The Impact of Collaborative Play and Achievement Motivation on Learning From a Physics Game

• In Event: Designing and Implementing Educational Games: Exploring How to Increase the Effectiveness of Games for Learning

Abstract

The purpose of the two studies presented in this paper are: (1) to assess the impact of collaborative play in a physics game on physics learning gains, (2) to evaluate differences in the influence of motivational and attentional covariates, and (3) to examine the role of specific language and dialog in support of play and formal learning gains. These experiments used two different versions of our game (EGame) in which students navigated a spherical ship to a target using forces with particular magnitudes, durations, and directions (see Fig. 1). Students also completed the attention network test (ANT), the short form of the questionnaire on current motivation (QCM), and a physics assessment (different across the two experiments). The studies were conducted at two public middle schools during regular science class hours with a total of 4 classes and 78 students. Subsets of dyads in the collaborative conditions were recorded for discourse analysis.
Analyses suggest that collaborative learning had an inconsistent influence on learning. In the first experiment, no significant learning gains were observed, but the collaborative group did improve more, F(1, 26) = 5.45, p = .03, η_p^2 = .17, on near-transfer vector combination problems (Mgain = 29.5%, SD = 33.3%) than the non-collaborative group (Mgain = 19.4%, SD = 25.1%) with covariates included in the model. In the second experiment, all items on the assessment involved similar near transfer (grouped into Newton’s 1st and 2nd Law questions). Students did show gains in this experiment, but the collaboration conditions did not differ.
Analyses of covariate influences on post-test scores (controlling for pre-test baselines) showed that motivation covariate effects differed by collaboration condition across experiments. In Experiment 1, the interactions with interest and probability of success ratings resulted from a positive trend for the non-collaborative group and a negative trend for the collaborative group. The opposite pattern was observed for anxiety covariates. Experiment 2 supported this finding with similar patterns for probability of success and anxiety covariates. However, the relationship with interest was the opposite of Experiment 1, with lower ratings relating to higher performance in the non-collaborative group.
These studies extend research on the learning benefits of collaboration in games (Wouters, van Nimwegen, van Oostendorp, & van der Spek, 2013) and the benefits of collaboration on abstraction in problem solving (Schwartz, 1995). The study suggests that collaboration may alter the effects of achievement motivation on learning. Specifically, it seems that students’ estimates of their success and anxiety may be better predictors in the expected directions during non-collaborative play. Thus, collaboration may reduce the role of individual motivational factors in learning. Analyses of language provide deeper insight into the meaning of these aggregate effects.

Authors

• Stephen Killingsworth, Vanderbilt University

• Douglas Clark, Vanderbilt University

• Pratim Sengupta, Vanderbilt University