“Ponte N mis Tenis”: a board game to learn ethical awareness and citizenship

“Ponte N mis Tenis” (“Put on my Sneakers”), it’s an educational tool that allows students to experience multiple life events, as well as ethical dilemmas.

“Ponte N mis Tenis”: a board game to learn ethical awareness and citizenship
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“Ponte N mis Tenis” (Put on my Sneakers) is a board game that allows the students to live and feel different situations of life, many of them far from the reality that they experience.

An essential characteristic of every professional is his or her human sense, that is, the ethical posture and commitment he or she has to the well-being of the community. Yet, how is human sense developed in young people in a time of so much skepticism and social indifference? While middle-and-higher-education institutions promote community social services to bring students closer to reality through immersive experiences within the communities, this scholastic model has some limitations. In this article, we share an educational proposal that enables students to develop competencies in ethics and citizenship.

“Through this game, students discover the effects of inequality in the distribution of wealth, the lack of opportunities for certain social classes and discrimination based on gender or skin color.”

Performing community service activities involves a lengthy planning process so as not to put students at risk. One must also seek that the members of the community perceive that the actions to help or the proposals for improvement put forward by students are positive. In addition, the resources required for students to carry out their projects in that community should be determined and obtained.

Our proposal for educational innovation aims that students receive comprehensive training that develops competencies for life, especially skills in ethical awareness and citizenship. These competencies are fully identified in the curricular programs of Tecnológico de Monterrey. However, in the classroom, it is complicated to teach these competencies and have an impact beyond the informational level. We believe that the best teaching strategy to motivate the student to learn naturally, in a thoughtful and fun way, how to address real problems is through experiential and playful activity.

“Ponte N mis Tenis”: a board game and didactic tool

We developed a board game called “Ponte N mis Tenis” (“Put on my Sneakers” as in to put on someone else’s shoes) that allows students to live and feel different life situations, many of them far from the reality that they experience. This exercise helps them become aware of the reality that other people live and makes them participate in decision-making as they take on different citizen roles while playing the game. “Ponte N mis Tenis” is a teaching tool that allows students to experience multiple life events and ethical dilemmas that help them develop overall awareness of what it means to look for a job, start a family, acquire equity, receive health services, among others.

Thus, players “are born” with an economic position according to the data of INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geography), which is randomly assigned to them. They are given physical characteristics that completely change the way they perceive themselves and each other. Through the game, the participant discovers the effects of inequality on the distribution of wealth, the lack of opportunities for certain social classes, and discrimination due to gender or skin color.

The decisions made during the game have an impact on health, social, economic, and family relationships, just like in real life. The effect is monitored during the game and, in the end, leads the student to reflect on what he or she can leave future generations as a tangible and intangible legacy. At the end of his or her hypothetical life, the participant can have either wealth or debt; it can be an example of success in life or failure. For his or her part, the teacher conducts a concluding session where each student describes his/her life and experiences when they put on the “tennis” (shoes) of someone else. The student manifests, for example, whether he was happy but had no money, if he was rich but lonely, or if he was born with few resources but studied and did well in life. The important thing is that each student reflects on how the combination of decision-making and chance opportunities impacts their story.

“As a teaching tool, this game can be used principally in subjects related to ethics and citizenship, but also in courses that develop competencies for entrepreneurship and decision-making based on values or vocational choice.”

“Ponte N mis Tenis” has been played with high school and undergraduate university students with very positive results. For example, the interaction achieved in the game strengthens the students’ interest in various current socioeconomic issues. They come to realize the inequality of opportunities that exist among the social classes and between the genders. This generates a higher degree of self-knowledge and awareness of their reality and the system of privileges available to them.

The “Ponte N mis Tenis” team consists of four teachers who have been professors at Tec de Monterrey, Campus Zacatecas, Mexico, both at the high school and undergraduate levels. They worked in collaboration with Dr. Leonel Ruvalcaba of the Academic Unit of Higher Education at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) to design an instrument to measure the impact of the game.

When the game was applied with students in Prepa Tec, through the principal component analysis and the Varimax rotation method with Kaiser normalization, it was found that there is a difference in the perception of students after the game in the following aspects:

  • To attach great importance to the fact of knowing about and having a fair system for retirement.

  • The relevance and potential consequences of integrating a person with physical or economic limitations into a work team.

  • Perceiving the importance of scholarship systems for access to education.

The game also reveals many of the student’s beliefs, values, and paradigms that can later be worked on in class. As a teaching tool, the game can be used principally in subjects related to ethics and citizenship, but also in courses that develop competencies for entrepreneurship and decision-making based on values or vocational choice.

Because of the interest that the game “Ponte N my Tennis” has generated, we have created a version for high school students, adjusting the events and dilemmas to those appropriate for what they face at that stage of life. The game also has piqued the interest of companies that want to use the game as a tool in the recruitment process. Additionally, we are considering the creation of a version that responds to the bioethical and ecological dilemmas of the 21st-century.

We are convinced that this game represents a compelling alternative to develop practical and simple ethics and citizenship skills that our young people need today, more than ever.

We invite the community to know and learn with this educat
ional game, “Ponte N, my Tennis.” Live and enjoy the experience and share it with your colleagues and students. For more information, you can contact us by email or visit our official website at www.pontenmistenis.com

About the authors

Gerardo Galaviz Jimenez (gerardo.galaviz@tec.mx) is Director of Engineering and Humanities at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Zacatecas. He is an Industrial and Systems Engineer and has a master’s in Quality System and Productivity.

Alejandra Ariadna Romero Moyano (aarm@tec.mx) is Chair Professor in the area of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She is an Industrial and Systems Engineer, having a master’s in Sciences, specializing in Quality Systems, and a Ph.D. in Management.

Editing by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Gerardo Galaviz Jiménez

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0