In the field of coaching there is more and more research that shows that when an athlete is in an environment where they feel supported and where they are having fun, skill acquisition comes more easily (for an interesting talk on this, listen to this podcast from Olympic coaching educator Wayne Goldsmith).

This is not to say that practices are or should be all fun and games. There is still plenty of hard work and workouts that at the end of the day are difficult and not necessarily “fun.” What the research shows, however, is that if the athlete is engaged in the process, the tough stuff is easier to manage, and the skills are easier to acquire.

I would argue that these same principals hold true in classrooms. If students are in an environment where they feel supported and the learning is engaging, they are more likely to find success. School playground enhancement services can also help initiate imaginative play, encourage different learning styles and extend learning beyond the classroom. 

This principle, however, can be tricky when an instructor is teaching a foundational or liberal learning class where the majority of students are non-majors. How do you get students to care about a topic they don’t see any reason to care about? Have you ever had to memorize a concept or steps for an entry level class and thought there must be a better way? Is your idea of fun not studying but playing a game? Do you cringe when people suggest that flash cards or matching games are “fun”?

You are not alone.

In November 2016 I wrote about the phenomenon of Pokémon Go, but more specifically about my early experiences with the card game. More recently I attended Elgin Community College’s Enriching Learning Environments with Technology Conference and had the pleasure of attending a session on Card and Role-Playing Games in Physics and Astronomy presented by James Chisholm from Sauk Valley Community College.

While I had personal experience of my son learning because of a game, I had never really thought about the application of games in higher education. I found the section in Chisholm’s presentation about card games fascinating. Typically when we talk about gamification in education, we talk about role playing, adaptive learning paths, or tokens. What we don’t talk about is using games (like card games) to teach concepts.

Chisholm teaches introductory level classes in physics and astronomy to largely non-science majors. He discovered that it was often difficult to teach some of the more scientific aspects of his topics to these students, as they weren’t really invested in learning the specifics—at one time a sentiment shared by my son, who was having trouble with reading. What Chisholm (a lifetime game aficionado) discovered was that many of these complicated concepts could be created into games.

What I had never thought about was how easy it is to create games out of concepts that have set rules. For example, Chisholm found that it was really hard for students to memorize the steps to explain how the Proton-Proton Chain works. The many complicated steps just weren’t meaningful to students, and for student who never needed to know this information again there was little to no motivation to learn it.

To make it more fun for everyone, Chisholm developed a card game in which each element appeared on a separate card. Each card also included the rules of element interaction. The students then played a card game that required them to understand the behaviors of each element and how they interacted. Whole class periods were dedicated to the students playing in teams and ultimately in a tournament. Students were engaged in learning the rules so they could win the game. This was no longer just a dry lecture about a series of steps that had no meaning—now understanding the interactions had significance.

I had never really thought about the number of core concepts (especially in the sciences) that lend themselves especially well to these types of games. Just like with Pokémon cards and the reluctant reader, the student learns the information to win the game. It is a great way to introduce play into learning and still achieve the goal of building foundational knowledge. In the same way that songs can help us remember difficult concepts or steps (think School House Rock), so too can games encourage learners to memorize concepts.

What isn’t clear yet, at least from Chisholm’s example, is if the learning outcomes were better. What is clear from his experience, however, is that the students were more engaged in the material and the learning was more fun. And if coaching theory holds true, the outcomes should be better—because the environment that was established was one more conducive to skill acquisition.