Instructional Design by Don Becker

Introduction

Campus based professional development has traditionally been delivered as a model of the instructor speaking for most to all of the allotted time to an audience of disengaged teachers who are doing many other tasks besides listening to the speaker. It is not uncommon to see graded papers and cell phone games instead of professional learning in these workshops. It becomes an incredible achievement if a teacher walks out of a training with any substantial knowledge gained. Recently however, campus based professional development is being examined with a completely different perspective; one in which is more participant focused instead of presented focused. Campus based professional development is now modeling conference style professional development in which the learners have the choice in what he or she wants to learn. This personalized learning method allows for teachers to learn about what is relevant to their pedagogy, not what the campus administrations deem would benefit the majority of teachers. An example of personalized learning, known as gamification, has been a common method of delivering learning in the business setting and is now beginning to diffuse its way into public and higher education.

Gamification

Gamification is, “the use of game elements in a non-game context” (Hanus & Fox, 2014, p. 152). These game elements traditionally include levels, points and badges but can also include various other game features. Gamification should not be confused with Game Based Learning (GBL), which is the use of video games in an educational setting (Kingsley & Grabner-Hagen, 2015). Game Based Learning is used as a tool to deliver a facet of the curriculum, while gamification is a pedagogical style used to deliver the entirety of the curriculum.

The idea behind gamification of learning is to increase student engagement. By gamifying the curriculum, the teacher uses game elements like badges, levels, and experience points to keep the student engaged and motivated to learn (Kingsley & Grabner-Hagen, 2015). According to game designer, researcher, and author Jane McGonigal, human spend over 3 billion hours a week playing online video games (TED, 2010). These are participants intrinsically motivated to do something he or she enjoys doing. This level of engagement is ravenously desired in the classroom by all teachers. The more the student is engaged in the curriculum, the more he or she is intrinsically motivated to continue to learn (Archer, 2015). In the classroom the student is a child or teenager, depending on the grade level. However, not all students are children.

Professional Development

In campus based professional development, the student is most likely an experienced teacher who has millions of other responsibilities besides sitting in a required professional development session. The teachers are extrinsically motivated to attend the session. He or she attends in order to avoid retribution from administration (Archer, 2015). Learning does not occur in these types of sessions; the teacher is there in body but not in mind. In order to deliver the district and campus vision to teachers, it becomes the goal of the campus and district to find ways to intrinsically motivate teachers in their professional development.

Teachers are always searching for ways to motivate student learning. Unfortunately, when it becomes time for the teacher to be the student that motivation is challenging at best and non-existent at worst. Professional development is exactly as the name states: a method for professionals (in this case, teachers) to develop a facet of their teaching that needs improvement. Teachers are not born as masters in their field; he or she has developed into a master teacher by advancing their skill though learning. Therefore, a critical success in professional development is the intrinsic motivation of teachers to enhance their skill.

Gamification of Professional Development

Gamification of professional development is a radical method of deliverance of content. Campus based professional development is usually an isolated learning experience, with little schema and rarely scaffold in future professional development workshops. To gamify professional development, the campus based professional development is envisioned as an intertwined curriculum, not isolated learning experiences (Like, 2013). The gamified curriculum, as in online games, must also include a social aspect. With a socialization factor, such as a leaderboard, teachers are also intrinsically motivated to continue learning so that he or she does not fall behind their teaching partner, friend, or unknown colleague. Like (2013) supports that notion in his research when he states, “We found that posting players’ progress is the best motivator yet” (Like, 2013, p. 24).

There are definitely major challenges when implementing such a novel delivery of professional development. The potential for engagement once the newness factor has worn off is a major concern. Novelty, be in a new toy for a child or an innovative method of delivering professional development, can be a powerful motivator. Once the novelty has worn off, then the user or learner must be able to maintain the intrinsic motivation to keep learning and keep gaining experience points and levels. If the gamified learning is disorganized or not sufficiently motivating, user engagement will rapidly drop. In fact, “It may be argued that the mere introduction of technological aides in a course may not have a desired or measurable impact” (Grant, Shankararaman, & Loong, 2014).

Another major factor is also time investment for teachers. In a work day crammed with responsibilities, it can be a challenge to find the time outside of the traditional class day for professional development. Inservice days, scheduled student free days in the school year that are designed for professional development, can turn into administration-led information sessions. No learning takes place in those situations; teachers are merely relayed information that was passed to administrators from their administrators.

Conclusion

Innovation is scary. Many teachers are generally xenophobic when approached with something out of their pedagogical comfort zone. With a solidified infrastructure and intrinsic motivation, gamification of campus based professional development can become the engagement tool that presenters have been looking for. With effective, engaging, and meaningful professional development, not only do the teachers benefit but ultimately it is the students that will experience the greatest benefit of all.

References

• Archer, J. (2015, October 27). How does professional development affect your teaching? (D. L. Becker, Interviewer) League City, TX.
• Grant, E. S., Shankararaman, V., & Loong, J. L. (2014). Experimenting with gamification in the classroom. IEEE 6th Annual Conference on Engineering Education (pp. 79-83). IEEE.
• Hanus, M. D., & Fox, J. (2014, August 28). Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfaction, effort, and academic performance. Computers & Education, 80(2015), 152-161.
• Kingsley, T. L., & Grabner-Hagen, M. M. (2015, July/August). Gamification: Questing to integrate content knowledge, literacy, and 21st-century learning.Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(1), 51-61.
• Like, C. (2013, September/October). Mission possible. Learning & Leading with Technology, 22-26.
• TED (Director). (2010). Gaming can make a better world [Motion Picture]. TED.