Using a fine-grained multiple-choice response format in educational drill-and-practice video games

When using educational video games, particularly drill-and-practice video games, there are several ways of providing an answer to a quiz. The majority of paper-based options can be classified as being either multiple-choice or constructed-response. Therefore, in the process of creating an educational drill-and-practice video game, one fundamental question to be answered is which is the most appropriate response format? This paper answers this question, proposing a hybrid format that we call fine-grained multiple-choice, where the player constructs their response one element at a time, with each element chosen from a pre-defined set. A comparative study was conducted with second grade students. When comparing the impact of an educational drill-and-practice video game that uses multiple-choice with one that uses fine-grained multiple-choice, we observe that the fine-grained multiple-choice game achieved better results. However, the multiple-choice game was substantially more successful at capturing the students' interest and motivation. Considering the widespread use of the multiple-choice format in game-based learning activities, as well as in interactive activities, this research suggests rethinking what the most suitable answer format might be for each area of the curriculum and for the different types of games.     

Making agency matter: rethinking infant and toddler agency in educational discourse

This article engages critically with the concept of agency in infant and toddler educational discourse. It is argued that agency, when conceptualised with emphasis on individuality and the autonomous self, poses a conceptual ‘dead end’ for those who are not-yet-in-language, such as babies and toddlers. In considering agency as an aspect of becoming that is inherent in all matter, the article seeks to explore new pathways for conceptualising agency in infant and toddler education. Methodologically, the article aims to generate complex questions and, following Nigel Thrift's call, ‘wild ideas’, rather than solutions by addressing the relationship between discourse and matter to open up new spaces for thinking and doing ‘agency’ in education, for babies and toddlers and beyond.     

Markets and the English: rethinking educational restructuring as institutional design

This paper analyses the concerns, parameters and silences emerging in the field of English research on contemporary educational restructuring. The research effort oriented to the investigation of Thatcherism and the marketisation of education is documented. Its strong emphasis on markets and processes of marketisation and its neglect of alternatives to Thatcherism is noted. This pattern of emphases and silences in research seems to have arisen as a result of changes in the research‐policy context, and because of the way Thatcherism has been conceptualised in educational research. I argue that these developments have encouraged a narrowing of both research and political horizons in education. I suggest that a more comprehensive framework for analysing educational restructuring can be developed by recontextualising Thatcherism and drawing on recent social science research on institutional design. Such a framework would appear to offer a basis for tackling the empirical and normative work of assessing probable futures and the possibilities of preferred futures in the practical work of education reform.     

The ‘punk rock principal’: a metaphor for rethinking educational leadership

ABSTRACT

This paper advances an alternative leadership metaphor of ‘punk rock leadership’. I work through the usefulness of a metaphor of punk rock leadership as a way of exploring one principal's vision of leadership and his efforts to work outside of system expectations in his quest to achieve the school's goals. In doing so, I contribute to our wider understanding of the methodological process, affordances, and challenges of using metaphors to theorise empirical data. Empirically, this paper contributes to critical research into principals’ practices in times of change, and to notions of power and leadership discourses in schools.     

Taking educational games seriously: using the RETAIN model to design endogenous fantasy into standalone educational games

We are witnessing a mad rush to pour educational content into games in an ad hoc manner in hopes that player/learners are motivated simply because the content is housed inside a game. A failure to base educational game design on well-established learning and instructional theories increases the risk of the game failing to meet its intended educational goals, and yielding students who are entertained but who have not acquired any academic skills or knowledge. Our review of standalone educational games has shown that they are not always based on sound educational principles and theories. We contend that, if academic learning is to take place, a new design paradigm must be developed. This article discusses the RETAIN design and evaluation model for educational games that was developed to aide in the evaluation of how well academic content is endogenously immersed and embedded within the game’s fantasy and story context, promoters transfer of knowledge, and encourages repetitive usage to that content becomes available for use in an automatic way.     

Decolonization,Nationalism, and local identity: rethinking cosmopolitanism in educational practice in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Cosmopolitanism and its application for education in western societies has been well examined. Yet cosmopolitanism in society and in education has not been systematically explored in many Asian societies. Facing a large number of people from diverse backgrounds, the society and its education system in Hong Kong are troubled by issues similar to those found in western postindustrial societies, related to cultural and national belonging and identity. Prejudice and racism towards ethnic minorities – particularly those from South Asia and Africa, is quite common. Additionally, animosity and hostility to mainland Chinese newcomers has increased and intensified in the context of Hong Kong’s “repoliticization” after its 1997 handover. This article aims to explore how cosmopolitanism is understood, valued, and approached in Hong Kong education. We start by exploring the role of decolonization and nationalization in political education in Hong Kong. We then discuss cosmopolitanism, and consider how it impacts particular social and educational issues in Hong Kong. We also provide an analysis of discourses on cosmopolitanism taken from Hong Kong General Studies and History textbooks, to identify challenges faced in facilitating cosmopolitan values, a balance of identities, and global citizenship in Hong Kong education.     

Exploring video games and learning in South Africa: An integrative review

This study is a review of video games studies completed in South Africa. This paper looked at existing research on video games in South Africa in order to understand the research approaches used, and the learning outcomes found in respect to findings from studies in the western world. Interestingly, the study shows similarities in the learning outcomes, yet a great emphasis on educational games targeted to address issues relevant to South Africa. This research also reveals that context, as argued in sociocultural theory, shaped the content of the games designed, populations studied, type of game to associate with video games, and learning.

     

EPIC: a framework for using video games in ethics education

Ethics education can potentially be supplemented through the use of video games. This article proposes a novel framework (Ethics Practice and Implementation Categorization [EPIC] Framework), which helps educators choose games to be used for ethics education purposes. The EPIC Framework is derived from a number of classic moral development, learning, and ethical decision-making models, including frameworks and theories associated with games and ethics, as well as prior empirical and theoretical research literature. The EPIC Framework consists of seven ethics education goals (e.g., building ethical awareness, practicing reflection, and enhancing character), and 12 strategies associated with ethics education, which are also present in video games (e.g., role-play, modeling, and simulation). Each of the framework’s categories is described in detail, and the limitations of the framework are also discussed.     

Ethical issues in online educational research: protecting privacy,establishing authenticity in email interviewing

Educational researchers have a responsibility to ensure that in whatever research paradigm they work, the research that is conducted is done so within an ‘ethic of respect’ to those who participate. This implies a number of responsibilities on the part of the researcher that include ensuring trust, dignity, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. When research uses the Internet as the medium of investigation, these ethical responsibilities become more complex for the educational researcher. This paper discusses such complexities by examining the ethical dilemmas of using the Internet as a site for qualitative research. It will draw on two educational studies that used email interviewing, and will specifically focus on two ethical challenges the researchers faced when using this method: protecting participants’ privacy and anonymity, and establishing authenticity in online environments, including the way in which ownership of online research conversations and identities are experienced and expressed. In discussing such dilemmas, the paper concludes by questioning whether these issues can be addressed in an effort to construct the unattainable but pursue the utopian: fully ethical educational research.     

Digital games pre-schoolers play: parental mediation and examination of educational content

Education and Information Technologies - The aim of this study is to examine mediations of parents who make digital games played by 60–72 months old children accessible, and the...     

The effects of an educational video game on mathematical engagement

In an effort to maximizing success in mathematics, our research team implemented an educational video game in fifth grade mathematics classrooms in five schools in the Eastern US. The educational game was developed by our multi-disciplinary research team to achieve a hypothetical learning trajectory of mathematical thinking of 5th grade students. In this study, we examined overall engagement and three sub-domains of engagement as outcome variables after ten sessions of treatment with fifth grade students. The results showed that both male and female the video game group had slight increases in all engagement levels while students, particularly male, in the paper-and-pencil drill group displayed large decreases in all engagement levels. Implications of the study are 1) more fine-grained evidence of engagement in three sub-domains after implementing an educational video game, and 2) a consideration of gender differences in engagement levels in mathematics in the adoption of a video games.     

The importance and use of targeted content knowledge with scaffolding aid in educational simulation games

While most current educational simulation games provide learners with gameplay experience to motivate learning, there is often a lack of focus on ensuring that the desired content knowledge is actually learned. Students may focus on completing game activities without learning the targeted content knowledge, thus negating the desired learning outcomes. We argue that to help students achieve improved learning performance, providing targeted content knowledge should be a specific focus in designing educational games; in addition, scaffolding strategies to promote the use of in-game contents should also be provided. Thus, the present study explores the effects and usage of providing three types of scaffolding aids in two versions of educational simulations with in-game contents. The results suggest that providing targeted content with scaffolding aid in educational simulation games helps students to achieve better learning performance.     

Playfulness-based design in educational games: a perspective on an evolutionary contest game

Playfulness steering is an emerging approach in educational game design and play. The integration of arithmetical computation, game strategy, and teamwork into one game allows players to interactively “steer” the playfulness and enhance learning. In this paper an evolutionary contest game was designed and implemented to examine the influencial factors. Using action research, focus groups and hermeneutic methods, this study suggest that the playfulness design of an evolutionary game is influenced by the degree of uncertainty and flexibility in decision-making, the level of challenge, equal conditions for fair play, opportunities to compete/cooperate, and the level of interactivity.     

The student with a thousand faces: from the ethics in video games to becoming a citizen

Video games, as technological and cultural artifacts of considerable influence in the contemporary society, play an important role in the construction of identities, just as other artifacts (e.g., books, newspapers, television) played for a long time. In this paper, we discuss this role by considering video games under two concepts, othering and technopoly, and focus on how these concepts demand that we deepen our understanding of the ethics of video games. We address here how the construction of identities within video games involves othering process, that is, processes through which, when signifying and identifying ??Ourselves??, we create and marginalize ??Others??. Moreover, we discuss how video games can play an important role in the legitimation of the technopoly, understood as a totalitarian regime related to science, technology and their place in our societies. Under these two concepts, understanding the ethics of video games goes beyond the controversy about their violence. The main focus of discussion should lie in how the ethics of video games is related to their part in the formation of the players?? citizenship. Examining several examples of electronic games, we consider how video games provide a rich experience in which the player has the opportunity to develop a practical wisdom (phronesis), which can lead her to be a virtuous being. However, they can be also harmful to the moral experiences of the subjects when they show unethical contents related to othering processes that are not so clearly and openly condemned as violence, as in the cases of sexism, racism or xenophobia. Rather than leading us to conclude that video games needed to be banned or censored, this argument makes us highlight their role in the (science) education of critical, socially responsible, ethical, and politically active citizens, precisely because they encompass othering processes and science, technology, and society relationships.     

Confucian revival and the hybrid educational narratives in contemporary China: a critical rethinking of scale in globalisation and education

ABSTRACT

Today China witnesses a renaissance of classical studies and Confucian Academies across the nation. With an estimated 10 million children attending Confucian kindergartens, classes, and schools, cultural heritage has increasingly become a new marker of social distinction. At the same time, Confucian tradition is often associated with excessive testing, competition, and academic burdens that continue to hinder China's educational innovation. Disenchanted with state-run schools, many urban middle-class families turn to alternative schools that use imported pedagogies such as the Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio to cultivate a better future for their children. In reform-era China, Westernisation coexists with a return to tradition to produce a fascinatingly complex cultural-pedagogical terrain. This paper examines such curiously hybrid educational narratives to understand the idiosyncratic features of Chinese educational globalisation and offer a critical perspective to rethink the concept of scale in comparative education research.