What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (vol. 10)

Game-based Learning and 21st century skills

Despite intensive research in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) over the last decade, there is relatively little research about how groups and individuals in groups engage, sustain, support, and productively regulate collaborative processes. This article examines the role of regulatory processes in collaborative learning and how CSCL environments can be used for shared regulation of learning. First, we establish the importance of regulation processes and introduce three types of regulation contributing to successful collaboration: self-, co-, and socially shared regulation of learning. Second, we illuminate two strands of seemingly diverse research that lay an important foundation for supporting and researching regulation in CSCL contexts establishing that (a) computer-based pedagogical tools used to successfully support regulation in individual learning contexts can be leveraged for collaborative task contexts, and (b) computer-based tools for supporting collaborative knowledge constructio...

New Frontiers: Regulating Learning in CSCL.

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) present important opportunities for fostering learning; however, studies have shown that students have difficulty when learning with these environments. Research has identified that students’ self-regulatory learning (SRL) processes may mediate the hypothesized positive relations between CBLEs and academic performance. In this review, we identified 33 empirical studies of SRL and CBLEs. We address three research questions: (1) How do learner and task characteristics relate to students’ SRL with CBLEs? (2) Can various learning supports or conditions enhance the quality of students’ SRL as they learn with CBLEs? (3) What conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues exist for this growing area of research? We found evidence that specific SRL processes are more often associated with academic success than others and that SRL skills can be supported. We also identified a number of issues that researchers should aim to address in future investigations, including a more comprehensive measurement of facets of SRL and the quality of SRL processes, the seeming disconnect between SRL processes and learning outcomes, and the distinction between self- and other-regulation.

/pdf/self-regulation-of-learning-within-computer-based-learning-536cfxxwio.pdf

Self-Regulation of Learning within Computer-based Learning Environments: A Critical Analysis

In this study the effects of two different interactive learning tasks, in which simple games were included were described with respect to student motivation and deep strategy use. The research involved 235 students from four elementary schools in The Netherlands. One group of students (N = 128) constructed their own memory 'drag and drop' game, whereas the other group (N = 107) played an existing 'drag and drop' memory game. Analyses of covariance demonstrated a significant difference between the two conditions both on intrinsic motivation and deep strategy use. The large effect sizes for both motivation and deep strategy use were in favour of the construction condition. The results suggest that constructing a game might be a better way to enhance student motivation and deep learning than playing an existing game. Despite the promising results, the low level of complexity of the games used is a study limitation.

Effects of constructing versus playing an educational game on student motivation and deep learning strategy use

Face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication in a primary school setting

https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/19714/De%20Jong%20et%20al,%202005?sequence=1

Regulative processes in individual, 3D and computer supported cooperative learning contexts

The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occur- rence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interac- tion, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the verbal interactions of student dyads in three collaborative learning environments: an environment with face-to-face interaction, an environment with face-to-face interaction around the computer, and an environment with interaction mediated by computers. Quantitative analyses were undertaken to determine the types of interaction that occurred in the three learning environments and the incidence of interactions beneficial for learning, and some examples were provided to illustrate this. The results showed most of the interactions in all three of the learning environments to be cognitive in nature. More regulative interactions occurred when a computer was involved. Interactions beneficial for learning occurred more often in the environments involving face-to-face interaction than in the learning environment involving computer mediated interaction.

/pdf/peer-interaction-in-three-collaborative-learning-333myoximr.pdf

Peer Interaction in Three Collaborative Learning Environments

Online collaborative learning allows discussion to occur at greater depth where knowledge can be constructed remotely. However students were found to construct knowledge at low-level where they discussed by sharing and comparing opinions; those are inadequate for new knowledge creation. As such, this research attempted to investigate the students' behaviour and their strategies to construct knowledge during online collaborative discussions. Using the combination of content analysis and sequential analysis technique, this research found that groups those being able to construct high-level knowledge tend to negotiate on shared information. Argumentation is also found to contribute for successful knowledge construction at higher-level. This study suggests triggering argumentation and emphasizing on problem-solving tasks for better knowledge construction sustainability.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.17.4.216

Henny van der Meijden

Papers

Effects of constructing versus playing an educational game on student motivation and deep learning strategy use

Face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication in a primary school setting

Regulative processes in individual, 3D and computer supported cooperative learning contexts

Peer Interaction in Three Collaborative Learning Environments

Exploring students' knowledge construction strategies in computer-supported collaborative learning discussions using sequential analysis