Lighting the Fire of Learning
Lighting the Fire of Learning
Learner motivation is a missing piece in a lot of our discussions around learning. A study of game design offers a 5 part framework for creating better learning experiences across mediums.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now often thought of as the moment when edtech rose to the top of global consciousness. We all suddenly discovered (or rediscovered) that learning remotely was a “thing” but we also realized how poorly it was being done.
Stuck at home trying to complete a masters in Educational Neuroscience, I realized my biggest challenge wasn't the tech, the internet, or the content. It was trying to stay motivated while locked inside during a pandemic.
Designing for learner motivation is the key missing piece in educational products. No matter the advances we make in creating better learning experiences from first principles, the failure to design experiences that harness human motivation and specifically intrinsic motivation will always hold us back.
Unlike traditional learning, games are very good at instilling and harnessing intrinsic motivation. No one forces you to play (at least in most contexts). I certainly had no trouble logging my gaming hours during the pandemic. Games completely blur the lines between what it means to play and learn - making the learning (playing) process intrinsically rewarding.
Games do this by bringing forward three important facets of learning.
First, good games empower players by giving them a sense of self-efficacy. Second, they empower players to utilize that sense of self-efficacy to deploy problem-based learning effectively to navigate the game. Finally, they ensure that the problem-based learning environment (“the quest”) is laden with the appropriate scaffolding to ensure that the level of challenge is “just right”..
The careful design and recursive relationship between these three elements allow for the productive struggle and uncertainty which in turn creates the opportunity for “hard fun”.
The underlying reason for the effectiveness of games (and by extension well designed problem-based learning environments) in harnessing motivation in general, and intrinsic motivation in particular, lies in their alignment with our best understanding of how motivation works. Just think of how effortless “work” on Farmville or Animal Crossing feels. Particularly, good games employ appropriate scaffolding and align it well with Self-Determination Theory and the 4Cs of intrinsic motivation.
Self-Determination Theory or SDT claims that human motivation is driven by three important “needs”. These are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Games do a great job of giving players autonomy and helping them work on their competence within relatable contexts and characters that they can often modify.
In a similar vein, games connect quite well with the 4Cs of intrinsic motivation: challenge, curiosity, control, and context. Games provide players with regular challenges and engender curiosity by employing good narrative and storytelling.
The effective deployment of motivational theory to design gaming experiences provides us with a useful framework to design learning experiences in their mold.
Analyzing our learning experiences through this lens gives us 5 pillars of analysis:
Curiosity: Ensure the learning experience at hand leverages narrative, storytelling and other techniques to instill curiosity around the topic. Better yet: find a topic the learner is already curious about to impart the skills and lessons.
Autonomy & Control: Give learners as much agency as possible throughout the learning experience. Where possible, allow them to set the pace and the learning goals.
Challenge & Competence: Design learning experiences that push learners to the edge of their competence and challenge them to move to the next level.
Relatedness & Context: The learning experience should allow learners to feel included and “see themselves” as practitioners in the space.
Scaffolding: Ensure that learners have the appropriate support and can seek guidance when needed so that any uncertainty and struggle is productive
Good pedagogy must take a holistic approach to good learning design that includes motivation front and center. If we can help learners stay motivated, how and what we teach them become easier challenges.
As Plutarch reminded us two millennia ago, education is “not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”. The future of learning rests on how many of those fires we can light and keep ablaze.
Thank you for reading this month’s installment of Nafez’s Notes and a special thanks to the over 200 new members that joined Nafez’s Notes since our last post. Please do reach out if you have any thoughts or comments and don’t forget to share with your friends.
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Finally, this article is based on research conducted at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education on desiging for motivation in game-based learning environments looking at the work done by pioneers in the space like Brilliant.org and Synthesis.com. If you are interested in the original research or learning more, please don’t hestiate to reach out.