Prompting Learning When Our Learners Play Games

 

Another research brief. Answer the question and only then read what the research says:


 

In a recent study with teenagers playing a game to learn history, adding the learning instructions hurt learning outcomes for questions that assessed transfer, but NOT recall. The first choice hurt transfer but not recall. Give yourself some credit if you chose the second or third choices.

Caveats:

  • This is only one study.
  • It was done using only one type of learner.
  • It was done using only one type of learning method.
  • It was done with teenagers.

Important Point:

  • Don’t assume that adding instructions to encourage learning will facilitate learning.

Research:

Hawlitschek, A., & Joeckel, S. (2017). Increasing the effectiveness of digital educational games: The effects of a learning instruction on students’ learning, motivation and cognitive load. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 79-86.