Finding the connection between Game-Design and Problem-Solving: Game-Design and Learning Programs

Presented at Interdisciplinary Stem Teaching & Learning Conference In today‟s complex and fast-evolving world problem solving is an important skill to possess. For young children to be successful at their future careers they need to have the skill and the will to solve complex problems that are beyond the well-defined problems that they learn to solve at schools. One promising approach to teach complex problem solving skills is using visual programming and game design software. Theoretically and anecdotally, extant research enlightened us about the cognitive and motivational potential of these software. Due to lack of empirical evidence, however, we are far from knowing if these claims are warranted. In this quasi-experimental study, the cognitive (i.e., problem solving) and motivational (i.e., interest and value) impacts of participating at the Game Design and Learning Courses (GDL) on middle school children (n = 49), who designed games following a curriculum based on problem solving skills, were investigated. Compared to students in a control group (n =24), the results showed that students who attended the GDL courses showed significant gains in general and specific (i.e., system analysis and design, decision-making, troubleshooting) problem solving skills, (Wilks‟s Λ = .64), F (4, 68) = 9.564, p\u3c.001. In this presentation, I report empirical outcomes, as well as detailed accounts of the design process for the GDL curriculum. Finally, I discuss implications of the GDL intervention for practice and theory

Finding the connection between Game-Design and Problem-Solving: Game-Design and Learning Programs

In today‟s complex and fast-evolving world problem solving is an important skill to possess. For young children to be successful at their future careers they need to have the skill and the will to solve complex problems that are beyond the well-defined problems that they learn to solve at schools. One promising approach to teach complex problem solving skills is using visual programming and game design software. Theoretically and anecdotally, extant research enlightened us about the cognitive and motivational potential of these software. Due to lack of empirical evidence, however, we are far from knowing if these claims are warranted. In this quasi-experimental study, the cognitive (i.e., problem solving) and motivational (i.e., interest and value) impacts of participating at the Game Design and Learning Courses (GDL) on middle school children (n = 49), who designed games following a curriculum based on problem solving skills, were investigated. Compared to students in a control group (n =24), the results showed that students who attended the GDL courses showed significant gains in general and specific (i.e., system analysis and design, decision-making, troubleshooting) problem solving skills, (Wilks‟s Λ = .64), F (4, 68) = 9.564, p\u3c.001. In this presentation, I report empirical outcomes, as well as detailed accounts of the design process for the GDL curriculum. Finally, I discuss implications of the GDL intervention for practice and theory

Supporting Metacognitive Awareness and Strategy Use Through Digital Photography in a Rural Title I School

The Photography and Media Literacy Project (PMLP) was an after-school program designed to teach fourth and fifth grade children about the science and art of photography in a Title I school in rural southeast Georgia. Through the completion of a problem-based applied project, we endeavored to further enhance and develop students’ media literacy, critical thinking, and metacognitive skills. The project involved having students consider some aspect of their environment (i.e., a problem from the natural, physical, school or social environment) and develop a media presentation about the topic (e.g., a movie), which included images that they took (with iPods that we provided), as well as a narrative that described their observation, research, argument and/or experience. Through the use of technology and various other media, our purpose was to help these young learners improve their metacognitive planning and monitoring skills, as well as their problem-solving and reasoning ability, all foundational skills critical for success in high stakes assessments such as Georgia Milestone Assessment. Although no significant differences were found in pre-posttest assessments, we believe that with minor modifications, this type of program shows promise in its potential for boosting participants’ metacognitive functioning and other skills related to critical evaluation of information, which have been found to enhance learning outcomes

Understanding the Relationship Among Self-Efficacy, Utility Value, and the Community of Inquiry Framework in Preservice Teacher Education

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the importance of distance education, and teachers have been tasked with designing and delivering online courses in a short amount of time without much preparation or deliberation. As the future generation of teachers, preservice teachers need to be prepared to teach online, and their motivation to do so is a key factor in how successfully they do it. The community of inquiry framework provides researchers and practitioners with a framework for designing and delivering online courses, while self-efficacy and utility value are important motivational constructs predicting future engagement and success in tasks. In this cross-sectional survey study, we investigated preservice teachers’ (n = 344) perceptions of their self-efficacy, utility value, the importance of the three components of the community of inquiry framework: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Our results show that overall, preservice teachers had high motivation to teach online and high perceptions of the three presences. Our regression analyses indicated that while preservice teachers’ self-efficacy was a significant predictor of teaching presence, utility value only significantly predicted social presence. We discuss the implications of these findings for teacher education programs, including a holistic approach to teaching online learning and instructional design

Learning Problem-Solving through Making Games

Today’s complex and fast-evolving world necessitates young students to possess design and problem-solving skills more than ever. One alternative method of teaching children problem-solving or thinking skills has been using computer programming, and more recently, game-design tasks. In this pre-experimental study, a group of middle school students (n = 18) with an age average of 12.6 attended a game-design summer program for 10 days. Students were assessed in their problem-solving skills, specifically in system analysis and design, decision-making, and troubleshooting domains, at the beginning and end of the program. The results indicated that there were significant improvements in students’ problem-solving skills after attending the summer program, Wilks’Λ = .258, F (3, 15) = 14.397, p \u3c .001, η 2 = .742. For system analysis and design, and decision-making follow-up t-tests pointed to large and medium effect sizes, while for troubleshooting the gains were not significant. This study is a contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the benefits of designing games for young children by adding that game-design activities can be suitable venues for young children to learn and practice problem-solving skills

Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through Game-Design: Game-Design and Learning Courses

In this presentation, I will describe the design, development, and implementation of Game-design and learning (GDL) courses, research-based technology-rich environments that are offered to middle-school students to support their development in important thinking and STEM skills

“I see smart people!”: Using Facebook to supplement cognitive and affective learning in the university mass lecture

Mass lecture courses are a mainstay in university instruction despite their limitations regarding student engagement and resultant learning outcomes. Out-of-class communications and learning management systems have been developed to address these limitations, but the former is resource-intensive and the latter is often viewed as an administrative rather than pedagogical aid. Facebook groups have proven to be useful and persistent spaces for connecting individuals around innumerable topics of interest. In this study, a course-specific Facebook group was created for an introductory mass media course at a large mid-Atlantic university to serve as a supplemental (and voluntary) space for course content discussions. End-of-the semester grades of the Facebook group users were significantly higher than the non-users, t(319) = 4.71, p \u3c 001. In terms of affective learning, an analyses of the student responses indicated that students generally felt positively about being a part of the Facebook group. Thematic analysis of the Facebook posts indicated that students mainly used this space to discuss exam-related matters. We discuss potential reasons for this outcome, and implications of current research for future research and practice

Teaching Systems Thinking Through Game Design

In this mixed-methods study, we examined if students benefitted from a game design course offered during an enrichment hour in terms of gains in their system analysis and design skills. Students at a rural middle school in Southeast US (n = 19) attended a 1-hour game design course offered weekly during an academic enrichment class period, for the duration of a school year, learning basics of digital game-design and practicing system design skills such as making flowcharts. The results of quasi-experimental data indicated that the treatment group’s pretest–posttest system analysis and design skills, compared to the control group, which did not receive any training, further improved, F(1,33) = 16.516, p \u3c 0.001. Results from the interviews showed that the participants were able to verbalize how they applied system analysis and design skills developed during the course to problem-solving in different contexts. We discussed the instructional aspects of learning game-design that align with systems thinking. We also explored the possible influence of initial cognitive skills on student learning outcomes from such interventions

Increasing Social Presence in Online Learning through Small Group Discussions

Social presence is a difficult to achieve, but an imperative component of online learning. In this study, we investigated the effect of group size on students' perceptions of social presence in two graduate-level online courses, comparing small group versus whole class discussions. Our results indicated that when in small group discussions, students perceived a higher level of social presence in terms of sociability, t(32) = 3.507, p = .001; social space, t(29) = 3.074, p = .005; and group cohesion, t(32) = 3.550, p = .001. We discuss how placing students in small and permanent discussion groups can augment social presence. Designers and educators of online learning can strategically modify group size to promote social presence in asynchronous online discussions