The game whith rules can be an instrument to modify the school failure?

Abstract

This paper presents one of the three studies conducted on doctoral research that aimed to investigate if the game with explicit rules influences the development of higher psychological functions (HPF) of students with school failure history in elementary school. Anchored in the historical-cultural psychology. The research adopts the experimental genetic method and consists of an intervention through memory games, face to face and checkers, performed with an 11 years old student who was repeating the 3rd year of elementary school. The instruments used were semi-structured interviews with family, teachers and student, report card, observation and assisted assessment of the WISC III and TDE test with the student. Data analyzes were microgenetic and thematic. The results indicate that the intervention has generated the development of HPF and changes in school performance. We conclude that the game was an effective mediator between learning and student development.