This week, I've been exploring more research about the results of introducing games into higher education courses to improve student engagement and performance. It's a topic near and dear to my heart, as it was a desire to make learning more enjoyable that drew me to the path I'm on.
Inevitably, all this research on games got me thinking about the power of play. More specifically, the following questions came to mind:
If play is such a powerful and necessary learning tool in humans and other species, why is it rarely used in formal education?
What are the magic intangibles that make an experience feel like play?
Should educators be in charge of crafting play experiences?
I quickly realized that I needed a better way to distinguish play from non-play to start to address my questions. Play is one of those things like love. It's easy to spot and when we're in the midst of it, we know it, but it's not so easy to define how to make it occur. And like love, though we may be able to fake play, it's only truly rewarding when it's entirely genuine.
Gray (2013) describes five characteristics that define play, including: (1) It's "self-chosen and self-directed;" (2) it's "intrinsically motivated;" (3) it's "guided by mental rules;" (4) it's "imaginative;" and (5) it's "conducted in an alert, active, but relatively non-stressed frame of mind" (paras. 3-7).
When I read those characteristics, I found myself wondering if it's truly possible to bring play into formal education. And if it is possible, what would that look like? Students would have to voluntarily participate of their own desire. They'd have to choose and direct their own learning from an internal drive apart from earning a grade or completing a course.
I must admit, when I first wrote those last words, I thought the likelihood of that occurring would be incredibly low. It can be a difficult task sometimes to get students to do things with the threat of failure. Wouldn't it be foolish to think they'd be likely to participate without such risk?
But then I thought about this crazy and exciting world and how formal education is a relatively new construct in human development. Yet, despite that, for thousands upon thousands of years students have pursued their passions and interests. They've looked at a confusing world and tried to make sense of things. They developed ways of conducting tests before the advent of the scientific method. In short, they played with this world and made discoveries that have led to the marvels we have today.
So, perhaps, rather than wondering how educators can craft playful experiences, we should simply learn how to create an environment that encourages students to explore and supports their natural curiosity.
In a world where there is already distrust in the value of formal education, it would take a great deal of faith to hand any of the responsibility of learning to the students, though. After all, wouldn't they just be able to argue that they had no need for any of it if they were being encouraged to direct their own learning?
Another hurdle will be that many students have been trained not to play. Some aren't imaginative by nature. Some will struggle to find the flow of natural exploration. What can educators do for those students?
True play in formal education would require a great deal of flexibility. How would we measure success? Games are a type of play with a built-in assessment. There is usually at least one win state, and at least one lose state. For this reason, they lend themselves well to inclusion in our current system that requires evidence of masterful completion.
But, once a student is required to reach the win state to "pass" or progress, by definition, they may be no longer playing and in the state of flow, no matter how enjoyable the game. They may be focused on performing and success. For true play, failure must be allowed without negative stigma. And for that, there cannot be graded win/loss states. Instead, to encourage real play and help students find the flow, it would seem that games should always be an option, never a requirement, to keep the stress-level as low as possible.
Reference
Gray, P. (2013). Definitions of Play [Revision 132587]. Scholarpedia, 8(7):30578. https://doi.org/10.4249/scholarpedia.30578
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