the tenet of engagement that invokes an active, intentional cycle.
1. Create and clarify the target (find a new problem or level).
2. Make an initial plan of action (experience frustration).
3. Experiment and try the initial plan (experience frustration).
4. Seek feedback and complete data collection (develop new skills).
5. Reflect by reading and processing the feedback (develop new skills).
6. Change or continue with the plan of action (solidify skills through repetition and closely leveled applications).
7. Change or continue experimenting (experience positive feeling from repeated success).
8. Adjust the target (find a new problem or level that requires new learning).
9. Repeat these steps.
As an example, in elementary schools around the world, students learn about life cycles of butterflies and other living creatures. Through the lens of the active, intentional cycle, that learning might look something like the following.
* New problem level: Learning launches with a question such as, What is the life cycle of an animal? or How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?
* Frustration: The answers to those questions are full of sophisticated concepts and domain-specific vocabulary such as chrysalis, metamorphosis, and pupa. To push through this, a teacher might engage several modalities of instruction, including oral explanation, text-based information, and symbolic representation.
* Skill development and solidification: The teacher continues working with multiple modalities, layering in observations, experiments, and real-world experience (hatching caterpillars in the classroom) that students observe. All the while, students are practicing—through oral explanations and written descriptions—all the scientific concepts and domain-specific words.
* Positive feeling of mastery: Through formative assessment and continued work, students move from receptive to expressive, from receiving and experiencing the information to owning and sharing it.
* New problem level: Armed with their new knowledge, students are ready for new learning.
The process is similar in middle or high school, except that students bring their background knowledge.
* New problem level: Learning launches with a question such as, How is a butterfly’s life cycle similar to a frog’s life cycle? What is happening inside the chrysalis at a cellular level? or How does their habitat affect the life cycle of different butterfly species?
* Frustration: Conceptual understanding from previous learning is essential knowledge here. Students now figure out how to find the answers to the questions, pushing beyond what is easy to acquire in an effort to discover the most meaningful, relevant information.
* Skill development and solidification: Again, teachers continue the work through multiple modalities, layering in observations, experiments, and opportunities for students to demonstrate what they are learning.
* Positive feeling of mastery: The process in secondary school is much like that at lower grade levels, with students not only explaining the new knowledge but masterfully weaving in all prior knowledge as an anchor for new concepts and vocabulary.
* New problem level: The cycle begins again with new problems, questions, or opportunities for investigations.
Social, Collaborative Opportunities
Through this tenet, the learner engages in social, collaborative opportunities that grow expertise on a topic. The learning is shared not only between student and teacher but among everyone in the affinity space (which can include a meeting, an online discussion forum, or a playing field, among others). Students use networks like those described in chapter 5 (page 51) to build teams and create a kind of learning cooperative. They seek out physically close or virtual interactors. In addition to seeking feedback here, others in these spaces may view the student as an expert in some instances. For example, a student who creates a project in Minecraft and uploads it to YouTube has learned both content knowledge and peripheral skills around using Minecraft and screen capture technologies. As a result, other students who seek to replicate those actions might seek out this expert as one who can contribute to their learning processes.
Learners benefit cognitively from sharing their learning (Fawcett & Garton, 2005). We find that most learners also take solace in the fact that they are not in it alone; someone else is out there who has gone through this, or a similar journey, before. Whether someone guides the student through a particular challenge or offers guidance throughout the whole quest, he or she builds trust and rapport that can lead to future collaboration and supporting others who need assistance.
This space nurtures growth because of the many ways to participate and multiple routes to achieve status, all bound together by a common interest. For example, in John Hunter’s World Peace Game (http://worldpeacegame.org), students strategize and navigate complex challenges to help save the world. Through this process, students learn via deep conversation and experience the extended cycle of expertise’s frustration phase. Collectively, players examine alternate pathways to grow from that failure, increasing their problem-solving skills and abilities to ask higher-level-thinking questions (about strategy and resources). The comments sections on Minecraft YouTube videos are another example. They are replete with conversations and instructional videos between novices and experts—a perfect example of social, collaborative learning. In these kinds of spaces, novices try their skills. These affinity spaces are in stark comparison to classrooms, where students are at times afraid to ask questions or nervous to try something new. Questing helps foster technological and information literacy, which are crucial 21st century skills (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, n.d.).
The quest’s goal is to have meaningful learning moments that grow expertise, not necessarily to produce experts in each quest. In fact, during a questing experience a learner may realize that he or she no longer enjoys the topic or field of study. This too can be very powerful learning, and the learning community can celebrate as deeply as when realizing a great passion and love for a topic.
Design Options
The remainder of this chapter explores three design options that are helpful in designing contemporary questing experiences. For each option—(1) question design, (2) game design, and (3) network design—we will provide a brief overview as well as make explicit connections to the tenets of engagement. Whether you are dipping your toe in the water or are a burgeoning expert in inquiry, gaming, or networking in affinity spaces, you will guide students toward options that are right for them and for your classroom during a quest. Students can participate in one or all of these designs depending on the amount of time you have and your resource range (such as technology, games, off-site visits, and the like). We explore each design—question, game, and network—more fully in chapter 3 (page 25), chapter 4 (page 35), and chapter 5 (page 51).
Question Design Choices
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