When you were a kid, how many days a week did you feel excited about attending school because you’ll learn something new? Probably not a single day. Unfortunately, that’s common with the students. They’ll not absorb the concepts without enjoying the learning process. And that’s the alarming part. Here enters the idea of gamification in education. Students who approached learning in a gamified manner performed 34.75% better than previously.
Undoubtedly, puzzle games are the best source to gamify the learning experience for everyone. By the end of this article, you’ll understand the what, why, and how of gamification in education through puzzles.
What is Gamification?
The concept of involving entertaining game design into a non-gaming activity to enhance user engagement and encourage certain behavior is called gamification. The idea is to make the children, employees, and students interested in dry subjects and retain their complete attention on the topic/training. It is used in various professional fields, i.e., health & wellness, customer engagement, education, employee training, etc. There are different game mechanics and applications of gamification by integrating leaderboards, badges, points, etc.
If you focus on the application of gamifying in education, there are two significant types of gamification: the altered content and the structural method. The altered content method helps you transform the already available education data into something more game-like that sparks attention and curiosity among the students. Suppose you have added game elements into the learning experience, such as points, leaderboards, teammates, puzzles, etc., without changing the subject matter. In that case, it refers to the structural method.
Step-by-Step Guide to Integrate Gamification In Education Through Puzzles
Puzzles, in themselves, aren’t just a source of fun and entertainment, but they have cognitive, emotional, and psychological benefits that the players often don’t even realize. Study shows how puzzle solving plays a vital role in improving early childhood development. Merging two thought-provoking concepts, gamification and puzzles, to enhance the learning experience for the students is a great way to get started with it. In addition, virtual reality has evolved as a game changer in puzzle solving and inspiring students to augment their learning experience through advanced visualizations. Let’s dive deep into the effective ways to integrate gamifying in educating students with the help of puzzles.
1. Choose Puzzles Aligned With Learning Objectives
As an educator, you should know that going out of context with the gamifying concept can lead the students in a different direction. So, the first step is always understanding the learning objectives, such as the subject, the lesson, or the problem. If the subject is mathematics, math-based puzzles are the best choice because they align with the learning objective as well as the gamifying purpose of the activity.
2. Start Small & Simple
Integrating gamification into your education system will not be quick. The students will need time to adapt to this change. However, it will not take longer because (obviously) the students will love the change. So, before you introduce the digital tools for gamifying, it’s better to start with the basics. Use classroom or paper-based puzzles to make it easier for the students.
3. Encourage Collaboration Through Group Puzzles
Choosing or designing puzzles that require grouping/teamwork is highly recommended. It sparks unity and enthusiasm among the students to win from other groups of their classmates. Moreover, by participating in the group puzzles, the students enhance their educational concepts and social skills, which makes them confident. To be honest, group engagements through puzzles, especially in a classroom, where kids come to learn, are one of the best experiences they will remember all their lives.
4. Utilize Digital Puzzle Tools
When you have progressed in gamifying the learning experience for the students, using different tools can significantly enhance the quality and speed of learning. Simple apps such as Kahoot!, Quizlet, Breakout EDU, Gimkit, and soon on that offer easy-to-navigate designs and interactive, relevant educational content for the students are a great way to digitalize the gamification.
5. Reward Students Who Progress Better
For example, when students get their mark sheets after the exams, there must be a reward system. The reward can be structural progress through badges or points, which can uplift their mood by releasing serotonin. However, implementing a reward system doesn’t make it too competitive for the students. The idea for rewards is to encourage students to participate in educational puzzle activities.
6. Ask Students For Feedback
This is the most overlooked yet crucial step in creating a system where education is fun and memorable for the students. Students’ feedback helps you easily understand what’s working and what’s not. Moreover, it increases the students’ engagement in puzzle-based educational activities. Another great way to evaluate what’s working efficiently for the students is to analyze their overall performance in the tests/exams for specific subjects.
5 Benefits of Puzzle-based Gamification in Education
In today’s 2-second world, where everything is trying to capture kids’ attention, the teachers work hard to innovate the teaching system. Gamifying has been a success, considering students’ improved engagement and performance. Let’s look at puzzle-based gamification’s specific, uncommon benefits in education.
1. Improved Cognitive Skills
Different studies have shown that cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical & analytical thinking, decision making, etc, are crucial for every human being. It becomes even more vital when kids grow up, and it’s time to start their practical lives. These puzzle-based gamifying learning experiences enhance their cognitive skills, which helps them in their future. When learning through solving puzzles, they’ll learn to think logically, verbally, and visually according to the problem they’re trying to solve.
2. Development of Metacognition
Through solving puzzles, students will develop an ability to understand their thought processes and monitor their learning, which is known as metacognition. In the light of cognitive studies, metacognition is a function performed by the prefrontal cortex in the brain. It helps them reflect on their decisions, strategies, and choices to increase their score, or points, and solve the puzzle. After the students develop this ability, they constantly question their actions, whether they align with their goals, and how to improve them.
3. Reduced Fear of Failure
Every kid has this subconscious fear of what happens if they fail. This fear is so common and unfortunate that as the kids start growing up, they don’t even try. They can’t explore the opportunities that may lead them to massive success without trying. When they are solving puzzle-based problems, the process of experimenting, trying, and failing makes them somewhat comfortable with failure.
4. Boosted Intrinsic Motivation
When humans are engaged in an activity that gives them pleasure, they want to continue doing it. This happens because a chemical called dopamine is released in our brains. When the students solve the puzzles and score points, a pattern is made, which gives them pleasure. Hence, it makes them keep doing it, and that helps improve their overall educational performance.
5. Increased Patience and Focus Span
Through puzzles, students learn to focus on one thing for a longer time, as these dopamine-based algorithms fight to get the kids’ attention. The devices are destroying their creative minds with mindless scrolling, which is deeply infused in today’s culture. In such a situation, puzzles that require the students to focus entirely are a great way to build perseverance and patience. These are crucial traits for kids, especially as they grow up.
Neuroscience of Gamification: Is It Effective?
Our brain is mind-blowing and smarter than you can ever expect it to be. Gamifying in education is effective, but let me show you how it drastically improves students’ learning experience. It creates a narrative around the learning experience that is highly relevant to a student’s goal, which keeps them hooked. Moreover, when they’re repeatedly exposed to a positive and playful learning experience through puzzles, the dopamine starts associating with the learning. So, the students are more drawn to learning rather than destructive activities.
If the brain regularly engages in gameplay, i.e., solving puzzles aligned with learning objectives, it becomes fitter, sharper, and stress-free. Gamifying learning is supposed to be implemented in every educational institute and course because of its proven effectiveness on students’ curricular performance and their cognitive and emotional stability.
That’s A Wrap!
Kids tend to get distracted by their favorite games whenever they can. Gamification means that you are integrating games (which they love) into their studies (which is essential for them), so they start enjoying their learning experience and take a genuine interest in their studies. If done correctly, physics, math, and vocabulary can be improved through puzzle-based gamification.
I have covered the crucial points on this topic, so you can understand the critical importance of gamification in education and consider using puzzles to gamify the experience.