Games Based Learning (Professional Studies and Research)

A few weeks back we were given interesting inputs from three professionals from Dundee University on their findings from studies they have been involved with in which various primary schools  were issued different "COTS" (Commercial Off The Shelf) games to possibly enhance children's overall learning.

David Miller carried out a study that involved the use of Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, MissyMack talks about this study in much more detail.

Divya Jindal-Snape spoke to us about the use of Guitar Hero to make the transistion from primary seven to first year of secondary smoother. See iFarm's blog for more detail.

I am going to focus on Jill Shimi's input on the use of Nintendogs in the classroom in relation to childrens social, personal and learning gains throughout the study.
This study was carried out among four primary one/two classes in the Aberdeenshire area during the summer term of 2010. There was no set activities for the children to complete and it was left to the class teacher to incoroporate the game into their school routine. (Support was available from the Education scotland website and other informal websites) As it was left to the teachers discretion of when to play the game there were a number of differing variables in each class including time of use, frequency of use and the teachers' management styles. Although, Angela McFarlane tells us that a particular advantage of using computer games is that they are not faced with "clearing up the debris" or collecting bits and peices to allow them to complete the activity. If children have a thirty mintue slot to play the game "they will spend the vast majority of that time working on the problems posed by the game" (p15,1997)

Findings

Social

Using the games in class proved to really increase the amount of social interaction each child experienced in the classes. In particular some of the less confident children were able to come out of their shell and chat to their peers as they were all doing the same thing and had something to talk about. This in turn led to enlarged friendship groupings within the classes which I feel is always positive in school.
In addition to less conifident members of the class talking more, another aspect of social interaction which was observed was the leveling of hierarchies where the "popular" children would happily interact with those with few or even no friends. All of this was able to occur due to the common stimulus of the game.

Quite a significant observation that was made was that an increase in collaboration and peer learning was taking place. This is a large advantage as according to Education Scotland "peer education initiatives can play a major role in helping schools foster positive relationships between pupils and teachers." (no page)

Personal

The overall findings in relation to this section was that the games increased the childrens motivation and self-esteem. This is backed up by Education Scotland where they state that benefits of games based learning include "motivating learners to succeed and to continually improve" and "fostering self-esteem, self-determination and enhancing self-image" (no page)

By using the game to increase the children's motivation this also complies with the priniciple "Challenge and enjoyment" of curriculum design.

Learning

Tremendous benefits were observed in relation to the children's learning in language. In particularly boys. By using the game as a context for writing, it motivated the children and both the quality and quantity of writing improved. Additionaly it also improved many of the children's oral langauge as they were able to discuss many of the apsects of the game.

In relation to maths however there was a mixed result. By using the game's context some children in the early primary years where being exposed to using large numbers. There was a clear divide in the number of children who were able to cope with such numbers and those who found it just a bit too difficult to comprehend. None the less, the enthusiasim to attempt to understand the numbers was there due to wanting to play the game.

Conclusion

It is clear that using the game has clear advantages for all social, personal and learning gains in relation to children. Even with the varying methods of implications from each teacher in their class the game still had positive effects. This leads me to believe that if enough thought and preparation is put into creating a number of different activites that could be implemented in classrooms as part of the curriculum then there will no doubt be even greater social, personal and learning gains for today's children.


References

McFarlane, A (1997) Information Technology and Authentic Learning Realising the potential of computers in the primary classroom. London:Routledge

Scottish Government (2010) About Game Based Learning. Available online at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/usingglowandict/gamesbasedlearning/about/understanding.asp

Scottish Government (2010) Peer Education. Available online at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/approaches/peereducation/index.asp