The Teachers Collective
The Teachers Collective aims to reframe inclusion in schools through building teacher capacity, offline and online through customised masterclasses and self-paced courses. They aim to create 1,00,000 inclusive educators in the next few years and can be reached at www.theteacherscollective.co.in
Want to create an inclusive classroom where children who learn quickly are challenged at the same time as other students who need more time? Gamifying learning improves student engagement and the teacher has fun!
Gamification was trending during the pandemic when teachers understood that they were competing with video games for their students’ attention. Teachers who brought games into their classrooms observed increased student attention and engagement.
Gamification: Game-like Learning
Gamifying learning refers to borrowing the fun elements from games and applying them in an educational setting. It could be adapting familiar board games to our learning objectives, and other elements like racing to a finish, rewards and role playing.
The beauty of gamification is that teachers can bring their creativity into their classrooms, customised to their context. It keeps teaching from being boring and repetitive, in addition to building strong and consistent connections to each batch of students.
Why Gamify?
Gamification can support teachers in the following ways:
Engaging a diverse set of learners
Every classroom has students who ‘get’ a concept very quickly and students who need more time to internalise it. With a game, both types of learners can practise as much as they can, with every turn solidifying learning. Further challenge could be in the form of students creating the games themselves.
Time for repetition
‘Skill-and-drill’ is required for some concepts – writing, math, spelling, etc. Lack of time for repetition is a constraint for teachers in classrooms. Games motivate students to practise independently and by choice.
Disrupting negative beliefs
Imagine a child who is not all fired up about a subject. He doesn’t put enough time engaging with it. Gamification can support teachers in breaking negative patterns in student attitudes.
Improving Learning Outcomes
Games improve student agency, make practicing concepts fun, gives students choices and helps them self-correct to achieve the next level or win a reward.
How to Gamify Learning?
Everything starts with the lesson’s learning objective, and it is important to have clear goals for what we want our students to achieve. It is critical to understand that while games are entertaining, their primary goal in the classroom is learning and NOT entertainment.
A common myth is that games and technology are intertwined. All the games we address in this article are non-tech and take us back to simpler times without screen time.
Choosing game structure
There are many games out there that students are familiar with: board games like Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Monopoly, Bingo, etc. Teachers can adapt these games to suit their objectives. To support in this, we have some downloadables that can be easily adapted for use. We find that simple instructions in clear language with a couple of demonstrations works best.
Games can be played individually, in pairs, as a small group or as a whole class.
It is always a good idea to have some ‘chance’ built in – a throw of dice, spinners, etc. that keep excitement high – no one knows what will happen and so everyone is engaged to see what is happening! Also, playing around with roles and naming them innovatively is an idea; giving them superpowers to complete the task is another option.
Badges, awards, levels of achievement and some public display of achievement through leaderboards are good options to build into classroom games. Allowing students to name themselves for these leaderboards with zany names can be an added fun feature.
Deciding when to play the game
Games can be used to
introduce topics (word association, taboo cards, etc.)
reinforce learning (board games, card games, quests to gather facts, etc.)
assess learning (formative/informal classroom assessments to progress)
Resources
Imagination is the primary component, and resources are not a constraint, with games being very low-cost. Laminating resources for reuse and creating multi-purpose games are suggested.
We suggest trying different kinds of dice – colour coded ones, differently shaped dice, etc., keeping your student population in mind.
Examples
We have seen many teachers in private and government schools gamify learning successfully. Be it a board game to explain marine environments to a quest to find history in everyday life, teachers have used many elements in all subjects to create inclusive classrooms. A few samples are here.
Go Forth and Gamify!
Learning requires practice and games can simply be the difference between repetitively reciting multiplication tables and playing a penguin race game with a right answer to a multiplication sum. Play is the brain’s favourite way of learning and games can be your secret ace to make this happen!