Implementation of Community Activities and Development of a Learning Feedback System to Provide Career Experience Opportunities for Children

Abstract

It is crucial to foster an attitude in elementary school children that encourages them to look at themselves, focus on their future, and discover their strengths and possibilities through opportunities to reflect on their creative thinking and proactive lifestyle in their early childhood. In the elementary school years, career development focuses on enhancing "basic and generic skills," which are career planning skills are particularly vital as they are essential throughout one's life as a functioning member of society. Collaboration between schools and the community through learning activities is crucial to cultivating children's career planning skills. This study developed a Learning Feedback System (LeaFeS hereafter) with gamification method to support community activities that create opportunities for children to gain work experience. The community activity in focus is "Children's Town," where children plan and operate facilities like government agencies and shops, using local currency. LeaFeS offers learning feedback, including career recommendations based on user type classification within gamification. In addition to job recommendations, LeaFeS provides feedback on the progression of enjoyable and achievable tasks, awards based on the job experience, and career history to encourage the next steps. The effectiveness was verified through participant experiments involving community activities.