Play with Learning
scaffolding
Who’s winning with game-based learning?
This week the UK’s National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) released a study examining the latest research about game-based learning.
The main findings in the NFER report were:
- The literature was split on the extent to which video games can impact upon overall academic performance.
- The studies consistently found that video games can impact positively on problem solving skills, motivation and engagement. However, it was unclear whether this impact could be sustained over time.
- Despite some promising results, the current literature does not evidence adequately the presumed link between motivation, attitude to learning and learning outcomes. Overall, the strength of the evidence was often affected by the research design or lack of information about the research design.
As you know, I work with many organisations in developing and deploying games to help them engage and communicate with their audiences more effectively. The usefulness of games is a big deal to me. As I’ve said before, I am sceptical about the impact of many so-called educational or serious games but I do think games and game mechanics are brilliant for:
- Cosmetics – making the unpleasant or mundane more palatable
- Confidence – offering the chance to practise and fail softly
- Catalyst – as a spring board to further investigation
- Collaboration – as a means of pooling our intellectual and social capital
However, the one aspect that many organisations neglect is that of use context. Of one thing I am certain: the impact of games (or indeed any educational intervention) depends on the pre- and post-experiences of the learners as much as the ‘play’ itself. That’s what the most effective teachers do so brilliantly – they prime learners for the game with an air of expectation and intrigue, and then help them think about what it might mean after they’ve finished playing. Vygotsky called it ‘scaffolding,’ and there’s lots of evidence of its benefits.
There are no real shortcuts to learning but everyone, even the most disaffected, experiences a profound sense of satisfaction when they discover something new, find they can do something better or see something more clearer. Games, used well, are one way to encourage that delight.
[I work with many groups and organisations to train staff about game-based learning or design and develop games themselves; would you like me to work with you? Drop me a line using my contact form.]
Social Learning and Games
farmville sheep
In this final look at how each of the major learning theories relate to games, we explore the ideas behind social learning. In the social and contextual approach to learning, the outcome is for the learner to become socially accepted and to be an effective member within a community. This is what is commonly referred to as learning in a community of practice (COP)[1],[2].
In the Social and Contextual approach, learning does not occur solely within the learner, but in the group and community in which they work. Learning is a shared process which takes place through observing, working together and being part of a larger group, which includes colleagues of varying levels of experience, able to stimulate each other’s development. In this view, rather like cognitivism, individuals only learn from more competent others but the emphasis is now on being part of a larger system. Crucially, this system includes the learner, other people around them, the equipment they use, the technologies they work with, the procedures they work with and the overall culture of the workplace.
Whether they are conscious of it or not, groups, and individuals within them, learn mainly through social interaction. This happens through discussion, observing and sharing. Again, the role of the practitioner is one of facilitator who needs to help focus discussion to maximise key learning points rather than just letting a group tell irrelevant anecdotes.
Vygotsky in his Social Development Theory[3] coined the term “scaffolding” to describe the various forms of support that educational providers can offer learners. It might include verbal assistance, questioning, suggestions and directions all aimed at extending a learner’s activities where the learner cannot accomplish this alone.
For Vygotsky, learning from others more competent in culturally appropriate skills and technologies was the capstone to his educational theory. Vygotsky suggests that children or students can be guided by explanation, demonstration, and work, and can attain to higher levels of thinking if they are guided by someone who is more capable and competent – a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). This conception is better known as The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between what the learner can achieve on his own and what he can achieve with the support of others. The ability to attain higher levels of knowledge and understanding depends upon interaction with other, more advanced, peers. This unequal interaction facilitates and encourages learning. Through increased interaction and involvement, students are able to extend themselves to higher levels of cognition. Vygotsky defined the Zone of Proximal Development as,
“the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under the guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.”
The ZPD is the difference between what students can accomplish independently and what they can achieve in conjunction or in collaboration with another, more competent person. The Zone is created in the course of social interaction.
The term “social game” has become very popular of late. Farmville is perhaps the commonly thought of social game (although many don’t think it is a game at all) because to succeed requires the active participation of other players: collaboration is essential to progress (that or using real-world payments to short-circuit the process).
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORGs) like World of Warcraft are better examples of social and contextual games because they are dependent on multi-layered teamwork. In these circumstances, players improve their performance through the observation, imitation and modelling of others.
Social learning also occurs outside the game world but in related ‘spaces’ such as forums. The associated activity of leader tables, message boards, hints, tips and cheats all represent instances of social encouragement, support and scaffolding.
[1] Lave, J. E., & Wenger, E. , (1998), Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
[2] Castro, M. C., (2006), Communities of Practice: Layers and Levers of Motivation, http://colmanmcmahon.com/sites/colmanmcmahon.com/files/u1/Castro%20-%20Layers%20and%20Lever%20of%20Motivation.pdf
[3] Vygotsky, L. S., (1962), Thought and Language, Wiley, New York
Carlton Reeve
Carlton is the founder of Play with Learning. He has a PhD in the design, development and deployment of game-based learning resources. Complementing his academic background, Carlton has years of practical experience at the BBC and independent media companies producing and commissioning world class and award-winning media for the likes of the United Nations, BBC, National College for School Leadership, Open University and the Victoria & Albert museum.