I am noticing a trend in the approaches we have been covering as of late. Most of them deal with allowing the students to learn by applying content to real-world situations. For the most part I am normally a supporter of this method, since it is a method I often use myself. Call my cynical, but I am less impressed with GBL than some of the other methods we have previously looked at. This may partially due to the fact that this is the first time I have been formally exposed to GBL and perhaps I do not fully understand it. I like the fact that a skill set is identified and then the lesson is built around creating a scenario or activity which will teach the student to apply those skills.
But after reading the scenarios and some of the applications of GBL, I did see a few things that I found undesirable. I feel that sometimes, and in some of the scenarios, educators put far too much effort into catering to the student. Before I go any further, let me preface by saying that we SHOULD cater to the students learning needs and attempt to convey content in a way which they find interesting and meaningful. Sometimes games and fun-activities are a good thing and can prove to be very effective. However, I feel like sometimes it is easy to get carried away and the activity is more about fun and entertainment than education. I can recall times in my own education experience where this would happen. Sure, I had fun...but I don't feel like I learned that much. It seemed there was a great deal of time invested in an activity that offered little content, in other words...it was inefficient.
To be honest, there are just some subjects or areas of study that it is hard to get a student excited and willing to learn about. This is especially true in mandatory courses. For myself, math was always one of these subject areas. Later in life, I grew to appreciate math and see it's relevance but as a high school student, I was less enthusiastic. I noticed I was not the only one. It seemed like some of the teachers would often devise games and activities similar like some of the GBL scenarios I have been reading about. They didn't typically help me to learn the content, and seemed more like a busy-work assignment or a game.
Again, I realize I sound cynical, but perhaps I am speaking more to improper application of this technique. Maybe I will have to actually use some of these GBL scenarios and get a little better acquainted before I can make a complete judgment.
I think you offer a healthy dose of cynicism :) and I agree good application/execution can make all the difference, though bad examples are probably easier to find than exemplary ones.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned being supportive of applying real-world scenarios for the most part - and that made me wonder about how GBS seems to take real world scenarios but then makes them artificial to create a learning environment. For younger students perhaps the artificial aspect is necessary but I wonder if that would offer less appeal for older students and adults?
Zac,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we can get carried away with games and activities and not really learn much. I was in a situation where Goal Based Learning really helped. I had to take an Army Equal Opportunity Class. This class would qualify me to handle any Equal Opportunity problems in my unit. We went through all the classroom training and, at the end, dealt with real-world scenarios. The instructor gave us feedback. I feel I learned a lot from the mistakes I made so that I would never repeat them in a real situation.
I'm not sure how I would grade someone using this system. It worked for adults in my situation. I'm just not sure if younger students have the maturity to handle Goal-Based Scenarios.
Good insight and I agree that as educators there is a fine balance between learning and playing - but when that balance is discovered - magic! I agree though that this model has the potential of being "abused" and Hsu and Moore actually began their article on GBS with this very point - that the problem with most instructional theories is that those incorporating them don't really understand the theory or have the educational expertise to know how to implement the theory effectively and correctly.
ReplyDeleteI think you approach this from an angle that we all need to keep in mind. We need to make sure that time spent in GBS is actually achieving that learning goals stated and not just playtime. From your description though, I wonder if the activities in your math classes were really GBS or just "learning games." As an elementary teacher, I sometimes play little games with my students to practice a skill (like multiplication facts or spelling patterns), but I wouldn't consider those activities to be Goal Based Scenarios, because they don't lay out a problem (or goal) for students to follow steps to solve. Well designed GBS places students in a scenario that they have to figure out and gives them valuable practice with specific content or skills. I think it's much more rare to see this in practice, but it's a good learning method when used correctly.
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