Fostering and Reflecting on Diverse Perspective-Taking in Role-Play Utilizing Puppets as the Catalyst Material under CSCL

Role-play is a powerful strategy that helps learners broaden their perspectives in a given subject area through communication. As a vehicle of role-play, puppetry achieves this benefit while creating a psychological distance from the role-player’s actual identity, meaning that the player’s anxiety or apprehension toward evaluation is reduced. EduceBoard is a tangible system that enables participants to conduct role-play using puppets and foster reflection based on the diverse perspectives of the characters in the role-play. Preliminary evaluation of EduceBoard demonstrated that it allowed participants to play various roles in role-play and helped them reflect on their role-play from a variety of perspectives. In this paper, we also discuss how we can foster successful transfer of what they have learned to their self-performance in role-play or in real-life context.