Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) for Education

Description

Keeping students engaged and enhancing their attention span are just a few of the challenges in today’s classrooms.

In fact, traditional teaching approaches don’t always succeed in creating the level of involvement, motivation, and emotional connection needed for meaningful learning.

Consequently, learners often find these “traditional” pedagogical methods unchallenging or disconnected from their immediate emotional needs.

For this reason, educators and youth workers are increasingly looking for innovative methods that allow students to learn by doing, experimenting, and reflecting.

This course introduces participants to Live Action Role-Playing (LARP): a powerful educational tool ideal to boost experiential learning in a wide variety of classroom applications.

By placing students in structured fictional scenarios, LARP can create a safe space where they can explore situations, make decisions, and learn from their actions without fear of making mistakes. This way, it addresses one of the most impactful psychological barriers to learning.

During the course, participants will explore how LARP can be used in educational contexts to support the development of key competencies such as communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

The course combines practical workshops with guided reflections, helping participants understand not only how LARP works, but why it is effective and how it can be successfully implemented in their own settings.

Throughout the week, they will take part in LARP-based activities and learn how to design their own educational scenarios.

They will work on key elements such as setting creation, character design, and facilitation techniques, as well as the different phases of a LARP session, including preparation, briefing, enrolment, and “de-roling”.

Also, they will learn the theoretical foundations of the “edutainment” approach, and how to guide their future sessions using frameworks such as Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and John Dewey’s “4Fs” model (Facts, Feelings, Findings, Future).

Furthermore, they will practice conducting structured debriefing sessions to transform fictional game experiences into real-world pedagogical insights.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to independently organize and facilitate educational LARP sessions tailored to their specific training objectives.

They will have acquired significant competencies in creating safe “magic circles” for interactive learning and will be proficient in using Kolb’s theoretical framework to facilitate deep reflection among their students.

Concept by Petar Drumev

Learning outcomes

The course will help participants to:

• Understand and apply the concepts of “edutainment” and experiential learning within a pedagogical framework;
• Explain the difference between LARP, gamification, and simulation, and choose the most appropriate approach;
• Design simple LARP scenarios, including settings, roles, and basic game structure;
• Use key elements of LARP design, such as character roles and interaction rules;
• Plan and facilitate the main phases of a LARP activity, including preparation, briefing, and debriefing;
• Create a safe learning environment (“magic circle”) where students feel confident to participate and experiment;
• Guide reflection using Kolb’s cycle and the “4Fs” model to connect experience with learning;
• Adapt LARP activities to different subjects, age groups, and learning objectives.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to the course and educational LARP

• Introduction to the course and the Academy;
• Introduction to the host city and the week’s cultural activities;
• Icebreaker activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools and institutions;
• What is LARP, and how can it be used in education?;
• First examples of educational LARP and experiential learning;
• Reflection on possible uses in participants’ own teaching contexts.

Day 2 – Learning through play: edutainment and the magic circle

• Exploring the fusion of education and entertainment through the work of Peter Catalanotto (famous children’s book illustrator);
• Deep dive into Learning by Doing, Interactivity, Discussion, and Interdisciplinarity;
• The “Magic Circle” – Analyzing the psychological space where players accept voluntary obstacles for the sake of play;
• Discussion on how play can reduce fear of failure and support participation.

Day 3 – From games to learning design

• Educational LARP, serious games, and gamification: similarities and differences;
• Case study analysis: using LARP to teach curriculum content;
• Serious Games vs. Gamification – Differentiating between adding game elements to work and embedding education in a game;
• Designing the Quest – Practice constructing tasks using the 5 ‘W’s: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

Day 4 – Characters, story, and group dynamics

• Developing balanced characters using positive/negative qualities, past histories, and motivations;
• A hands-on simulation of a mini-LARP focused on decision-making and group dynamics;
• Learning to manage the rhythm of a game through exposition, climax, and resolution.

Day 5 – Facilitation, debriefing, and classroom transfer

• Practicing countdown rituals and atmosphere changes to transition players into their roles;
• Practical training on leading sessions using the 4 “F”s and managing “bleed” between player and character;
• Conducting and Facilitating the Experience;
• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussions;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance.

Day 6 – Structured cultural activities

• Structured cultural activity(ies) according to the hosting location;
• Learning journal: individual written reflection on the course experience;
• Course reflection: self-reflection and review of course materials and resources.

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