can be done in any situation. It is our ability to learn the difference between right or wrong and understand how to make the right choices. Moral development is simply developing skills required to achieve this highest good.

But how do we learn morality? How do we learn right from wrong? How do we come to understand what is good, and what is not?

James Rest, an American philosopher’s model of ethical decision making has provided a productive framework from which to examine various aspects of moral development. Rest describes the following four components in his model of morality: (a) the identification of a moral dilemma; (b) making a judgment and reasoning about what ought to be done; (c) an individual’s intention to act; and (d) the actual behavior . This can be used further to assess how we equip children to respond to moral situations.

Most of early childhood educator’s knowledge of moral development comes from the cognitive development theories of Piaget (1932) and Kohlberg (1969). According to Piaget’s theory of development, children construct and reconstruct their knowledge of the world through their interactions with the environment. Such knowledge includes children’s

wrong. It also requires fostering other aspects such as empathy, conscience and altruism . This combined with moral reasoning allows for a holistic development of a moral being. According to the constructivist theory of development, these aspects of moral functioning cannot be given to children but they can be fostered. We know that we can’t give young children an understanding of such concepts, yet we purposefully provide experiences that promote such understandings. In a similar way, if we want to foster morality in children, we would do well to provide the kinds of experiences that promote this – and we would do so starting at a young age . Besides the home, preschools have long been seen as institutions for preparing children for life, both academically and as moral agents in society. It is often known as a child’s second home, and contributes to a large part of his/ her social experiences. It provides a social setting where morality can be facilitated - where children can develop core skills such as listening to others, taking turns to speak and resolving conflict in classroom. It is no doubt that morality can be taught in schools, the key question being how it should be.

Moral Education in India In the Indian society moral education is highly influenced by religious education. The Indian education system has favored direct moral instruction mostly in terms of ethical teachings of great religions since ancient times. ‘Moral

understandings about what is right and what is

Education’ as used in India, includes religious training,

training in physical health, mental hygiene, etiquette and manners, appropriate social behavior, civic rights

calmness with which we unthinkingly accept these situations points to a desensitization that clearly points

self-interest and self-centredness.

3. The ability to think for themselves, and morally

and duties and even training in aesthetics . Morality and moral development are defined in terms of objective norms and established standards of behaviors. Moral thinking capacities and moral reasoning skills for children are less stressed on. Habits, for example, have strong appeal to educators. Persons of good character behave well without much temptation to do otherwise and without much conscious deliberation: “They are good by force of habit” . This view of morality fails its inherent purpose of goodness.

Rethinking Moral Education The aim of moral education is nothing more than the moral development of the child, that is, to provide a base to enable the child to make self-determined, moral choices. When we start to establish a rulebook for morality, we often tend to make generalized statements such as ‘always respect your elders’ or ‘honesty is the best policy’. Although it is agreeable that this helps give children an idea of desirable traits, it often also overlooks situations nuanced with complexity. Another thing it does is desensitizes the child to the need of morality and its importance in becoming contributing, productive members of society. We see the effects of underdeveloped morality all around us. Lack of work ethics and accountability,

to our moral debauchery as individuals and as a nation.

Knowing about moral values and being told what constitutes a good life does not incline or enable one to take ethical decisions or resolve moral dilemmas that one faces in life. It either makes us compliant passive beings in society or rebel against it. Teaching moral values may serve to acquaint children to ideas of morality but is not enough to support their moral development. Teaching through urging children to be good often means listen-to-what-I-say-and-do-as-youare-told. It tells our children that beyond compliance and obedience, there is no sense of being good, and to suppress ‘unacceptable’ feelings and desires. Moral development should be assessed not in terms of obedience or compliance but the struggle towards a commitment to honesty, forthrightness, integrity, authenticity, keeping one’s promises, not stealing, not cheating or hurting others in any manner and so on .

Schools often also impose rules for everything, thinking discipline inculcation results in morality. This makes it difficult for children to do anything without facing donts like “don’t talk in class” “don’t shout in corridors” and such. These rules fall in the category of what could be situation- appropriate rules and are necessary for a smooth functioning of classroom. However, this is not

reason.

the universal corruption in our public life, increasing disparity in acts of justice, local and global escalations of violence all mirror the moral state of our society. Our increasing rate of innovation also demands the need for moral policing in every sphere of our society. The

just what morality entails. Its much more. Hence, there is need for a new dimension of moral education. It points to teaching young children: 1. The ‘ought’ and ‘should’ beyond the ‘must’ 2. A consideration of the well-being of others beyond

1. Primary Ethics in South Australia, has helped take this elementary concept of teaching “right and wrong” by delivering Ethics classes as an alternative to religious education in New South Wales primary public schools .

The curriculum consists of age-appropriate lessons on

PROJECT CONTEXT Shanthinikethana Global Preschool is a preschool that implements alternative methods of teaching at early education level. The school has adopted Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences as core ideology and offers strong academic programs in all basic fields of study which provide spiritual, mental and physical growth. The preschools goals seem to be clear in theory – working towards the holistic development of students, but still to be determined in practice. For a school that strongly focuses on alternative methods of teaching, moral education is taught in traditional ways of direct moral instruction. Modes of discipline were largely instruction based and do not accommodate student autonomy. This is the school where I will be conducting further research on moral studies. Through this project I aim to provide a learning tool that can be used in classrooms to facilitates discussions of the type of morality we have identified above. This will help further their intent of all-inclusive development of the child, and help prepare the child with skills necessary for decision-making The Primary Ethics Organization

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ethical concepts and issues. Primary Ethics’ educational approach combines two key teaching elements. a. Teaching of critical thinking (or logical reasoning) and opportunities to apply those skills b. A community of inquiry approach supported by the teachers who encourage students to investigate and apply the ethical principles and values involved in ethical decision-making This is done through stories, poems and rhymes that prompt children to discuss ethical issues such as hurting without meaning to, telling the truth, being kind, forgiving, ownership, fairness and empathy.

AIM In most Indian preschools (Like Shanthinikethana Global Preschool) the focus is on virtues, values, and behaviors is not as much as on reasoning capacities behind them. In this paper I aim at deconstructing the existing meaning of morality that is established in schools, and create a space/learning tool which helps teach children to think beyond directed rights and wrongs, rules and regulations. This can be done through 1. Fostering perspective taking abilities in a child. (E.g.

Help understand that the reason behind rules, why good behavior is necessary) 2. Introducing morally grey areas, and fostering decision-making skills in children. The idea here is to help children identify that as facts change, the morality changes.

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TARGET AUDIENCE The 2 to 5-year-old child is usually egocentric and almost unable to see someone else’s point of view, in which case introducing the child to concept of morality would be futile. By the age of 5 and above children become less egocentric . Hence developing moral thinking capacities in 5 to 7 year olds will be most effective. It is clear that ways in which children grow are complex, but by providing a stimulating environment and recognizing natural stages of growth parents and teachers can encourage development. There are many other developmental milestones that the 5-yearold child hits that helps us understand their moral development: 1. They begin to define if an act is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in terms of whether or not it will evoke punishment.

2. They can think and express themselves in higher levels 3. They grasp the concept of rules and want to follow them to please authority 4. The can grasp the when-then connection: when I misbehave, then this happens.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Each household defines morality for themselves.

Knowing this, how do we define morality in a school environment where many views might clash? What is the role of the parent in this? How do parents feel about schools discussing morality with children?

2. What is the role of narratives in morally educating children since stories have proven their potential to function as a vehicle of moral education for young

children?

3. Exposing moral and ethical stories without probing and problem solving would again lead to inculcation of values. How can teachers facilitate moral discussions in classrooms effectively? When a child gets the answer wrong (if there is a right answer in the first place), how can the teacher guide the child to find the intended path of the activity rather than impose value.

4. Could the gamification of stories provide a more interactive method to inculcate critical thinking in children?

5. Can moral concepts be taught through nature?

APPROACHES TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Understanding the 5-year-old a. Conducting workshops with children where storytelling and reading is pushed beyond the books.

Opening room for discussion and seeing how it plays. b. Analyzing a child’s capacity to comprehend complex moral situations through one on one discussions.

2. Understanding the teachers point of view. Talking to teachers and discussing the need for moral reasoning and critical thinking in curriculum. How it is currently implemented, and how it can be improved. This will help understand the role of a teacher as a facilitator for moral discussions in the classroom and the level of involvement necessary.

3. Understanding the Parent. What are desirable moral concepts that parents of this strata are looking at developing in their children? How do parents teach children to deal with situations where two moral concepts conflict each other?

4. Looking into decision making of a 5 year old child.

How would a child respond to making his/her own decision? what factors influence this decision?

5. Exploring narratives/stories of morality with children through existing moral stories to help understand how to heighten their experience.

POTENTIAL OUTCOMES 1. A set of 3 books / game exploring a nuanced complex situation where the child navigates through what is right and wrong, where two moral concepts conflict each other.

2. A book/ game that takes a simple concept like hurting someone without meaning to and explores the range of emotions a child would feel, the range of decision that would be required to make.

LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. To contribute to research on how children comprehend and interpret relatively complex moral situations, and morally grey areas 2. To gain a better understanding of early education in Indian context, and the unseen obstacles that need to be surpassed 3. To see the potential of this learning tool to be implemented across various types of Indian preschools

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Skinner, Chales. E, and Philip Lawrence Harriman. Child Psychology: Child Development.

2nd ed. Delhi: Sunjeet Publications, 2011 2. Morris, Desmond. Child - How Children Think, Learn and Grow in the Early Years. Great Britain: Octopus Books, 2010 3. TEDx Talks. “Preparing Our Kids For Life, Not Standardized Tests | Ted Dintersmith | TEDx Fargo”. YouTube. August 25, 2015. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Rvhb9aoyeZs

7. Wilson, Ruth A. “Fostering Goodness.” www. earlychildhoodnews.com. Accessed August 25, 2019. http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/ earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=565.

8. Kohn, Alfie. “How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education.” How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education (February 1997). https://www.alfiekohn.org/ article/teach-values/?print=pdf.

4. Seshadri, C. “The Concept of Moral Education: Indian and Western-A Comparative Study.”

Comparative Education 17, no. 3 (1981): 293-310. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3098686.

5. Nobes, Gavin, and Chris Pawson. “Children’s Understanding of Social Rules and Social Status.”

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 49, no. 1 (2003): 77-99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23096195.

6. Smith, Henritta .T. “Development of Conscience in the Preschool Child.” Young Children 20, no. 6 (1965): 368-72. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/42658069.

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Ideation

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Concept Iterations

A storybook navigating morally grey areas.

A book about honesty where the child learns why lying is bad, why telling the truth is better, and why telling too much of the truth can hurt.

A Choose Your Own Ending Storybook A book in which children help a character navigate through choices she is presented with. What this did was present them with two paths, defining them as right or wrong.

Story Cards Story cards that enable children to make stories when presented with situations of conflict - like accidentally breaking a crayon. This would help them match the situation to its consequence and think of real life situations the same way

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A Choice Based Card Game This game introduced children to everyday situations, and reminds them that they always have a choice. And that those choices have consequences. And that these consequences affect other people too. At this developmental stage, children are learning to be social beings and often make decisions to please people around them. So the game would help them understand how exactly it would affect other people, and why it matters. Children naturally look for positive feedback whether in terms of reward, or simply a compliment. So this game would again metaphorically reward good acts as its being played, and they would see it all happen in real time.

PROBLEM + CHOICE + CONSEQUENCE The facilitator reads out the problem card in short. The children look at the illustration of the problem. The children decide how they want to react to the problem. Lay down the choice card. And then the consequence card. The consequence cards show the emotional responses of the protagonist and the other people involved.

SITUATION + CONTEXT + CHOICE + CONSEQUENCE A situation card is picked. A context card is then matched, completing the story of how the situation happened. Once this is done, a choice card is placed. And the appropriate consequence of that choice. Another context card is chosen. A new choice card is placed. And then the consequence card.

THEME + STORY CARDS A theme is picked at the start of the game instead of a situation card. A child uses the story cards to develop her own story of what he thinks is the right way to go. The story cards comprise of emotions and actions of the two main characters.

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Final Tool The aim of this tool is to help nurture perspective taking skills as well as empathetic concern while making a choice

Any kind of behaviour has its consequences. This tool does not strictly impose bad or good behaviour norms but talks to children about why behaviour matters. This is done through nurturing perspective taking skills as well as empathetic concern for others.

The way this game work is that a choice card is picked first and matched with an appropriate effect card. The child makes this decision for herself according to what she thinks might be the consequences.

So for example, if the card talks of sharing toys with a friend, the child matches it with the aftermath of sharing - her friend being happy.

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CHOICE1

How the protagonist would feel

CHOICE2

How the protagonist would feel

How others would feel

How others would feel

User Testing

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Feedback Using words like “you” and “them” in situations of morality would make the child feel targetted if she gets an answer “wrong”. Introducing another character and talking in third person would be more effective, and eliminate guilt or shame that might emerge.

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How To Play

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Visual Explorations

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Moodboard

COLOUR Earthy + Bold tones

COMPOSITION Emphasis on actions and emotions performed rather than settings 40

ILLUSTRATION Clean illustrations with subtle textures. Emphasis on emotions and body language

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Character Design Humans or Animals?

The problem that arises with using humans as protagonists here is that it becomes easier for children to associate certain characters with people in real life, which would lead them to making decisions accordingly, which I do not want. Using animals on the other hand moves away from the glaze of moralising humans, and allows the child to make less biased decisions. Of-course animal characters also come with their own biases (Like how tiger would be seen as menacing by default) but when combined with a human setting could allow the children to view him more as one of themselves.

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Typography

Font

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Colour Palette

FOR ILLUSTRATIONS

PRIMARY COLORS

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Texture A few explorations with texture, to add more to the illustration. I chose to use the stipple effect as it adds a subtle layer of depth

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Packaging A few packaging cover iterations, that also encapsulates the evolution of the visual language.

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Final Output

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About Whether you play solo or with a group, this deck of cards help start conversations with children about why good behavior matters. With 5 different ways to play, these cards can be used to improve social and emotional skills in real life situations. Oh Bear! requires the presence of a facilitator, to observe and guide children through moral discussions.

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Reflection Human beings, unlike other animals, are not only able to make well thought out actions, but are also able to reflect on and make judgements about those actions.

As a result, we are able to differentiate between right or wrong and make thought out moral choices. Through the course of this project, I found it fascinating how children picked up and defined rightness. I also noticed how sometimes, “being good� is often confused with obedience.

I understood that how we ground and justify moral claims is tremendously important. It makes a huge difference if we insist a child share because it would make the other child happy, or just

demand the child share as it’s a classroom rule.

Working with kids was entertaining but also challenging, as they are easily distracted and often dont understand everything you say. It was something had never done before, and got better at as i kept trying.

Working on the visual language for children was quite fun and allowed me to explore character design. Overall, this 4 month long project was a fun yet challenging experience and made me want to work with children sometime in the future again

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PRE THESIS PROJECT 2019

Examiner 1 (name and signature):

OH BEAR!

Examiner 2 (name and signature):

A social-emotional card game STUDENT: VINATI PYDIKONALA PROJECT: Kinderworld SPONSOR: Self initiated

Examiner 3 (name and signature): Date: Academic Dean:

PROGRAM: Undergraduate Professional Programme AWARD:

Visual Communication and Strategic Branding

Final Examination Panel COMMENTS:

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VINATI PYDIKONDALA Final Pre-Thesis Project 2019 (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka

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