Collaboration scripts for mastership skills: online game about classroom dilemmas in teacher education

Serious games are seen to hold potential to facilitate workplace learning in a more dynamic and flexible way. This article describes an empirical study into the feasibility of an online collaboration game that facilitates teachers-in-training to deal with classroom management dilemmas. A script to support these students in carrying out such practical tasks, independent of teacher intervention and in collaboration with peers, was designed and worked out in both a faceto-face and an online version of a ‘mastership’ game. After assigning and discussing practical dilemmas during a small group play session, solutions are worked out individually in the form of small advisory reports, and assessed by both teachers and peers (co-players in the group). Learning effects were measured and satisfaction was questioned for nine players that played the online version and ten players that played the face-to-face version of the game. Results show that the collaboration of students on classroom dilemmas can indeed be successfully facilitated by this script, and that learning results do not differ for both versions. The latter holds potential for offering online and more flexible ways of workplace learning. Especially students playing the online version reported needs for simpler structure and clearer task instruction. The optimal level of structure in collaboration scripts therefore appears an issue for further study. Collaboration Scripts for Mastership Skills 3 1. Collaboration and Serious Games for Workplace Learning Serious games are games that can educate, train or inform, either because they have been deliberately designed for learning or just happen to do so by coincidence. Educators call them ‘serious’ to denote that they are not just fun to play, but also hold potential as cognitive tools for learning and professional development (e.g., Michael & Chen, 2006; Prensky, 2006). Over the last decade it has been assumed that serious games offer many new learning opportunities and positive effects on learner motivation and learning outcomes, although empirical evidence has remained scarce so far (e.g., Kiili, 2007; Shaffer, 2006). Serious games not only support individual learning but can also mediate soft skills like collaboration, reflection and social communication about wicked problems, that are usually not addressed by other learning platforms (Gee, 2004). This introductory section will describe how serious games may facilitate professional workplace learning, especially when collaboration on practical problems is involved. The next section then explains what is the role of scripting in such online collaboration games. The third section will further focus on mastership skills and describe the game that lies under study here (i.e., teachers learning to deal with classroom dilemmas). Sections that follow describe the exploratory study we carried out with a small group of higher vocational education students. Half the group played a face-to-face and half played an online version of the mastership game, discussing and collaborating on classroom dilemmas in small groups of four or five. Method (section four) and results of this study are presented (section five) and discussed, together with suggestions for future research (section six). Workplace learning is no longer restricted to individuals acquiring or updating domain knowledge, but also has to deal with selecting and using this knowledge for certain problem H.G.K. Hummel et al. 4 situations in daily practice. Such learning is about acquiring competences like information skills and media literacy, problem-solving, communication and collaboration skills, and above all critical reflection. Today’s professionals will become lifelong learners that continuously have to face problem situations that are changing dynamically and rapidly. Furthermore, organisations’ tacit knowledge plays a crucial role in solving their problems but such knowledge can only be expressed and accessed in direct collaboration on authentic tasks. Professional tasks including collaboration, argumentation and negotiation are crucial for vocational education, especially when they aim to connect school knowledge to practical work. Serious collaboration games are considered to hold potential as more open, dynamic and flexible learning environments where such professional skills could be acquired through self-determined learning with little or none direct teacher intervention. We are interested to find out to which extent this holds true in educational practice, and what kind of learner support these learning environments then should contain to facilitate this kind of learning. Collaboration on practical problems or dilemmas can be about the game (and take place in a face-to-face context) or be an integral part of the online game (and take place in a virtual context) as well. In the latter case, such collaboration has to be enabled by the ‘didactic script’ or game play, which in this article will be denoted by ‘scripted collaboration’. Collaboration (argumentation or negotiation) scripts have been scarcely implemented within educational games so far. They will use the situated context (or authentic case) to have learners access tacit knowledge by sharing and co-creating new knowledge together (Bell et al., 2008). Collaboration Scripts for Mastership Skills 5 2. Collaboration scripts in serious games Games are heavily inspired by learning-by-doing and experiential learning principles which hold tremendous potential for contextualised workplace learning. The way players move, progress and navigate within serious games to a large degree will depend on their self-explorative way-finding behaviour and will often have a substantial trial-and-error component. Without any structure or cueing, this will surely not lead to effective learning. Which moves are evoked, how much erroneous or meaningful learning takes place, will depend on the learner support that is provided, shared and distributed in the gaming environment. Learner support helps students select most useful information, compare and reflect on multiple perspectives of others, and monitor task progress and quality of learning output. This article examines the extent to which collaboration scripts can provide such learner support for workplace learning, and as a consequence improve learning efficiency and output. Collaboration scripts (Kobbe et al., 2007) are an instructional method that structures the collaboration by guiding the interacting partners through a sequence of interaction phases with designated activities and roles. Optimizing the type and amount of structured collaboration are key issues of research here. Scripting collaboration was examined in CSCL (e.g., Gunawardena, Lowe & Anderson, 1997; Van Bruggen et al., 2002). Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments have shown to positively influence learning (e.g., Gunawardena, Carabajal, & Lowe, 2001). The interaction in CSCL between learners can lead to further elaboration and refinement of individually constructed schemata, since it (a) incites learners to make explicit the actual level of schema development and (b) demands them to explicitly compare their own schemata with schemata of others as to defend or criticize (Jeong & Chi, 2000). Dillenbourg and Jermann (2006) describe different core scripts, Hernandez Leo (2007) explored the potential of H.G.K. Hummel et al. 6 educational modeling languages to describe and implement particular collaboration scripts, and Kobbe et al. (2007) proposed a framework to describe collaboration scripts. However, such collaboration scripts have hardly ever been implemented and tested in more open learning environments like serious games. No research has focused on the structural aspects nor has measured the learning effects of including such scripts in serious game play. We see these games as a platform for both playful and motivating learning methods. Collaboration scripts in serious games may provide adequate learner support by cueing social processes (elaboration, explanation, argumentation, and question asking) that might otherwise not occur. Students are more likely to explore relevant perspectives than in unstructured collaboration. Dillenbourg (2002) mentions that a specification of how students should collaborate and solve the problem in an online environment requires five attributes: definition of the task, composition of the group, distribution of the task, the mode of interaction, and the timing of the phases. Especially the distribution of activity is essential for these scripts. For instance, in a ‘reciprocal teaching’ script one player has to read and understand while another player has to monitor the other’s understanding by asking questions and give feedback. Regarding the mode of interaction scripts may vary according to the degree of freedom learners are allowed in following the script. A low degree of ‘coercion’ in ‘induced scripts’ is elegant but often not sufficient to influence the collaborative processes. ‘Prompted’ or ‘follow me’ scripts have higher levels of ‘coercion’ and will steer the collaborative processes, at the risk of being perceived as too complex or rigid. Indeed, Dillenbourg reports a number of scripts (e.g., UniverSanté) that were perceived as too complex, and advises that scripts should be kept as simple as possible so that all actors are able to appropriate them. Collaboration Scripts for Mastership Skills 7 3. Mastership game: collaboration script for classroom dilemmas The cases under study here deal with (multiple perspectives on) classroom management dilemmas. What should a teacher do, for instance, when a pupil continues to disturb the lesson by insulting his peers. Should the problem be resolved during the lesson, even at the risk of loosing valuable time to the expense of the majority of students that is not involved in the conflict. Or should the problem be resolved after the class has been dismissed, even at the risk that disturbances will continue during the lesson. Teaching can be considered to be an exciting game. As a teacher without doubt you will have to face unexpected situations that demand you to find solutions on the fly. The NHL University of Applied Science offers a broad range of teacher training programs, and its Didiclass project set out to develop (video)cases for teachers-intraining to link the professional theory acquired to actual practice in the workplace (i.e., the actual classroom) (Geerts, Mitzsche, & Van Laeken, 2009). In the context of this Didiclass project, some experienced didactics teachers developed the Mastership game which helps students to find solutions to the some of the most prevailing practical classroom management dilemmas in a playful way, that will help them become better teachers. It can be assumed that collaborating on problems first will later increase their ‘professional productivity’, simply because exchanging information and looking from various perspectives will increase the quality of the individual solutions, as shown by some CSCL studies mentioned in the previous section (Gunawardena, Carabajal, & Lowe, 2001; Jeong & Chi, 2000). The Mastership game became available in a face-to-face version in 2010; an online version was developed to become operational in 2012, a version inspired by the same collaboration script. H.G.K. Hummel et al. 8 ---------------------------------------------------FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE ---------------------------------------------------The Mastership game can be played in small groups of two till six students and does not require any moderation or other intervention by teachers. After selecting their avatars, they start group play both in the role of player (or problem owner) and of co-player (judging the way that players solve their problems). The the game has a structure that consists of five consecutive phases, during which players discuss, elaborate and negotiate solutions to solve the problem. Communication is structured by various assignments and rules during these phases, but is possible by unstructured group chat as well. During the first phase players select three practical dilemmas, either out of a pile of twenty-four, most prevailing practical classroom dilemmas (i.e., “How to maintain control in a good way”, “How to deal with negative colleagues”, or “How to deal with a pupil that does not want to get coached”), or by formulating one of their own. Then each player selects the problem that is considered most important. During the second phase players draw an exploratory assignment (e.g., “Provide an exemplary experience that shows why this problem is important for you”). The elaboration is judged by the co-players until the group is satisfied. During the third phase players take turns in drawing theme cards (e.g., “professional development”, “dealing with losses”, or “lesson preparation”) that are placed at their co-players while motivating why this theme should be further explored in combination with the chosen dilemma, until every player has received three theme cards. In the fourth phase players will negotiate and discuss which theme cards may be declined. Co-players may use jury cards and ask further questions to challenge players to further motivate their declined cards before the group Collaboration Scripts for Mastership Skills 9 agrees on the final selection. During the fifth phase players select a practical assignment to further elaborate a solution for the problem in a short advisory report. (The learning materials and procedure subsections will describe how game play was organised and assessed for both versions.) The main hypotheses (research questions) to be answered in the next sections are fourfold: 1. It is feasible to implement collaboration scripts in small group play to support students in finding solutions to wicked professional problems, without further teacher intervention or guidance, while yielding sufficient learning outcomes; 2. It is possible to implement such a collaboration script in an online environment, without decreasing learning outcomes; 3. Students will appreciate the collaboration set-up within such game play; and 4. It is possible to have students profit from online support and interaction, without decreasing user satisfaction. In other words, this article addresses the effectiveness of and satisfaction with collaboration within serious gaming. 4. Method This method section will consist of consecutive paragraphs describing the way we have set up our exploratory study. After describing the participants and the learning materials we used, we describe the procedure and assessment instruments we used to measure the effectiveness of and the satisfaction with the scripted collaboration in both conditions.