There are literally hundreds of research and pseudo-research papers on games. In Effects of Video-game play on information processing: a meta-analytic investigation, Powers, Brooks, Aldreich, Palladino, and Alfieri reviewed the findings of over 100 studies, and found consensus that games especially improved visual processing, visual-spatial manipulation of images, and auditory processing. They attributed much of the improvement to video games demanding that players interpret, mentally transform, manipulate, and relate dynamic changing images.
In an article to be published later in 2015, Digital Games as Educational Technology: Promise and Challenges in the Use of Games to Teach, Tobias, Fletcher, and Chen found that not only did people learn from video games, but that there was a significant ability to transfer that learning to other activities.
“A review of 95 studies found evidence of near and far transfer in applying learning from games to external tasks.”
Action games, often called First Person Shooter (FPS) games, improve perception, attention, mental rotation, task switching, speed of processing, sensitivity to inputs from the environment, resistance to distraction, and flexibility in allocating cognitive as well as perceptual resources.
A huge factor to learning through games is the time spent on task. Not surprisingly, the more time spent playing, the greater the gain in skills and knowledge.
Historically, time on task is “a potent variable in school learning”; it is highly related to proficiency and can be used to predict math proficiency to the nearest tenth of a grade placement.
Tobias et al report that those who learn using games, “tend to spend more time on them than do comparison groups.” While the learning is incontrovertible, no one knows whether game based learning is due to the increased time on task or increased efficiency in learning or both.
In the Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools, Shernoff and Chikszentmihalyi note that enjoyment and interest during high school classes are significant predictors of student success in college, but that this is a rarity in US schools.
On average, high school students are less engaged while in classrooms than anywhere else. Students are found to be thinking about topics entirely unrelated to academics a full 40% of the time while in classrooms. Alternate approaches are needed in order to provide what is most lacking: greater enjoyment, motivation, and opportunities for action in the learning process.
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Thanks for interesting article. While your focus is K-12, many of your findings apply to both university level and corporate/executive training as well. My observations are based on corporate and entrepreneurial management experience, serving as an adjunct professor for 12 years at three leading universities, and being directly involved in both online K-12 and educational gaming ventures several years ago.
I am pleased to share several comments:
1. Game based learning changes thinking and improves creativity as you noted. As an example, using Harvard Business School case reviews to reinforce complex business concepts is the traditional approach used in business schools. If you couple these with a simulation game, for example, which lets students establish product mix and pricing strategies to maximize profits and EPS, you see real benefits. The key point here – the case studies and the gaming alone provide benefits but working together provides greater benefits, i.e., the ” 1 + 1 = 3″ situation. We are changing student ‘thinking’ here
2. The optimum solution is as you noted to integrate educational gaming with other forms of instruction as you noted. But the challenge is both creating strong content such as noted above and developing the proper mix of time and resources. I am looking at this challenge now to structure both traditional and ‘gaming’ courseware for educating entrepreneurs ( including possibly K-12 level).
3. We need to educate decision and policy makers on the benefits of educational gaming. On the one hand, many are emphasizing the need for increased social interaction and reducing ‘screen time’- educational gaming and electronic courseware moves in the opposite direction. Creative educational gaming requiring some social interaction (such as integrating teaming an approach I am looking at in entrepreneurial courseware) appears to be an effective solution and there may be others.
4. Decision and policy makers also have to be comfortable moving to electronic media and educational gaming. This is changing and the work of your group and other is helping, but as we know, despite looking at a classroom filled with student I-pads, many instructors and decision makers are still ‘clinging to textbooks.’
Bottom line here – educational gaming is still in its infancy – very exciting, high growth area that can in my view fuel significant improvement in our K-12 educational system and other areas as well.
Paul B. Silverman is Managing Partner Gemini Business Group, LLC (http://www.geminibusinessgroup.com), a new venture development firm. He has four decades senior corporate management, management consulting, adjunct professor, and entrepreneurial management experience. He writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, strategy management. Author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business. Follow his blog at http://paulbsilverman.com/blog/
The good thing regarding this time around factor is
that you’ll find sites (quite a few them) specialized in giving information on applying deals.
i think u should go home and play minecraft
You have explained very well on “The Psychology Behind Why Gaming Helps Students Learn”.
Learning based on games is a great idea to learn. can learn while playing, will reduce pressure. I like so much.