Game Play is Important for Learning

I wrote a literature review on the benefits of video games before, but they were mostly

about the cognitive skills such as eye-hand coordination and object-tracking. The reason why I

always go for video games as a topic is simply because I love video games and I spend a lot of

time on them. As a kid, I used to play educational games on simple concepts like shapes, colors

or simple math. Such resources could be found for young learners/pre-schoolers easily, because it

is widely believed that games are only for kids. I personally believe that games can be combined

with much complex concepts, while engaging abstract notions such as right, wrong, justice,

conscience, responsibility etc. which only a mature mind can indulge in. They also helped me to

improve my English when I first started to learn it, and as a prospective English teacher, I have

always wished to incorporte them into my lessons because all of these reasons. Gaming is still not

a very common approach to education, probably because parents and teachers tend to think video

games and gaming culture has a negative impact on children, seeing video games as

“diversionary threats to the integrity of schooling or as destructive activities that corrupt moral

capacity and create a sedentary, motivation-destroying lifestyle” (Halverson, 2005). This is

possibly a reaction to games such as Grand Theft Auto, where there is a good amount of crime,

strong language and mature content. However, there are lots of other games that can be inspiring

for the field of education, so we should not let it make us ignore the learning principles that the

video games contain in general. Halverson (2005) suggests that K-12 school teachers have much

to learn from video games. According to Gee (2003), “games succeed because they encapsulate

powerful design principles for learning environments”. They will be beneficial in developing new

approaches to learning, both in today’s schools and future possible contexts, only when teachers

start to appreciate the learning principles that are incorporated in video games.
 I thought the study I found on L&L could be a possible evidence to the above statements.

In this study, 6-8th graders who scored below proficiency on the state math exam are made to

play DimensionM at a Virtual Math class, to see if their learning can be fostered through the

game. Students attended some pretests and surveys before and after playing the game, and they

seem to believe that they are far better at video games than math, or video games are a lot easier

even. It is no secret that kids love games, and the reason is probably because they are so

engaging. All games have their own principles and one has to invest a lot of time to grasp the

concept, dynamics, story, and the characters to be able to play. Educational games can be fun as

well, while using “motor skills, attitude, verbal information, cognitive strategy, and intellectual

skills”.

Students play the tutorial and Xeno Island quest for the study purposes. The protagonist is a

college student on a deserted island, which was previously used as a military base for

biotechnology, thus while trying to escape he faces various dilemmas. Math is integrated as you

have to master pre-algebra/algebra problems such as prime numbers, even-odd patterns and

perfect squares, to be able to progress. I think the game seems to combine storytelling, problem

solving and strategy development successfully, making the experience a lot richer. With the

emphasis on game, students also tend to less worry about their academic performance and fully

focus on the concepts. After completing the game, students take posttests on the same math

concepts and show great improvements, as their scores increased from 46% to 63%. According to

their teachers’ observations, students were willing to replay and their actions got more purposeful

each time, progressing through the stages even more quickly. To be able to advance in the game,

they need to know the math, thus they are more eager than ever to learn it. Moreover, they try to
surpass their friends’ high scores, resulting in a friendly competitive environment. I think

students have highly benefited from this experience.

To be able to create such a successful experience, there are still some questions we should

answer. Can we incorporate other fields such as physics, history, language teaching? Can we

gather all the people from required professions (academicians, teachers, developers, writers)?

Would governments be willing to invest so that every student can reach these games? If all the

lessons were based on games, how would we evaluate students, how wise would it be use

traditional assessments and testing?

References
Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan

Gillispie, L. B. et al. (2010). Game Play is Important for Learning. Learning & Leading with

Technology.
Halverson, R. (2005). What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?

Innovate: Journal of Online Education.