PSYC FPX 3770 Assessment 2 Motivation and Performance in Education

PSYC FPX 3770 Assessment 2 Motivation and Performance in Education

Student Name

Capella University

PSYC FPX 3770 Psychology of Human Motivation and Performance

Prof. Name:

Date

Motivational Problems in Education

• With the advancement of technology, today’s children are constantly surrounded by new and intriguing gadgets that occupy much of their free time.
• Modern children often struggle to stay motivated to learn educational material due to outdated teaching methods.
• Without an engaging approach to maintain their motivation for education, students’ self-efficacy declines, leading to a decrease in academic performance (Griffiths, 2002).

Solution

• Educational video games can boost a student’s confidence and motivate them to engage academically.
• Video games foster socialization, analysis, and critical thinking skills.
• Encouraging friendly competition among students and providing teacher support can enhance children’s motivation to succeed both in games and in classwork (Griffiths, 2002).

Motivational Theory

• The motivational theories of self-efficacy and reinforcement suggest that by enhancing a student’s confidence in their ability to complete tasks through the intrinsic and/or extrinsic rewards provided by video games, their motivation to participate in educational activities can increase.
• Students who experience success and rewards in games for tasks like spelling may be more inclined to participate in school activities and lessons related to spelling compared to those who lack confidence in their ability to perform such tasks (Griffiths, 2002).

Scholarly Article

• Researchers studied the effects of kindergarteners playing educational video games on their academic achievement.
• The students were divided into two groups, with one group required to spend 40 minutes daily playing video games.
• The study concluded that playing educational video games enhanced the children’s educational skills and motivation to participate in school activities (Din & Calao, 2011).
• Researchers theorized that educational video games could benefit students of all ages in advancing to the next level of learning.
• A group of 100 undergraduate students participated in an online assessment to measure cognitive skills, educational motivation, and confidence.
• The study required half of the students to spend time playing constructive video games.
• The results indicated that educational video games helped students feel more prepared for their coursework and increased their overall motivation (Barr, 2017).
• A review of 55 studies on educational video games revealed that the vast majority of participants experienced some form of educational and/or cognitive growth from playing video games.
• However, researchers emphasized the importance of selecting appropriate video games to develop specific skills and noted limitations in predicting educational motivation based on individual differences in learning habits (Kafai, 2016).

Summary

• Video games can help address issues related to educational motivation in students of all ages.
• However, there are potential negative outcomes associated with video game play among students, including decreased patience.
• Research involving various games and a wide range of students still supports the use of educational video games, suggesting that the negative outcomes could be minimal or nonexistent with proper guidance (Kafai, 2016).

References

Barr, M. (2017). Video games can develop graduate skills in higher education students: A randomized trial. Computers & Education, 113, 86–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.05.016

Center For Self-Determination Theory. (2021). The Theory – selfdeterminationtheory.org. Selfdeterminationtheory.org. https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/the-theory/

Din, F. S., & Calao, J. (2011). The effects of playing educational video games on kindergarten achievement. EBSCOhost. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.library.capella.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=42b2ce3e-fb7a-458e-89a4-1b43088591ee%40pdc-vsessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=5656752&db=ehh

Griffiths, M. (2002). The educational benefits of videogames. https://sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh203mg.pdf

PSYC FPX 3770 Assessment 2 Motivation and Performance in Education

Kafai, Y. (2016). Constructionist gaming: Understanding the benefits of making games for learning. Educational Psychologist. https://www-tandfonline-com.library.capella.edu/doi/full/10.1080/00461520.2015.1124022

Miller, K. (2019, March 23). The psychology and theory behind flow (Incl. definition). PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/theory-psychology-flow/

Reid, G. (2012). Motivation in video games: A literature review. The Computer Games Journal, 1(2), 70–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03395967