I love games. I enjoy the challenge, the experience and the thought that often goes into them. Many others, especially students, share a desire to play games. Whether they are video games, board games, athletic games, or another kind, games have been a part of our society since ancient times (Mancala is thought to be roughly 6000 years old). Unfortunately, for some students, these games are much more engaging than school or learning which often makes them competitors for student attention. However, integrating elements of games into learning can be a powerful strategy for engaging students. 


In her book Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal puts forward that there are 4 elements that are essential to a game. They are:



One thing that is really interesting to note is that winning and losing are not part of this. There are some games where this isn’t a factor. Take a game like Dungeons and Dragons, as made popular by the show Stranger Things. In the game, you and the others create a collaborative story where you adventure through a fantasy world to overcome challenges, gain experience, and become more powerful. But here’s the thing, you don’t actually win Dungeons and Dragons. You can complete quests and achieve goals, but you don’t actually win. However, the above four elements are all in place.


To keep exploring these four elements, let’s shift to something more physical in nature like hockey. The goal is to have the highest score at the end of the game. There are a lot of rules that govern the game with referees to help enforce said rules. Feedback on performance is pretty much instantaneous in terms of having control of the puck, shots on goal and the current score. The players all agree to enter into the game and accept these parameters. 


In her book, McGonigal argues that despite the high engagement and learning that games bring, much of our day-to-day life does not mirror this. Our work does not contain many of these elements, nor do our schools or classrooms. The feelings of achievement and progression are often lost, as is the idea of instant feedback to self-assess goal completion.


I do think it is possible for teachers to leverage these elements in their teaching. Stating clear goals and purposes help students to hit the mark since they know why they are doing what they are doing. 


The rules in place are typically the expectations that students have but also would include clear instructions on how to complete the learning task, or, what things are acceptable or unacceptable in the pursuit of it. As an example students need to know if using technology to find an answer is ok, or some teachers use an ‘Ask 3 Before Me’ protocol where students are supposed to ask peers before asking the teacher. 


Instant feedback is much more difficult as there is typically a delay between performance and feedback. Designing learning tasks that have inherent feedback built into them is possible but can be tricky, especially in some subjects more than others. In music, for example, you can quickly tell if you play a flat note. It can be much more difficult to give this to a student who is in the middle of writing an essay. Here I think using AI may be a solution since students can upload their work and get feedback quickly to make the necessary adjustments. 


The final piece is the voluntary participation. While we know that school is not necessarily voluntary for many students, we can modify this a little by making some of the activities voluntary. Creating more than one option for engagement can be a powerful strategy since they do retain some element of choice. The moment a student makes a choice, they are partially engaged which is different than simply giving them something and hoping for compliance. Choice activates autonomy which is similar to what voluntary participation does.


While games can be characterized by these elements, the engagement also comes from the idea that they present an achievable challenge. No one engages with a game thinking that they cannot win or improve. Coupled with this hope for achievement, comes the feeling of pride and accomplishment when those achievements happen. For students, we need them to feel that they can succeed and to help instill the same sort of pride when they do succeed. This needs to go beyond a score and more towards the feeling of accomplishment. Very similar to how the score in a hockey game is an indicator of who has won the game, rather than celebrating the score itself. 


There is a distinction here between external motivation (the score) and internal motivation (the pride you feel). While these are seemingly linked, it’s not actually the points we are looking for, it’s the thrill of victory and the desire to overcome obstacles. Very similar to how we don’t want students chasing grades, we want them to chase mastery of the curriculum. 


As educators, we can take some lessons from games. Remember, they aren’t about winning and losing, so simply adding points or a score is not going to change much. But by adding the characteristics of games, combined with setting achievable challenges and developing pride when they are met can be a powerful motivator and teaching tool in our arsenal if we can embrace them.