If you told me that students as young as first grade can learn to solve complex linear equations—an algebraic concept that generally isn’t taught until the seventh or eighth grade—in as little as 90 minutes, I would shake my head in disbelief. According to researcher and game designer Dr. Zoran Popovic, I would be wrong. In an experiment with huge implications for student success, he found this was entirely possible, provided that students are immersed in the right kind of learning ecosystem.

But Popovic also has shown that students can learn very complicated subjects in a short amount of time with the help of carefully designed games and other environmental factors. What’s more, his research suggests that we should seriously rethink the reward systems we use to spur student success, especially for students who are struggling the most.

To encourage student success most broadly, Popovic says educators should give their students open-ended problems or challenges to explore, then look at how they approach solving those problems.

“It’s completely counterintuitive,” he says. “If you just change what you focus on, and focus on (the problem-solving) process and these meta-skills, (students) not only will be more successful at solving things, but they will actually do more than if they’re directly rewarded based on how much work they do.”

 

Read the source article at eSchool News