Recent discussions in educational settings have focused deeply on how to design social-emotional learning (SEL) and teachable moment education in ways that truly resonate with children.
Many teachers often say, "It's not easy to incorporate how children make their own judgments and form relationships into our lessons."
The teachable moment education we commonly think of follows a static approach where teachers organize and present situations, then students finish by writing heartfelt letters or making resolutions. While these are meaningful activities, it raises a question.
"Is this approach really providing
sufficient 'experience' for today's children?"
Realworld started with this very question.
Instead of lessons that merely deliver information, what if we could create lessons where children directly enter situations to make judgments and create change?
<After School Detective Club> emerged from exactly this concern.
🕵️The Origins of <After School Detective Club>
What Realworld pondered most intensively wasn't 'what to teach' but rather 'what kind of experience to leave behind.'
While traditional education was limited to passively delivering predetermined messages through viewing and summarizing, <After School Detective Club> offers students the process of directly collecting and interpreting information to reach their own conclusions.
To achieve this, we adopted 'crime scene' and 'murder mystery' game formats.
Students become 'parties to the incident' rather than observers, constantly engaging in critical thinking.
"How would this information look from my perspective?"
"Is what that person said actually true?"
This immersion leads to discussions, allowing students to personally experience how baseless rumors form within relationships and how 'silence' under crowd pressure becomes 'complicity.'
The true goal of this content is to move beyond the question 'who was wrong?' and encourage students to ask themselves 'what kind of atmosphere exists in our relationships right now?'
🕵️The World of <After School Detective Club>
<After School Detective Club> is a secret detective club that investigates incidents within the school.
From their small headquarters next to the old science lab, four detectives - Kim Jeonil, Lee Jumin, Noh Yuhak, and Yoo Sayeon - receive case requests and unravel clues.
The setting for the first case being released is the 'student body president election.'
Campaign posters have been found damaged, and with the election just one hour away, the search for the culprit becomes urgent.
Students become one of these four detectives to uncover the truth behind the incident.
[Class (Gameplay) Flow]
1️⃣World-building explanation & board game setup
2️⃣Detective character selection → Role card (detective world) familiarization
3️⃣Case overview confirmation and witness information investigation
4️⃣First investigation (15 min) → First vote (5 min)
5️⃣Second investigation (15 min) → Second vote (5 min)
6️⃣Final vote (5 min)
7️⃣Case resolution confirmation
8️⃣Debriefing discussion
After all gameplay is complete, students watch a video showing the full story to conclude the experience.
Here's the most important point! Getting the right answer isn't the goal itself.
The core lies in sharing with each other "why I focused on that information" and "why my judgment changed through discussion."
Each person's intense deliberation in reaching their conclusion comes together to form one complete lesson.
🕵️Designing It to Remain a 'Lesson,' Not Just a Game
<After School Detective Club> isn't a one-time event that simply ends with "Today we skipped class and had fun playing a detective game."
The true value of this content lies in the questions that remain in children's minds after the game ends.
To achieve this, Realworld designed the entire lesson process as a tight three-stage structure: introduction (world familiarization) - development (content play) - conclusion (debriefing).
In this flow, typically run over three class periods, the most carefully crafted part is the final 'debriefing' stage.
Rather than stopping at confirming the facts of who the perpetrator was, we share questions like these:
"Could the information I believed actually have been prejudice?"
"What single comment made me change my final judgment?"
"What consequences did our choices bring to the relationships between characters?"
Through this process, students learn 'self-reflection and verbal expression' instead of 'finding the right answer.'
A single experience of being a detective resonates much more deeply with children than a hundred explanations from a teacher.
🕵️Enthusiastic Response Confirmed Through Student and Teacher Testing
🚨Do you see that intense reaction when the answer is revealed?🚨
The reactions from teachers and students confirmed through numerous tests were remarkable.
Teacher Feedback:
"Unlike traditional passive education, it was impressive to see students immersed as protagonists from start to finish.
The structure for three-dimensionally understanding the relationship-centered context of school violence was particularly effective."
Student Feedback:
"Not only was the mystery fun, but the process of coordinating opinions with friends was really satisfying.
It was engaging to participate since it wasn't just watching videos for teachable moment education.
Seeing even students encountering genre board games for the first time explain the context of cases on their own, we could confirm in the field the potential of the 'self-directed thinking lessons' we aim for.
🕵️<After School Detective Club>'s Proposal for New Standards in Teachable Moment Education
<After School Detective Club> is new content that doesn't stop at changing the 'content' of teachable moment education but seeks to fundamentally transform the 'method' itself.
From one-way education where teachers explain and students organize, to participatory education where students directly judge and choose from the center of incidents.
We dream of transitioning from lessons that memorize correct answers to lessons that experience the process of judgment.
Do you wonder, "Will this really have educational effects beyond just being a game?"
<After School Detective Club> was created by a content planner with a background as a former teacher, incorporating vivid field experience.
This isn't simply a game focused on entertainment, but was designed based on solid educational theories: K-SEL (Social Emotional Learning), role-playing game-based learning (RPG), problem-based learning (PBL), and gamification learning design.
Students learn within a structure that leads from 'experience-reflection-application' through engaging mystery games rather than simple knowledge delivery.
Through this process, they naturally develop not only empathy skills but also communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities, and even the democratic citizenship skills essential for our society.
Realworld plans to introduce content on various topics from digital literacy including deepfakes and voice phishing to climate crisis and human rights respect.
So that this precious experience of coordinating each other's thoughts can become the new standard for teachable moment education, Realworld will continue listening to voices from the field.
We ask for your interest and support until the official launch day! :)
If you have any inquiries about the content before launch, you can submit them through the contact form below.
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