Failure

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

Most of my learners are afraid to fail. As high schoolers, they have been through school enough years to believe that failure is not an option. They don’t see failure as a way to learn from their mistakes, but instead they see failure as the end. There is no going back from it. Many classes will allow students to retake assessments or prove their knowledge in a different format, but only a small group of students take advantage of this opportunity. A lot of students have been beaten down throughout the years enough to believe that their efforts are not worth it. Sometimes they don’t see why it is worth it to learn a certain concept, and that stops them from trying again as well.

Most teachers allow retakes, but failure is still “tsk-ed” by some teachers. It’s often held over students’ heads as a stick (in the carrot-stick metaphor). I am not immune in this as well, and it is something that I absolutely have to work on. When it comes to parents, many parents are open to the changes that teachers are trying to make when it comes to flexible deadlines and retakes, but there are always community members who don’t quite understand why this can be better than sticking to hard deadlines and giving out zeros. More communication about the process could help to ease this tension.

I think that I need to be a support system for students and parents. I need to provide low-risk opportunities for students to fail, and give them helpful feedback that can help them fix their mistakes. Over time, as students begin to see that their “failures,” no matter how minor, help them to improve, they will be more willing to take more risks in the future to improve themselves.

Personalizing the Education Experience

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

There isn’t much personalization happening, at least in my classes. This is something that I want to work on. I do allow students to choose topics of interest to study and there are a lot of opportunities to do this within my Social Studies classes. For example, when completing a project about Progressive Era reform, students are given options of influential individuals to study. This allows some student choice on the matter.

I also allow students to choose the media in which they would like to complete their projects. Sometimes I will require that students create an infographic, but other times I will give them choices: poster, website, blog post, video, etc.

All choices are given by the instructor, which I think is necessary, especially when completing certain research projects. If I don’t give a list of influential individuals for students to choose from, someone might choose someone that doesn’t fit into the time period at all.

I think the learners’ autonomy can be increased by allowing choice more often throughout the year, but it is important for the teacher to provide the choices and avoid making all tasks too open-ended.

The Future of Learning Autonomy and Personalization

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

Prompt:
Imagine a future in your school (or other learning context) where learner autonomy and personalization are maximized.
Write a short reflection where you predict the future of this personalized learning in your school, both in the short term (5 years) and in the longer term (more than 10 years). How will teaching be different? How will the learners’ experiences be different?


Response:
High-achieving students will push back at first because they’ve learned how to play the “game of school” and probably won’t adjust right away. Soon though, students will get used to the new way that school works. They will realize that they have the independence to choose to learn about topics that most interest them, and they will be able to exhibit their learning in the way that best suits them.

In the long term, teachers will be able to devote more time to students who are struggling to meet their goals, as most students will be able to move toward their goals independently. Teachers will have more time to conference with students about how to meet their goals and set micro-goals instead of trying to convince students that the content is worth learning. With personal interest and stake in the content, students will be more likely to police themselves and complete the tasks that they need to complete in order to achieve their learning goals.

Self-Determination Theory: Motivating Students

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

Prompt:
Reflect on your own experiences as a learner, and think of a time when you felt extremely engaged. Use one or more of the motivation theories we described to decode and explain why this experience was so engaging for you.


Response:
One experience in which I felt extremely engaged was in my AP US Government and Politics class in high school. The teacher assigned a Supreme Court Case project, which I have adopted for use in my classroom and is still my favorite project to work through with my government students.

The Self-Determination Theory (appealing to students' Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence in order to engage them) thoroughly explains why I was so motivated to succeed during this activity.

Autonomy:

I was a junior that was already interested in government, so I was already intrinsically motivated to learn about the course content. The topic of our Supreme Court Case was a case about physician-assisted suicide, meaning the constitutionality of the “Death with Dignity Act.” The Supreme Court Case activity was structured in a way that there were three roles: lawyer, justice, or spectator/reporter. This provided students with a choice; which role would we take on for the activity? There could only be four lawyers and nine justices. All other students had to be spectators/reporters. Each role had different tasks to complete. The part that unnerved me the most as a high-achieving student was that each role had a certain grade threshold. For example, the lawyers, if meeting all requirements, could earn an A. Justices, if meeting all requirements, would earn a B. Justices could earn an A if they went greatly above and beyond. Spectators/Reporters could earn a C unless they went above and beyond. This scared me as a student because I was not chosen to be a lawyer and didn’t want a B - but this provided a challenge for me that I will describe when I discuss “competence.” This sort of “layered” approach to grading the activity also helped students see the grade that their effort would earn them.

Belonging:

In the Supreme Court Case activity, there was a sense of belonging because each student had a role to play. The lawyers needed to provide a brief and argue the case. The justices had to take notes and write an opinion once the case was over. The spectators/reporters had to write a newspaper article or create a newscast to describe the case and its importance. Each lawyer and justice also had to present their findings to the class, so there was accountability in that. The reporters did not present their findings, but their articles were peer-reviewed by other students.

Competence:

The Supreme Court Case activity gave all students an opportunity to be challenged. Even students who chose to be spectators (at the C-level) had an opportunity to earn an A, given that they challenged themselves to write a thought-provoking article. In my case, I was very engaged by the topic of the case and wrote a justice opinion that earned me an A on the project, instead of the B-level that would have been earned from just meeting the requirements. The challenge for me was writing a justice opinion that was backed up by facts, the U.S. Constitution, and prior cases that had been tried in other states. I had to do a great deal of external research to find information that would support my decision as a justice, and this created an opportunity for me to deliver a justice opinion that impressed my teacher.

Intrinsic Motivation

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

Prompt:
Think about your own work/teaching/leadership context; in what ways are you tapping into your learners' intrinsic motivations? Where are you (perhaps) demotivating your learners?

Response:
My students receive choices, though not as often as I would like. In teaching history, I focus on the skills more so than on specific facts. For example, when discussing the Civil Rights Movement, my students must discuss individuals such as MLK Jr., but I give them choices in other aspects to research (Fannie Lou Hamer, Claudette Colvin, etc.).

While completing a short research project, students are also given choices in the media that they use to create their project. They must use each project type at least once during the school year, but they choose the order in which they would like to complete them. For example, they have choices (documentary, podcast, poster, infographic, website, etc.) and they can only choose one media to use for each project. They can also only create a website once, so after they make that choice, they have to create a different type of project next time.

I realized this year in doing the National History Day project (which I have done before) that I have demotivated my learners in assigning too many weekly assignments. Many students are burned out, even the ones who were really excited about the project when we first started. I started too strong and next year I will pare down the number of assignments that students will have to do.

10 Principles of Gameful Learning

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

The first module of my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning, covered the 10 Principles of Gameful Learning. Essentially, the ten principles explain what video games have taught us about learning, and how we can apply these principles in schools to increase student engagement. Here are the 10 principles and my reflections on each one:

1. Clear Learning Goals
2. Identity Play
3. Embedded Assessment
4. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
5. Support Autonomy
6. Encouraging Belonging
7. Support Competence
8. Productive Failure
9. Encourage Exploration
10. Practice and Reinforcement

1. Clear Learning Goals

Imagine pressing "start" on a new game without knowing the goal of the game. You'd be questioning where you're supposed to go, what you're supposed to do, and whether this game is even something that interests you as a player. Clear goals are necessary for both gaming and education. Students need to know the goals of the class or lesson, otherwise, all efforts are meaningless. Like students in a classroom without clear goals, a player could end up wandering in circles, weaponless, for hours, not having a clue that they are supposed to find their sword inside of a hidden castle. Without the sword, the player cannot advance. In the same way, without the tools that they need to succeed, a student cannot meet educational goals.

2. Identity Play

When playing a game, even the game of school, there are three identities at play. All three identities need to be in harmony. First, there is a player. Second, there is a character within the game. Third, there is a combination of the player and the character. This can explain why a person feels upset when their character dies in a game. They might feel like they have let their character down. This melding of identities can serve as a motivator for some students.

3. Embedded Assessment

Games also do a great job of constantly giving the player feedback. Every time Mario collects a coin, there is a distinctive jingle. Every time a player catches a Pokemon, there is a distinctive jingle. Feedback in a classroom should be just like this in a sense; it should be as immediate as possible. Learners thrive on knowing what they have done right, as well as knowing the specifics about what they have to work on to improve their performance.

4. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

The teachers of the course make it clear that intrinsic motivation (motivation that comes from inside of a person) is not necessarily better than extrinsic motivation (motivation that comes from rewards outside of a person). As teachers, we are told that too much extrinsic motivation can be a bad thing. This might be true, but in small doses, extrinsic motivation can be beneficial. Not every student will be intrinsically motivated to learn certain subjects. This is where extrinsic motivation comes in. Extrinsic motivation is used to encourage the development of intrinsic motivation. For example, a student that simply does not understand a math problem might think that it is meaningless and will not attempt to complete it. If the student is promised a cupcake if they can finish it correctly, they might be more likely to complete the task, even though this is extrinsic motivation. Once they complete the task and earn the cupcake, the teacher can build on their success by praising their perseverance and increased abilities. This might make the student more confident in their ability, and therefore more intrinsically motivated in the future.

5. Support Autonomy

In order to be properly motivated, students require choice. Understandably, there is not always room for choices, but almost everything that learners are required to do in school allows a reasonable opportunity for choice. Teachers must be careful to not leave all choices completely open-ended though; teachers should provide a small number of meaningful choices that will help students reach their educational goals but will also allow students to choose tasks that suit them individually as a learner.

6. Encouraging Belonging

Students should know that the teacher is there to help them reach their educational goals, not to punish them for missing problems on the homework. Creating a sense of safety within the classroom can help students feel at ease and can encourage risk-taking. Many games capitalize on a sense of belonging, such as online games. If a player feels isolated, they are likely to stop playing the game. This also applies to school. Encouraging belonging can be accomplished by team-building, giving feedback to students so they know that their teacher supports them, and by offering opportunities for peer feedback.

7. Support Competence

This principle is, in my opinion, one of the most important. Students need to remain in the "Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)." This is the zone where a student is adequately challenged. It can be difficult for a teacher to keep track of exactly where each of his or her 200+ students lie on a scale of mastery in each standard, but this is where student choice is helpful. Students will choose tasks that put them in the ZPD. Many pessimistic teachers might say that students will choose the easiest path, but more often than not, this is not the case, especially if you have game mechanics running in your classroom. If students choose the easy path, they will be bored. If the teacher makes engaging content or provides other incentives for students to try a challenge (or by not allowing students to slack off and watch YouTube videos), the students will choose a more challenging task. If students are challenged too much, they might become frustrated. This is where the teacher steps in to help provide the steps necessary for the student to succeed. In general, if teachers show that they are on the side of their students, students will be more comfortable taking a risk and challenging themselves.

8. Productive Failure

Many high-achieving students have NEVER FAILED. This is unproductive and can only set these students up for anxiety in their futures. We teachers need to provide students with opportunities to fail. We need to lower the risk of failure and encourage students to take risks. In video games, if the character dies, they return to the beginning of the level or a save spot and have a chance to try again. It isn't game over the first time that a character dies in a game. It also shouldn't be game over in our classrooms. In addition to helping students learn that failure is just another step on the road to success, we need to provide specific feedback that will help students succeed.

9. Encourage Exploration

Many gamers enjoy exploring each part of a level on their video game. There is always a possibility of finding easter eggs, and this is an exciting prospect for many players. We can also make exploration an exciting possibility for our students. For example, using lectures to provide students with all of the information that they need for the test is an easy way to trudge through class content, but there is no room for exploration. Provide students with a research question and see what they can come up with, or have them write their own research questions. Exploration is a great way for students to look into topics that pique their interest.

10. Practice and Reinforcement

Just like in a video game, practice improves a person's abilities. All learning activities and assignments should have the same goal; to improve abilities. All practice should be meaningful and should be scaffolded at first. Giving students an assignment to take home without the ability to consult a teacher can be a disaster if the students haven't practice the skill before. We teachers have to be cognizant of that and make sure that our student activities match their skill levels and provide a bit of a challenge. Such practice should also be reinforced with timely feedback.

Conclusion

In general, this module of the class was a great place to start. I can already see some principles that I have been neglecting, and some things that I need to work on. For example, I teach to the average a lot and don't offer a lot of opportunities for challenges. This will be my main focus moving on; differentiation is a way to help students who need more assistance to meet learning goals, but it should also provide an opportunity for high achievers to be challenged.

Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning (Introduction)

This is one of my reflections from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.

Upon conclusion of my Legacies of WWI class, I have enrolled in a new class titled Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning. This is a free course offered through MOOC.org.

I will be posting my reflections from this course here on my blog in hopes of organizing my thoughts a bit better! To start, here is my "why":


My name is Carlene Baurichter, but everyone calls me Carly. I teach 9-12 grade Social Studies in a small town in Wisconsin. We are a very small school district with only 300 students in grades 6-12. Currently I teach US History, World History, Economics, Psychology, and Sociology. I have been interested in gameful learning since I attended a conference three years ago. Michael Matera, a huge proponent of gamification, was the speaker. A colleague and I attending the session were inspired and decided to gamify our classes. This is my second year using gamification in all of my classes, 9-12. I’m interested in learning more about gameful learning and how I can integrate games and game mechanics into more of my coursework. Currently I award students experience points for behaviors, but I would like to integrate badges, modules, and create a more personalized learning experience for my students.