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Research-Based Games
Of the 53 million K–12 students in the U.S., 51 million of them (or 93%) play video games.¹ Arcademic Skill Builders tap into the excitement of video games to engage today’s students and help develop their 21st Century Skills. Our games help improve student performance through:
- Increased time on task
- Increased student motivation and engagement
- Increased corrective feedback
The Arcademic games challenge students to respond quickly over a series of short, timed trials. The aim is to increase rate of correct responses and decrease error rate until responses become automatic. The games embrace research from Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), an organization that has pinpointed instructional strategies that are most likely to improve student achievement:²
- Homework and practice. Drill and practice exercises promote automaticity and fluency. Our games are rate and accuracy based, which are the key indicators of the effectiveness of practice.
- Cooperative learning. Organizing students into small cooperative groups can stimulate learning. Our multi-player games enable students to play together online in small groups.
- Corrective feedback. Timely corrective feedback encourages and reinforces learning. As students play our games, they are given immediate feedback on their answers, and can view a "What I Missed" list at the end of each stage.
- Identifying similarities and differences. Students learn by indentifying and comparing the similarities and differences in graphical forms and analogies. In our games, students' decisions are aided by differences in graphical representations and comparisons of different answers.
- Reinforce effort and provide recognition. Students achieve more when there is a connection between effort and recognition. When students complete our games, they are awarded a trophy for individual accomplishment according to their level of performance, and can chart their score progress.
The Progress Chart and its use is an adaptation of a measurement system called Precision Teaching developed by Dr. Ogden Lindsley of the University of Kansas. Many of the features of the games reflect strategies encompassed in the precision teaching mode, which focused on repeated practice of isolated skills to promote fluency. The use of the Progress Chart allows both teacher and student to systematically record performance information, observe changes in performance, and to make performance-based decisions about immediate and long-term curriculum needs.
The games are also based on research on learning dealing with ‘automaticity’ and ‘fluency.’ Automaticity is fast and accurate object identification at the single object level. Fluency involves a deeper understanding, and anticipation of what will come next.³ The Arcademic games provide fun and focused repetition practice that enables fluency to be achieved more quickly through structured, rapid, and disciplined responding.
Fluency impacts three types of critical learning outcomes:
- Retention: the ability to perform a skill or recall knowledge long after formal learning programs have ended
- Endurance: the ability to maintain performance levels
- Application: the ability to apply what is learned to perform more complex skills in new situations.
The rationale behind Arcademic Skill Builders emerged as a challenge to make certain aspects of classroom instruction as effective in creating persistence and involvement as observed in video game players. The result is a program that incorporates the features of video games with educational content to obtain a high rate of learning through rapid and focused repetition, motivational, excitement and involvement.
More Info
Educational Gaming: From Edutainment to Bona Fide 21st Century Teaching Tool
http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14116
Scientists Say Video Games Can Reshape Education
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2003309887_videogames18.html
Students Want More Use of Gaming Technology
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/news-by-subject/research/index.cfm?i=53443
Video Games Stimulate Learning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1879019.stm
Gaming Advances as a Learning Tool
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=45627&CFID=6448396&CFTOKEN=98185139
1. Etuk, Ntiedo. Educational Gaming: From Edutainment to Bona Fide 21st-Century Teaching Tool. (Nov, 2008).
2. Marzano, Robert. Classroom Instruction That Works. (Jan, 2001).
3. Binder, C. Behavioral Fluency: Evolution of a new paradigm. (1996).
Teacher Success
"Many of the students play video games all the time at home. This was a way to let them enjoy their playing time, but to practice a skill at the same time."
- Mrs. Smeltz's success story in Lititz, PA.
"Aligning the joy of gaming with practicing math facts clearly helps transform the experience and invites students to learn in an environment they are not only comfortable with but would seek out given the choice."
- Mr. Sprankle's success story in Wells, ME.
"The math activities on your site have improved the students performance grades in classroom timed tests and have boosted the students confidence in their math abilities."
- Mr. White's success story in New Baltimore, MI.
"The students love this. They get so excited. Several of my students would rather stay inside at recess to play the games instead of going outside."
- Mrs. Kido's success story in Topeka, KS.