Conceptual Change During a Serious Game

Abstract

In our research, we used two different versions of a serious game to realize conceptual change regarding classical Newtonian mechanics. We propose the Serious Gaming Lemniscate Model (SGLM). It states that in an educational game, a player is either in a gaming state, intuitively acting on the feedback in the game, or in a learning state, rationally reflecting on the gaming experience. To test our model, we moved the student from the gaming state to the learning state. Next, we investigated whether this shift was effective in changing the student’s concepts. We did so by suddenly increasing the complexity of the game between consecutive levels, generating authentic learning questions. We compared the learning gain of students who are forced out of the game state to students who played the game through without the sudden increases in difficulty. Both strategies were benchmarked against a control group where no game was used. We developed a physics game to challenge the conceptual knowledge of third-grade secondary school students regarding Newtonian mechanics. We found that students who played the game as part of the physics classes experienced an increase in perceptual knowledge. However, the effect of interrupting the game state to initiate a learning state did not add to the conceptual change compared with the group who played the game through without interruptions.

Mental Model Development in Multimedia Learning: Interrelated Effects of Emotions and Self-Monitoring

“…Multimedia learning environments are assumed to facilitate mental model development by allowing learners to interact with complex systems (Wouters et al, 2009; Sitzmann, 2011; Koops and Hoevenaar, 2013). More specifically, such environments can foster learners’ active engagement with the learning material.…”

“…Furthermore, multimedia learning environments can provide contextualized feedback on learners’ actions. Thereby, they can trigger cognitive conflicts, which foster the correction of misconceptions in existing mental models (Koops and Hoevenaar, 2013). For example, in a recent study by Kao et al (2017), learners played a serious game to acquire principles of basic machinery physics.…”

“…However, discrete negative emotions may have diverging effects on mental model development. For example, some researchers (Kort et al, 2001; Pekrun et al, 2007, 2017; D’Mello and Graesser, 2014) argue that mild levels of frustration can lead to increased mental effort, elaboration and critical thinking. Thereby frustration may facilitate problem-solving, and increase MMA.…”

Creating a Modified Monopoly Game for Promoting Students' Higher-Order Thinking Skills and Knowledge Retention

“…He argued that this goal can be achieved by engaging students fully in all four modes of the experiential learning cycleexperiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Consequently, the games designed based on Kolb's theory should include features that allow students to experience all those learning modes (e.g., Egenfeldt-Nielsen 2005 in Kebritchi & Hirumi, 2008;Koops & Hoevenaar, 2012).…”

Learning on Electrical Circuits While Playing ‘E&E Electrical Endeavours’ - Design Research on a Serious Game Optimizing for Conceptual Understanding

“…A key theory on experiential learning is developed by Kolb (1984), and adapted for the case of serious games by various authors (Ruben, 1999;Koops & Hoevenaar, 2012). Using insights from general cognitive constructivist learning theories and the five stage model of skill acquisition by Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1980) (shown in Figure 1), Taconis (2011), developed a hypothetical model of experiential learning in serious games.…”