Tag: math

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9 Things That Educators Should Know About Gamification

Gamification has grown in popularity as teachers and educators realize the wealth of potential that games offer their students, no matter the age. Fast fading is the idea that video games are a waste of time. Children these days are among the most tech-savvy people precisely because they have been playing games on a range of devices for nearly their entire lives.

Gamification can be used in many different ways. Whether your students need a better set of flashcards, hands-on experience, or a more memorable experience, gamification gives you the tools to create something that will engage your students. With all of that being said, what are the essential things that educators should know about gamification, in order to harness its full potential? Well, not to worry, we decided to do the work for you. Here are the things that educators should know about gamification.

1. Gamification in education may optimize the brain’s processing of new information. This may be facilitated by the general aspects of gamified lessons, with the audio-visual presentation, minimized bites of schematized information, short time lapses, and often repetitive patterns.

New information is lost unless it is stored in our long-term memory through a multi-layered process involving attention, perception, selection, organization and integration of information. The first relay of new data is in our working memory, which can handle only a small amount of information at a time. Miller has suggested that the human brain can process seven pieces of information at one time, which will be lost in 20 seconds if not further processed to reach long-term memory.

The brain processes information in the working memory using two channels—visual and auditory. When information is presented using both channels, the brain, i.e. working memory, can accommodate more new information. However, information overload which may hinder the integration of the new information into long-term memory. Therefore, small chunks of information need to be presented in an organized fashion. This allows the brain to integrate and organize new information to existing schemas in our long-term memory.

Moreover, recent research has suggested that the attention span in humans has decreased from around 12 to 8 seconds. This change has been attributed to the digital revolution, aside from its beneficial effects including faster reaction time and increased ability to multitask. These findings stress the need to adopt modern ways, such as gamification, to transfer new knowledge and information to students and teachers alike.

2. Gamification in education can improve motivation and engagement. Game elements such as immediate feedback and earning badges for completing the challenges successfully are strongly influential on increasing the students’ drive in engaging in these games even within the walls of a classroom.

Additionally, the social component of gamified learning, whereby students gamify in groups, leads to loads of benefits on the brain function. Indeed, social, intellectual engagement activates neurotransmission in the brain, brain plasticity, and rewiring, and mitigates brain inflammation and the deleterious effects of oxidative stress on the brain. The beneficial effects of social interactions have been interestingly highlighted in delaying dementia in the elderly population.

3. Gamification modifies the brain’s reward and pleasure center and ameliorates learning. It is well established that games, whereby a person wins or receives positive feedback, can activate the brain’s pleasure circuits by inducing the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Educational games are suggested to have the same influence given their elements of winning challenges or successfully achieving a goal. This pleasure during gamified education results thus in a long-lasting affinity for the academic subject or for solving otherwise complex problems.

Furthermore, the influence of games on the pleasure center has important effects on learning per se. Indeed, reward-related signals have been reported to promote the storage of new information into long-term memory through dopaminergic modulation of the midbrain, which activates the hippocampus, a structure primarily involved in learning and memory. Dopamine is also involved in controlling neuronal plasticity within the hippocampus, which is a significant brain phenomenon underlying the acquisition of new information and skills. Moreover, hippocampal memory has been reported to improve following the practice of video games in adults through the stimulation of the brain circuits.

4. Teacher professional development can be gamified. To gamify professional development, instructors need to focus on student involvement. Often, this involves increasing the social requirements in the learning experience. Points based progress and leaderboards can also motivate those participating in the training to keep pushing forward. However, it is important to find options that bring more to the experience than a simple novelty. If the information isn’t valuable, the intrinsic motivation related to the learning process will decline. Additionally, the process needs to be streamlined to fit efficiently into a teacher’s otherwise busy day.

The priority of all professional development should be on creating quality content first and then adjusting the delivery system to increase motivation and overall engagement. Part of gamification is making the experience fun. Celebrate achievements along the way, and give participants a chance to learn from their mistakes and try again. Let the teachers earn shareable badges along the way, and create cumulative profiles of their accomplishments throughout their careers.

5. Gamification benefits struggling students. It is hard to engage struggling students in the classroom. If they are having trouble grasping the material, they may be less inclined to be involved in a traditional classroom lesson. These aren’t the kids that will volunteer to go to the board to work out a math problem; they aren’t raising their hands to answer questions, and may even be afraid of asking for help.

Adding a video game component can increase their comfort level. Various studies have shown that African-American students traditionally game more than their Caucasian counterparts, so this can be effective for reaching out to certain minorities in the classroom. It gives them a system that they enjoy, allows the information to be conveyed in a new way, and may feel like a more level playing field psychologically.

Not every student learns well by simply reading the textbook or managing homework. Some students prefer auditory input while others need hands-on demonstrations. Video games have the ability to combine all of these traits into a single learning system. And the increased entertainment value might make it more interesting to students in general.

In some cases, it may help students achieve flow, a psychological state where the person is fully immersed in the task at hand. This increased focus and absorption helps improve performance by completely engaging the brain.

A competitive spirit can also be fostered through video games. Students that are struggling in the grades department may find more intrinsic motivation through video game-based success. Leaderboards and level advancement can help students see how they are improving, even if they don’t immediately connect the achievement with learning.

6. Gamification doesn’t hurt high achievers. One of the points brought up against gamification involves the students who are already succeeding. The thought is that time spent gaming is a waste for those who don’t need the format to excel. But gaming within the learning context still benefits high achievers. It provides new methods for exploring knowledge and integrating new information and adds an element of fun that may be lacking with traditional mechanisms.

7. It is easy to gamify science. There are many subject areas that can be gamified; however, games can be particularly helpful when teaching students science-based lessons.  Educators can use two primary methods to gamify a particular subject or curriculum.  Teachers can incorporate science-based games into their curriculum, or they can find ways to create a game-like experience within the structure of the coursework.  The first method, adding games into the curriculum, can be easier for teachers to incorporate into lesson plans. Teachers at any level can gamify science with a few modifications to their lesson plans.  The key for gamifying any lesson is that it should be fun for the students.  When students are engaged with the material, knowledge acquisition will occur more easily as students begin to enjoy learning.

8. It is easy to gamify math. For educators, gamification can be applied to a variety of subjects, including math, to increase student’s motivation and subsequently increase student proficiency.  Gamifying math lessons does not have to be difficult; teachers can use a variety of techniques to add game elements to their courses. Educators primarily use one approach for gamifying math; they incorporate math-based games into the existing curriculum by inserting them into relevant lessons to replace less engaging content.  There are several game elements that are of particular importance to the motivation and engagement of students including competition, rewards, cooperation, self-driven pace, and feedback.  These elements can be found in most video and board games.  One very popular video game that can be utilized in the classroom is Minecraft (https://education.minecraft.net).

9. It is easy to gamify reading. Gamifying reading is not as hard as it seems. First, start by getting rid of the old terminology when talking to your students or when planning for lessons. Instead of having assignments and tests kids will participate in challenges, quests or battles and they have choices in how they demonstrate their knowledge. In this way, the students are able to work to their own strengths and to also incorporate creativity in their application of the knowledge. Including the class as part of the team of “game designers” gives them ownership over their learning, which is a powerful motivator.

For example, after reading a specific novel (the quest) students can choose between one of several challenges or battles to show their understanding. They could write an essay, design a board game, put on a play or perhaps create a PowerPoint presentation. Each of these challenges would equate to specific achievement badges, game points or even different player levels

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of things that educators need to know about gamification, in order to unlock its full potential. Did we miss anything? If so, please leave your suggestion in the comment section below. We would love to add it to the article as an update.

 

 

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High school Dropout Rates Up; Are Math and Science the Cause?

More rigorous math and science requirements for high school graduation are in place, and simultaneously dropout rates in the country are up.

Research back to 1990 showed that the US dropout rate rose to a high of 11.4 percent when students were required to take six math and science courses, compared with 8.6 percent for students who needed less math and science courses in order to graduate.

The dropout rate is up to 5 percentage points higher when gender, race and ethnicity are considered.

William F. Tate, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences says that part of the problem with adding math and science courses to requirements was that a significant number of students weren’t prepared to meet the revised requirements.

Andrew Plunk, a postdoctoral research fellow in the psychiatry department at Washington University School of Medicine, says the study highlights that the one-size-fits all approach to education requirements is not ideal due to various demographic groups, states and school districts that are all different.

When educational policies cause an unintentional consequence like an increase in students dropping out, the effects reverberate far beyond the classroom walls.

“Communities with higher dropout rates tend to have increased crime,” says Plunk. “Murders are more common. A previous study estimated that a 1 percent reduction in the country’s high school dropout rate could result in 400 fewer murders per year.”

While I do feel that the high drop out rate could be blamed on math and science courses, I don’t feel that the US should ease up on those requirements. I think the key is to better prepare the students. We need to make sure the students are ready for the requirements and aim to help all students graduate high school.

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2 Concepts that Illustrate How Fun Math Actually Is

President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative emphasizes STEM learning, particularly in mathematics, in order for more students to make it to high school graduation and the college degree beyond it. At its core, mathematicians’ median annual pay in 2013 was just over $101,000 – and is expected to grow by 23 percent by 2022. Take into account all of the computer science, technology and engineering jobs that are also rising rapidly, and it’s easy to see why students today NEED math proficiency and why it is up to P-12 educators to instill both aptitude and an interest in the traditionally less-exciting subject.

In other words, math is useful.

However, math is more than just useful. It can also be fun and engaging. Math can be an experience.

Let’s look at two concepts that show that math is really more than an obscenely difficult, abstract subject we need to learn at school to become more globally competitive.

  1. Math as a universal language. Fifth-grade students at Woodward Elementary School had an interesting math assignment last fall: watching college football games. Though seemingly fun on the surface, the assignment had an ulterior motive. Students were asked not simply to watch the college football games, but to score the plays and keep track of yards, points and time. The raw data they collected was then translated into fractions and percentages and used as mathematics learning tools. What is most remarkable about this assignment, first reported by Fox News, is that the point of the exercise was not simply to make math “fun” or practical. Teacher Scarlett Childers was also looking for a way to reach across the socio-economic and language barriers of her students.

At Woodward, 98 percent of the student body is on the subsidized lunch program and 95 percent learned English as a second language. Math, it seems, became a universal language in her classroom, better understood through a real-world assignment. The statistics at Woodward represent a larger cultural trend, too. Over 60 million people, or one-fifth of people, in the U.S. do not speak English at home which presents a problem in English-speaking K-12 classrooms. Dual-language programs have long been the trendy tactic for bringing down language-learning barriers.

Math is something we struggle with in our public schools regardless of socioeconomic status. In Rhode Island, for example, poor math performance in high school is linked to lower enrollment in college and failure to complete college. Fewer than 42 percent of 11th grade Rhode Island students who were considered “below proficient” on NECAP math ended up enrolling in college. Rhode Island is not exactly known as a diverse area, so that statistic presumably means that most of those students are native English speakers and from mid- to high-income households.

Imagine then the ramifications of that statistic on more diverse, urban K-12 classrooms? The good news is that urban school districts, though still often underperforming in math, are showing the greatest positive improvement in math achievement. Large cities are making progress more quickly than the nation as a whole. Fourth and eighth graders in U.S. cities with at least 250,000 people have improved more quickly in math learning than the national average, according to a report by National Assessment of Educational Progress. The students who speak English as a second language in these urban settings are improving at a faster rate in math than their native English-speaking peers around the country – and that speaks volumes to the power of math as a universal subject and equalizer.

There are certainly programs that target urban students when it comes to math, and other STEM, learning but I’d like to think that much of that progress is a direct result of the teachers in the classroom, like Scarlett Childers. There is no way that one math-learning or ESL initiative drawn up by a district or the state can adequately address the students that need the extra boost. Individualized plans, like the college football scoring assignment, are what really get through to students and bring them to a place of better long-term comprehension. Instead of being a learning complexity, I believe innovative math learning initiatives are the key to overall K-12 academic improvement. Math is a universal language and one that needs practical applications to really have an impact. That starts with the teachers but needs support from the decision-makers to truly make a difference.

  1. Math as a role-playing game. I had the chance to learn about Mathbreakers, a virtual math playground that starts with topics as basic as counting and advances through complicated subjects like Calculus. Instead of handing students worksheet-style problems through digital means, Mathbreakers uses action adventure role-playing to give students a fun, yet calculated, gaming environment that puts math at the center. As classrooms become even more gamified, Mathbreakers is a leader in making those concepts effective ones with real-world applications.

The game uses number sense, or the ability to see how to work with numbers and multiple solution approaches, instead of using rote memorization concepts like times tables. Players are in control of their futures in a third-person shooter style that takes them through an array of conquests and challenges.

Mathbreakers is a step towards a full math curriculum available in a virtual world, where students can learn about multiple types of math in the same environment. The vision of the application’s creators is that math learners at many levels can use the game to help visualize and understand mathematics on a fundamental level. That starts with basics like number sense, fractions, the number line, operators, and negative numbers.

Instead of giving players one set answers, Mathbreakers lets them use creativity to use math and create their own worlds, in essence. I was really impressed with the way the application seamlessly integrated concepts like multiplication and functions with the storyline and fun of the game itself. Not only does the game encourage players to use math (not just recite it) but it really is a lot of fun.

It seems that the Mathbreakers concept is really starting to catch fire. Schools are now interested in buying Mathbreakers applications to supplement, or even replace, their existing math practices. It makes sense since Mathbreakers adheres to Common Core Standards for grades 1 to 5.

As more people learn about Mathbreakers, I believe that more students will be given the opportunity to have an “Aha!” moment with math. We cannot force students to be interested in any topic but with the right presentation, educators can give students a better chance at succeeding in even the most difficult topics. The game has the ability to transform the way basic math is taught, and to transform student attitudes in the process.

Mathbreakers is a start-up from Mountain View, California. Check out their website at https://mathbreakers.com/

What are other ways to make math more appealing to students?

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Why social interaction is essential to learning math

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Robert Sun

Not long ago, while visiting Israel, I had the opportunity to sit in on a fourth grade class at a progressive school in that country’s North District. The young teacher that day was leading her group of 19 students as they learned English. Over the 40 minute session, as the students were introduced to 20 new English vocabulary words, speaking them aloud and using them in sentences, I suddenly realized how important active, verbal and reciprocal exchange is to learning any new language.

And math, most definitely, is a language.

I know first-hand how difficult the task of learning a new language can be because, like those Israeli students, I had to learn English as a fourth-grade immigrant from Shanghai. Speaking English day after day, my new home in Philadelphia slowly became a much more inviting place—for me, a city of promise.

Fluency in English requires the mastery of 4,000 to 5,000 new and unfamiliar words. That’s a long process. By contrast, learning math should be much easier. After all, with math you don’t have to know what a “9” means; you only need to understand how a 9 can relate to a 3 or a 27, because math focuses on relationships and how numbers connect.

One reason I believe math is challenging for so many young people, is because it is so rarely spoken. In school, math instruction focuses on the written component: the constant litany of textbooks, board work and worksheets. At best, students listen to the teacher talk about math—but rarely do they speak it at length themselves.

Each of us, from the moment we hear our parents speak our name for the first time, gained our fluency for language through verbal interaction. The constant give-and-take, as we sharpened our pronunciations and built our vocabulary, became essential in our transformation from inarticulate toddler to fully functioning adult. The process of learning math would benefit from just such a dynamic. But it’s something we’re sorely missing.

All too often we forget that language acquisition demands a verbal component. You can focus on all the writing you want, from grammar to composition to reading—but without receiving the constant interaction, feedback and encouragement from people through conversation, your progress in mastering any new language will be limited.

Developing a working vocabulary is an exercise that can take many years. Until we build a foundation of competency, we are reluctant to speak because speaking is public—and in that public act we reveal ourselves.

Our education system seeks fluency in the language of math, yet it does not encourage students to use it in a social way, producing many who are anxious about math. If they don’t have to speak math, few people really know the extent of their math proficiency. It becomes easy to keep the “secret” of how weak they may be. Like all secrets, anxiety builds the longer the secret is maintained.

Over the last several decades, in fact, being “bad at math” has become socially acceptable. Admitting you are not proficient enables you to divert the subject and protect your deficiency. Unfortunately, so many people publically make this admission that it has become a culturally accepted way to avoid getting good at math. We need to change this dynamic.

I believe that as educators and as a society, we need to develop the idea of “social math”: the use of spoken math to inspire the human interactions that provide the feedback and motivation to master fluency. We can start to develop social math by encouraging our children, from a very early age, to speak as well as write the language of mathematics.

Just as the students in that Israeli classroom learned English by speaking words out loud, we can do the same when teaching math. Teachers can encourage their students to express themselves verbally using mathematical terms; even in the early grades, children can be asked to explain what they want or mean using numbers, or relationships between numbers. Anything that encourages them to talk about math and mathematical concepts is beneficial.

Today we understand how to remove the traditional stumbling blocks that prevent many from acquiring math proficiency:

  1. Provide immediate feedback; i.e., social engagement.
  2. Offer engaging and comprehensive content at hundreds of entry points, ensuring that no matter the skill level of a child, he or she can find an entry point to experience success and move progressively to advance their skills.
  3. Give children a sense of control and ownership over the learning process.
  4. Allow students the freedom to make mistakes, so they will push their skills right to the edge. That’s where the real active learning occurs.
  5. Encourage our children to SPEAK and write math so they will be truly fluent.

Technology has enabled us to develop tools that are designed to incorporate these features. Schools using these innovative tools discover that their students are eager to speak and practice mathematics.

Whenever children in a school are struggling to learn English, we invest considerably more resources into building their competence in that subject than we do when a comparable deficiency exists with math literacy. If our children are not expected to speak the language of math, they do not reveal their weakness and it becomes easier to ignore.

On the other hand, when we speak the common language of math with vibrancy and passion, we inspire our children to explore and pursue the rich opportunities offered in this essential and universal form of communication. This will benefit our next generation of thinkers immensely, providing them with the foundation to support careers in the STEM professions and every part of life.

________________________

ROBERT SUN is the CEO of Suntex International and inventor of First In Math, an online program designed for deep practice in mathematics.

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2 Concepts that Illustrate How Fun Math Actually Is

President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative emphasizes STEM learning, particularly in mathematics, in order for more students to make it to high school graduation and the college degree beyond it. At its core, mathematicians’ median annual pay in 2013 was just over $101,000 – and is expected to grow by 23 percent by 2022. Take into account all of the computer science, technology and engineering jobs that are also rising rapidly, and it’s easy to see why students today NEED math proficiency and why it is up to P-12 educators to instill both aptitude and an interest in the traditionally less-exciting subject.

In other words, math is useful.

However, math is more than just useful. It can also be fun and engaging. Math can be an experience.

Let’s look at two concepts that show that math is really more than an obscenely difficult, abstract subject we need to learn at school to become more globally competitive.

  1. Math as a universal language. Fifth-grade students at Woodward Elementary School had an interesting math assignment last fall: watching college football games. Though seemingly fun on the surface, the assignment had an ulterior motive. Students were asked not simply to watch the college football games, but to score the plays and keep track of yards, points and time. The raw data they collected was then translated into fractions and percentages and used as mathematics learning tools. What is most remarkable about this assignment, first reported by Fox News, is that the point of the exercise was not simply to make math “fun” or practical. Teacher Scarlett Childers was also looking for a way to reach across the socio-economic and language barriers of her students.

At Woodward, 98 percent of the student body is on the subsidized lunch program and 95 percent learned English as a second language. Math, it seems, became a universal language in her classroom, better understood through a real-world assignment. The statistics at Woodward represent a larger cultural trend, too. Over 60 million people, or one-fifth of people, in the U.S. do not speak English at home which presents a problem in English-speaking K-12 classrooms. Dual-language programs have long been the trendy tactic for bringing down language-learning barriers.

Math is something we struggle with in our public schools regardless of socioeconomic status. In Rhode Island, for example, poor math performance in high school is linked to lower enrollment in college and failure to complete college. Fewer than 42 percent of 11th grade Rhode Island students who were considered “below proficient” on NECAP math ended up enrolling in college. Rhode Island is not exactly known as a diverse area, so that statistic presumably means that most of those students are native English speakers and from mid- to high-income households.

Imagine then the ramifications of that statistic on more diverse, urban K-12 classrooms? The good news is that urban school districts, though still often underperforming in math, are showing the greatest positive improvement in math achievement. Large cities are making progress more quickly than the nation as a whole. Fourth and eighth graders in U.S. cities with at least 250,000 people have improved more quickly in math learning than the national average, according to a report by National Assessment of Educational Progress. The students who speak English as a second language in these urban settings are improving at a faster rate in math than their native English-speaking peers around the country – and that speaks volumes to the power of math as a universal subject and equalizer.

There are certainly programs that target urban students when it comes to math, and other STEM, learning but I’d like to think that much of that progress is a direct result of the teachers in the classroom, like Scarlett Childers. There is no way that one math-learning or ESL initiative drawn up by a district or the state can adequately address the students that need the extra boost. Individualized plans, like the college football scoring assignment, are what really get through to students and bring them to a place of better long-term comprehension. Instead of being a learning complexity, I believe innovative math learning initiatives are the key to overall K-12 academic improvement. Math is a universal language and one that needs practical applications to really have an impact. That starts with the teachers but needs support from the decision-makers to truly make a difference.

  1. Math as a role-playing game. I had the chance to learn about Mathbreakers, a virtual math playground that starts with topics as basic as counting and advances through complicated subjects like Calculus. Instead of handing students worksheet-style problems through digital means, Mathbreakers uses action adventure role-playing to give students a fun, yet calculated, gaming environment that puts math at the center. As classrooms become even more gamified, Mathbreakers is a leader in making those concepts effective ones with real-world applications.

The game uses number sense, or the ability to see how to work with numbers and multiple solution approaches, instead of using rote memorization concepts like times tables. Players are in control of their futures in a third-person shooter style that takes them through an array of conquests and challenges.

Mathbreakers is a step towards a full math curriculum available in a virtual world, where students can learn about multiple types of math in the same environment. The vision of the application’s creators is that math learners at many levels can use the game to help visualize and understand mathematics on a fundamental level. That starts with basics like number sense, fractions, the number line, operators, and negative numbers.

Instead of giving players one set answers, Mathbreakers lets them use creativity to use math and create their own worlds, in essence. I was really impressed with the way the application seamlessly integrated concepts like multiplication and functions with the storyline and fun of the game itself. Not only does the game encourage players to use math (not just recite it) but it really is a lot of fun.

It seems that the Mathbreakers concept is really starting to catch fire. Schools are now interested in buying Mathbreakers applications to supplement, or even replace, their existing math practices. It makes sense since Mathbreakers adheres to Common Core Standards for grades 1 to 5.

As more people learn about Mathbreakers, I believe that more students will be given the opportunity to have an “Aha!” moment with math. We cannot force students to be interested in any topic but with the right presentation, educators can give students a better chance at succeeding in even the most difficult topics. The game has the ability to transform the way basic math is taught, and to transform student attitudes in the process.

Mathbreakers is a start-up from Mountain View, California. Check out their website at https://mathbreakers.com/

What are other ways to make math more appealing to students?