Good question! Before answering I suggest you as the reader do the following:
1. First, click on the Spelling Spiderman tab and play a game.
2. Then read the text in that tab.
3. Second, click on the Civic Mirror tab to see an example of a very complicated game used in our Canadian Schools.
4. Read my thoughts and experiences with using Civic Mirror in a Grade 9 classroom.
5. Finally, come back to this tab and read a more traditional explanation to the above question.
But really, if you experienced a bit of GBL already!!
You have already constucted (via Piaget) your own interpretation of GBL - read the following to see how your construction aligns with the academic evidence; feel free to check out the reference tab.
Game-Based Learning (GBL)
Play is our brain's favourite way of learning things.
by Diane Ackerman (Prensky, 2001 p1).
Game-based learning is increasingly becoming a hot issue in the education literature. This is a bit surprising, because games and learning have a long history in education (chess for example was often extolled for building logic skills). However, the explosion of the gaming industry in recent years has contributed to a revival or the reliance of games for educational purposes.
In 2001, computer and console games sales exceeded $ 6.35 billion sales in USA
In a 2006 survey, 36% of primary school teachers and 21% of secondary school teachers have used games to teach material in the curriculum in Whitton (2007). However, besides the fact that people like to play games, why are educators seeking to use game-based learning in our classrooms?
The simple answer is because it's fun, and it engages learners. "Studies have consistently highlighted the important relationship between engagement and learning, with students who are highly motivated being more likely to engage in the learning process." (Charles et al, 2011, p 425). The authors also point out that "engagement" is simply a proxy for student participation in a given learning task. Moreover, Charles et al (2011) showed that research supports a link between engagement and the successful completion of a course of study. They also showed that researchers also point out that engagement can also be used as a measure of social involvement or a willingness to work well with others. It seems reasonable for teachers to seek to use game-based technology to support learning - or does it? Not everyone agrees.
It has been estimated that an average college graduate has spent fewer than 5,000 hours in their life reading, but more than 10,000 hours playing video games, and an additional 10,000 hours on their cell phones as per Prensky (2001). In other words, an average college graduate has spent 4x more time playing games or texting than reading. Some folks find this alarming, and some educators fear video games negatively affect students by:
- Fostering violence,
- Aggressive behaviour,
- Negative portrayal of women, and
- Social isolation (as shown in Squire (2003)),
However, these concerns are not substantiated in the research literature. Squire (2003) indicates that, "Thus far, video game research has found no relationship between video game usage and social maladjustment." (p 10). Prensky (2001) points out that, "Play has a deep biological, evolutionarily important function, which has to do specifically with learning - it is nature's way of making it engaging for both humans and animal children to learn." (p 6).
Putting aside the concerns about the negative aspect of an increased reliance on game-based learning in our school system, what makes video games so useful for educators? Why would game-based learning be desirable? Gee (2005) lists a number of educational benefits that are inherent in game-based learning, some of which are worth highlighting:
- Co-design: good learning requires that learners feel like active agents (producers) not just passive recipients (consumers).
- Customization: different styles of learning work better for different people. People cannot be agents of their own learning if they cannot make decisions about how learning will work.
- Identity: deep learning requires an extended commitment and such a commitment is powerfully recruited when people take on a new identity they value and in which they become heavily invested - whether this be a child 'being a scientist doing science' in a classroom or an adult taking on a new role at work.
- Manipulation and distributed knowledge: humans feel expanded and empowered when they can manipulate powerful tools in intricate ways that extend their area of effectiveness.
- Well-ordered problems: problems learners face early on are crucial and should be well designed to lead them to hypotheses that work well, not just on these problems, but as aspects of the solutions of later, harder problems, as well.
- Pleasantly frustrating: learning works best when new challenges are pleasantly frustrating in the sense of being felt by learners to be at the outer edge of, but within, their 'regime of competence'.
- Cycles of expertise: expertise is formed in any area by repeated cycles of learners practicing skills until they are nearly automatic, then having those skills fail in ways that cause learners to think again and learn anew.
- Information 'on demand' and 'just in time': human beings are quite poor at using verbal information when given lots of it out of context and before they can see how it applies in actual situations.
- Skills as strategies: people learn and practice skills best when they see a set of related skills as a strategy to accomplish goals they want to accomplish.
Besides engaging students and having a number of purportedly valuable educational benefits, does game-based learning work? Or, put differently, how effective is game-based learning in the promotion of skills or learning compared to other, more traditional forms of learning?
Research indicates that game-based learning is more effective than more traditional types of instruction. In a survey of the empirical literature on the effectiveness of game-based learning, Randel et al (1992) found that, "Of the 67 studies considered over a period of 28 years, 38 show no difference between games and conventional instruction; 22 favour games; 5 favour games, but their controls are questionable; and 3 favour conventional instruction." (p 261). Put differently, if the 5 empirical studies with questionable methodology are removed from the sample, 35% of the studies examined by the others found game-based learning to be more effective than more traditional methods of instruction.
Furthermore, Randel et al (1992) found a particularly strong effect for game-based learning in mathematics. They note that, "Seven of eight studies on the use of computer math games found the games produced significant gains in math achievement for students in first grade through junior high school." (p 265). The authors note that the small sample size of studies on the effectiveness of math game-based learning is worthy of some caution. However, the magnitude of the educational gain in mathematics when using game-based learning is impressive. They also note that, "Four months of instruction using gaming resulted in an average increase in arithmetic reasoning of 1.3 years, seven months more than the average gain in the control class." (p 265)
While the results for social studies, physics, logic, biology, and language arts are not as robust as those for mathematics, the researchers found that game-based learning was found to be more effective than more traditional forms of learning as shown in Randel et al (1992). In addition, the researchers also note that:
- In 10 of the 14 studies measuring retention reported significant results in favour of the simulation / games groups,
- In 12 of the 14 studies, students reported more interest in simulation and game activities than in more conventional classroom activities.
In conclusion, research strongly suggests that game-based learning is a more effective teaching method than more traditional methods of instruction. Using game-based learning, students not only are more engaged, they learn the material more quickly, and they retain the material for longer periods of time than more traditional forms of instruction. Studies also support the notion that game-based learning encourages increased "concentration, interest and enjoyment in an activity" which helps to promote learning as shown in Admiraal et al (2011). Other studies suggest part of the efficacy of game-based learning stems from the social or interactive aspects of game-based learning as shown in Aldrich (2009). In any case, students today are part of the digital world and many of them find more traditional forms of instruction boring. Any tool which captures the interest of students and results in positive educational gains needs to be taken seriously; research suggests that game-based learning is in fact such a tool.
