Introduction and Context
My original goals for completing the Master of Arts in Learning Experience Design (MALXD) at Michigan State University were centered around becoming a better teacher for my students. However, during my first semester, I took a class on Adult Learning; it was through this course I was first introduced to theories of adult learning like andragogy and theoretical frameworks such as Context-Based Learning (Curtis, 2021; Hansman, 2001). I came to understand that adult learning could occur with the same care, thought, and implementation of evidence-based practices as the learning experiences I created for my teenaged students. As such, my goals quickly expanded. I set forth through the rest of my master’s program with an additional goal to learn how to create impactful professional development opportunities for myself and my colleagues.
One of the primary grievances I hear as a practicing teacher in regards to professional development is that it is often too broad and not tailored with the teacher’s needs in mind. Determined not to let my designs fall into the same category, I synthesized several theories and frameworks I learned in my MALXD courses to create five principles to guide me through all phases of a design, from brainstorming to execution and reflection. In short, I:
- believe in dignity and agency for all humans
- design experiences to nurture curiosity
- ground in frameworks of social justice and universal design
- evaluate technologies for ethical and academic use
- critically examine my own work to ensure I keep growing as a designer
With these principles in mind, I began thinking of what my fellow high school teachers would find useful in regards to professional development. Over the course of a semester, as I took Learning Design Leadership and Current Topics and Trends in Learning Design, I developed an Illuminated Leadership Plan that covers all aspects of a meaningful professional development: from brainstorming and information gathering, working with stakeholders to initial prototyping, researching best practices and effective facilitation to making a project scope and timeline with an evaluation and timeline for completion.
Ultimately, this project centered around a professional development opportunity to bring gamification to the high school history classroom. It grew from conversations with colleagues, a desire to keep helping my school provide the best education for its students, and the drive to bring relevant and personalized professional development to my colleagues. I feel that this project especially highlights the theories and frameworks that inform my designs and speaks to my skills as a designer.
Global Vision for Learning and Design
In my global vision for learning and education, I raise the issue that students increasingly need to cultivate soft skills like communication and collaboration to succeed as students, workers, and citizens in a globalized and digital world. One way to authentically bring these skills into the K-12 classroom is through project-based pedagogies like gamification and game-based learning. These pedagogies not only provide opportunities to develop soft skills, they are also more equitable approaches that garner student interest and value students as individuals.
To begin implementing my global vision for learning, I focused on the school I currently work at. While considering how to bring change to my organization in regards to pedagogy, I spoke to a few of my colleagues and students. In these conversations I discovered a few additional needs: the history department has a lower pass rate among core classes; and, teachers at the school want applicable and relevant professional development that is treated with fidelity. These are important elements that need to be considered, but without careful planning, my vision could easily become unmanageable.
Illuminated Leadership Plan
With this in mind, I developed a project scope to address these ideas while still remaining manageable for the team working with the project. I outline what is in scope and out of scope for the project while working with current organizational constraints and stakeholder considerations. For example, this project needs administrator approval, input from subject matter experts, and alignment with current district objectives. I also provide a timeline and rough estimation of budget.
Image: proposed timeline and milestones for the project
I then created an implementation plan in three parts. The initial part of the project consists of creating a team, getting input from the history department staff, prototyping, and then testing the professional development. The midpoint of the project is the actual professional development session where staff will have the opportunity to acquaint themselves with gamification or game-based learning. I created a prototype for the professional development session to demonstrate how facilitating a session for teachers with varying levels of experience could provide opportunities for learning and growth for all participants.
Project Background and Objectives
To address the need for improved pass rates as well as applicable and tailored professional development for experienced teachers in the secondary history classroom, I developed a professional development learning module: Games and Gamification in the History Classroom.
Intended for the history department at the school I work at, this module takes into account the varied levels of experience with gamification and gamified learning the staff members have, allowing for individual exploration as well as group discussion to ensure the staff is able to plan together. This module has four parts: introduction to gamification and learning gaming theory, ways to apply it, examples of application, and brainstorming for application in the staff member’s classroom. Staff members can explore modules individually or with grade-level teams and then discuss their findings with the department as a whole. By the end of the module, 80% of staff members should be able to, with accuracy and self-efficacy:
- define gamification and gamified learning
- explain how to apply the methods in effective ways
- apply the methods in their classrooms
Informed by theories of andragogy and respect for the experiences staff members bring, this slides deck allows teachers to guide the session based on their interests, and then work with their colleagues to discuss the practicality of implementation. Finally, in order to assess the success of the professional development, the last portion of the project is devoted to getting feedback from the staff members.
Evaluation and Feedback from Learners
Evaluating a project throughout its duration is critical to helping the project stay within scope, provide accountability for those working on it, and ensure the project meets the outlined goals. As this project is broken down into three parts, I focused on three areas for evaluation. During the pre-project phase, evaluation is centered on following the workflow and sticking to project objectives. While this seems fairly rigid, spaces for teamwork and initiative can be brought in through collective leadership styles and supportive coaching.
With the implementation phase, evaluation comes directly after the professional development session in the form of feedback from the participants. While this type of feedback can give some initial ways for the facilitators to know what went well and what can be improved, it does not show what the participants learned and how they implemented it. In order to evaluate the success of the project, I created an evaluation plan in the form of a self-reflection survey for staff members to complete after they used either a game-based lesson or a gamification element in the classroom.
Image: A section from the Google Survey Evaluation asking staff to submit the work they created
A self-reflection ensures the staff member is able to authentically use the information from the professional development, while also showing the professional development team how the information was taken and applied in context.
Project Phases and Evaluation from a Leadership Lens
As the goal of this professional development is independent application of the pedagogy, I chose Thalheimer’s (2018) Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM) for evaluation purposes. At the top levels of the LTEM model, learners are able to transfer the skills on their own to create change and at the highest level, impacting the environment and culture around them. However, this project has several phases, so it must be evaluated in parts.
The project timeline is broken down into three phases. The first phase is pre-project: a small professional development team will recruit staff, gather data, create the professional development, revise, and refine the project for implementation at a district-wide professional development. The presentation I created is merely a working prototype and should be adjusted based on teacher input; therefore, pre-project evaluation needs to be centered on adherence to project scope, timeliness, quality of the professional development, and alignment of project with learner objectives. Effectiveness at this step means the needs of the history department have been ascertained and addressed through the creation of the slides.
During the project, which is the actual professional development session where a facilitator will guide staff members through the module, the teachers will self-report their ability to meet the objectives via exit ticket. However, according to LTEM, this is not an accurate measure of application, so staff will need to complete a final self-evaluation upon completion of using gamification/gamified learning in the teacher’s classroom.
Post-evaluation of this project utilizes Thalheimer’s (2018) Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model. In accordance with the LTEM model, I will be looking at step seven, where the “learner demonstrat[es] full agency of the learning” by performing the learning objectives in authentic context. This method focuses on the authenticity of implementation by granting teachers full-agency to choose a time and content area that works best for them and their students. Learners will fill out a Google Survey that will be shared with the professional development team. This self-reflection requires full-transfer of meaningful gamification/gamified learning in the classroom (Thalheimer, 2018). Once data has been collected, it will be coded for effectiveness and areas for improvement. Effectiveness looks like alignment between learning objectives, the gamification or gamified learning element, and assessment. Based on the reflection, if staff meaningfully implemented gamification/gamified learning, the next steps will be to continue refining resources. If it appears there is a disconnect between two or more of the elements, future professional development can address these discrepancies.
Conclusion
Though I am proud of many of the designs I created across the time spent in the Master of Arts in Learning Experience Design program at Michigan State University, this project stands out. Grounded in my beliefs about learning, informed by stakeholder needs, and planned using field-specific frameworks and models, the professional development I created centered around gamification in the history classroom highlights my ability to create informed professional development experiences from both a facilitation and leadership perspective.
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