The impact of different play activity designs on students’ embodied learning

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to build on work that has demonstrated the value of play or game-based learning environments and to further unpack how different kinds of play activities can support learning of academic concepts. To do so, this paper explores how students learn complex science concepts through collective embodied play by comparing two forms of play labeled as Inquiry Play and Game Play. Design/methodology/approach This study builds off of previous research that uses the Science Through Technology Enhanced Play (STEP) technology platform (Authors et al., 2015). STEP is a mixed reality platform that allows learners to playfully explore science phenomena, such as the rules of particle behavior in solid, liquid and gas, through collective embodied activity. A combination of interaction analysis and qualitative coding of teacher and student interactions are used to examine patterns in the learning processes during embodied play activities. Findings Both forms of play led to similar learning gains. However, Inquiry Play promoted more emergent, flexible modeling of underlying mechanisms while Game Play oriented students more towards “winning”. Originality/value By contrasting play environments, this paper provides new insights into how different features of play activities, as well as how teachers orient their students according to these different features, support students’ learning in collective activity. As a result, these findings can provide insights into the design of future play-based learning environments that are intended to support the learning of academic concepts.

Using technology‐mediated inquiry to help young learners reimagine the visible world through simple particle models

“…A common theme in the studies above is that the digital tools provide young learners with affordances to visualize and actively manipulate simulations and explore changes in particle behavior that result. Further, the research of Davis et al (2019) suggests that teacher discourse orienting children to science content during inquiry play with a digital tool is important to learning. This research supports our conjecture that young children can learn particle models of matter with the appropriate social and material supports.…”

“…Their qualitative study showed that children aged 11–14 years could productively construct and revise particle models through gameplay. Using embodied cognition frameworks, researchers have designed augmented reality‐based collaborative learning activities to help first‐ and second‐grade children model the particle behavior of water in different physical states (Danish et al, 2020; Davis et al, 2019; DeLiema et al, 2019). Jakab (2013) found that 6‐year‐olds who engaged in didactic interviews with an adult around a web‐based interactive game (the Molecularium) for modeling particle behavior could construct productive ideas of molecules.…”

Guest editorial

“…And what value do different games and forms of play have for supporting learning? While Williams-Pierce (2019) compares and contrasts the affordances of games, simulations, and tutors, and how they support mathematical play, Davis et al (2019) dive deeper into the forms of play afforded by different game contexts. They make the keen observation that existing research on play, games, and learning often "treats all games as having the same properties, or all play as having the same value".…”