Games-based learning in Upper Primary Education

Amanda WilsonPhD Student

amanda.wilson@uws.ac.uk@AmandaWilson169

Presentation structure•Introduction•Programming for Children•Games-based construction•Scratch •Methods •Results•Discussion•Further Work

Introduction•Children more accustomed to using

technology at a younger age.

•More utilisation of computer games in schools.

•Introduction of GBL into curriculum. New Curriculum in Scottish Schools

•Lack of Empirical evidence of GBL in schools

Programming for children•Programming can be taught from an early

age.

•Variety of languages aimed at the novice user such as: Alice, Toontalk, Starlogo, Etoys, Scratch and Kodu.

•Initiatives such as after school clubs also run to introduce children to programming.

Games-based Construction• Game construction is one of 3 ways to introduce

games-based learning (Van Eck, 2006).• Commercial off the Shelf games (COTS)• Using games specifically created for education• Use of game construction as an approach to GBL

• Game construction is relatively unexplored within the classroom (Baytak and Land 2010).

• Game construction becoming more accessible to young children.

Scratch

•Scratch – Drag and drop programming environment for children as young as 7.

•Has been used as an introduction to computing in Harvard university.

•Little empirical evidence of use of Scratch in Primary Education setting.

Scratch

• A simple game creation platform using a visual programming language.

• Developed originally for use in after school computer clubhouses

Scratch

Curriculum for Excellence •Reform of Scottish Education – implemented

in schools in 2010 intends to give a coherent curriculum from 3-18 years old.

•Gives children the knowledge and skills for learning, life and work.

•Aims to develop four capacities for the children to become:

Successful learners Confident individuals Responsible citizens Effective contributors

Curriculum for Excellence•Intended to give children the “knowing

how” rather than the “knowing what” to build the four capacities.

•Done through experiences and outcomes.•Teachers encouraged to make more use of

different approaches to learning.•ICT is one of these approaches and the use

of the schools intranet system Glow or GBL are suggested ways of supporting learning.

Teacher views on GBL in the class•Consolarium’s Impact of Games in the

Classroom project – focused on how console games were being utilised in schools. ▫Teachers commented on children being

more motivated and engaged.▫Teachers warned games should not be

overused and they do not need to be linked with every aspect of the curriculum.

Teachers views on GBL in the class•The Games in Schools Project looked at a

selection of schools across Europe (including the Consolarium’s project).▫Teachers found costs, lack of suitable games

and timetabling issues as factors for not introducing GBL.

•Futurelabs conducted studies in 2006 and again in 2009 with teachers in England.▫Teachers found hardware/software costs and

licensing issues as the main reasons for not introducing GBL.

Methods•Objectives of research:

▫Look at what approaches to GBL teachers are using and compare with the literature available.

▫Introduce teachers to game making as an alternative to game playing.

▫Evaluate pupils’ and teachers experiences of making games with Scratch.

Results of Teacher Survey•Survey conducted on primary teachers

within Glasgow City Council Area.•42 teachers responded from 31 different

schools.•83% of teachers had used games in the class

▫83% web based games – Noah’s Ark, BBC Bitesize

▫12% CD-ROMS – Fairytale sequencing, Zoombinis (the logical journey)

▫5% console games – Wii Fit, Just Dance

Results of Teacher Survey

Results of Teacher Survey•Of the 33 teachers who answered the

question of whether they had used a game creation tool in the classroom only 5 had.

Expressive Arts

Health and Wellbeing

Languages

Maths

RME

Sciences

Social Studies

Technology

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Game Creation Tools

Results of Teacher Survey•Of the 30 teachers who answered the

question of whether they had created their own game to use in class only 5 had .

Expressive Arts

Health and Wellbeing

Languages

Maths

RME

Sciences

Social Studies

Technology

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Games made by teachers

Results of teacher survey•GBL within the four capacities.•Teachers felt that GBL would be beneficial

overall to developing the four capacities:▫84% agreed it would build Effective

learners▫75% agreed it would build Responsible

citizens▫100% agree it would build Successful

learners▫82% agreed it would build Confident

Individuals

Results of teacher survey•The teachers feel that the highest ranking

factors of the benefits of using GBL in the class are that it transforms learning into an engaging, fun and motivating experience .

•While they felt finding a suitable game making tool was the highest ranking obstacle to using GBL in the class for teachers, with lack of PC’s and technology second.

Results of teacher survey•Overall the results indicate that while

computer games are being made use of within the curriculum by primary teachers in Glasgow they are mainly web based and very few console based games are being used by the teachers.

•They also show that teachers are not making use of approaches like game making in the class.

Pilot study• 60 children aged between 8 and 11 from 3

classes (Primary 4, 5/6 and 6/7) in one school participated

• They undertook lessons in pairs (or groups of 3)

• 8 one hour lessons were delivered▫Lesson 1 – Introduction to Scratch▫Lessons 2-4 – Creating a simple maze game▫Lessons 5-8 – Extending maze game/Creating new

game

Game coding scheme• A game coding scheme was adapted from Denner,

Werner and Ortiz (2011) and refined based on the programming concepts that can be learned with Scratch

• The coding was split into 3 main categories and 22 subcategories▫ Programming Concepts▫ Code organisation▫ Designing for Usability

• Each game was coded for the presence of each element (either 0/1) or in some cases the extent to which that element was used within the categories using a range from either 0-2 or 0-3.

Game Coding • Programming Concepts category focused on the

concepts that Scratch supports that include:▫ Sequence▫ Iteration▫ Variables▫ Conditional Statements▫ Lists ▫ Event handling▫ Threads▫ Coordination and Synchronisation▫ Keyboard Input▫ Random Numbers▫ Boolean Logic▫ Dynamic Interaction▫ User Interface Design

Game Coding• Code organisation category:

▫Extraneous blocks▫Sprite names (the default is overridden).▫Variable names

• Designing for usability category:▫Functionality▫Goal▫Sprite customisation▫Stage customisation▫Instructions clear▫Game originality

Results• During the study 29 games were created by the groups

of children

• The mean game score was 48% and a Kruskal-Wallis one way analysis of variance test showed no significant difference in game scores between class groups (χ 2

= 0.072, p < 0.965) or between gender groupings (χ 2

= 0.483, p < 0.785).

Class Stick with maze game

Adapt maze game

(change background adapt game)

Adapt maze game (change background

adapt game to two player)

Create new game (come up with another idea

other than maze game)

P4 0 3 4 2

P5/6 3 1 0 6

P6/7 2 2 0 6

Results• The games varied in their complexity with over 90%

of them using the keyboard or mouse to control the game with others either not having been completed or having the user answer questions instead.

• Kruskal-Wallis tests showed no significant difference in concepts used between class groups (χ 2

= 0.176, p < 0.916) or between gender groupings (χ 2

= 0.472, p < 0.790). However, Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference between the concepts used in maze-based games compared to the original games made by all classes (Z=-2.535, p < 0.010).

ResultsProgramming Concepts

% of games including programming concepts

Sequence 93Event Handling 90Conditional Statements 86Threads 83Variables 72Coordination and Synchronisation 72Iteration 55Keyboard Input 7Random Numbers 3

Results•21% of the games included extraneous

blocks.

•72% of the games included meaningful variable names most games only included a timer, however some games also implemented a scoring system as well.

•Only 3% of games had changed the default sprite name.

Results•Out of the 29 games only 1 had no

functionality. The others had varying degrees with 28% of the games being fully functional.

Designing for Usability % of games Functionality 97Sprite customisation 97Stage customisation 93Clear Instructions 86Game originality 83Goal 59

Game Example 1

Adapted maze game from Primary 5/6 class

Game Example 1•The sprite in the game is controlled by the

arrow keys. Conditions are set that if the sprite touches the green walls it will bounce off them while the timer counts down how many seconds left the user has.

Game Example 2

2 Player adapted maze game from the Primary 4 class

Game Example 2• The sprites in the game are controlled by

the arrow keys for player 1 and player 2 used the w,a,s,d keys.

•There were 2 variables within the game and while the timer worked the scoring wasn’t working correctly.

Discussion•Few studies have been undertaken to look

at learning programming concepts through game construction for children.

•These studies have shown that children are able to learn programming concepts through game construction although these have been conducted mainly after school and little is known within the classroom setting.

Discussion•The 8 lessons were a basic introduction to

game making with Scratch.•Most children were successful in creating

their own game. •With those in the Primary 4 class

preferring to adapt the maze game rather than create their own.

•60% of each Primary 5/6 and 6/7 class opted to create their own game.

Discussion• The concepts most commonly used by the children in their

games were similar to those found in Maloney et al (2008)▫ Key handling▫ Iteration▫ Conditional statements

• Gender groupings did not have a significant effect on the games created, however the Primary 5/6 class which consisted of mixed gender groups did have the highest mean score as well as the most functional games of all 3 classes.

• Similar to the results of Baytak and Land (2011) this study shows that given a short timeframe children were able to make progress with Scratch show advances in their programming skills.

Future Work•Work with more classes (from Primary 4

to Primary 7) in other schools within Glasgow to attain further empirical results to produce more statistically significant evidence.

•Refinement of the instrument of evaluation through a series of pilot studies.

Thank you