Work in Progress

Can games in a tenth grade history classroom make an impact on knowledge acquisition?


Problem and Purpose
Several researchers have started exploring the possibility of games in education, but not just educational games. Immersive, massive multi user role-playing games have brought a new spin on learning within education that is still in the early phases of research. I want to explore the role and capacity in which games play in the classroom. I will be running a quasi-experimental design at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C.. A control group and an experimental group of students will be tested on the same material 3 times through the semester, but have the information presented in two different formats. One format being lecture, text based curriculum. The other delivery method will be game-based curriculum with facilitation from the teacher.
The content mastery will be measured to show if game play actually increases, content knowledge and accuracy.
The purpose of this quasi-experimental study will be to test the theory of Role Playing Games in curriculum within the classroom from lecture and text-based curriculum, for the eleventh graders at McKinley Technology High School. The independent variables will be defined as the role playing game used. The dependent variable will be defined as the teacher in the classes, and the students, and the control and intervening variables will be the curriculum will be statistically controlled in the study.
Research Design
The design of this research is a qualitative analysis and quasi-experimental design. The interpretive purpose is to understand how games impact learning in a high school classroom through observation and pre-mid-and post testing. The students will then be measured on their mastery of the history curriculum for the tenth grade unit. These scores will be compared to each other to look if there are differences between classrooms that incorporate games to those that do not.
Definitions
For the purpose of this study, the following definitions will be used:
∑ Student- tenth grade student at McKinley High School participating in the study.
∑ Teacher- Certified District of Columbia Public School teacher at McKinley participating in the study (DCPS)
∑ DCPS Curriculum- Curriculum mandated by the district to be taught by the public school teacher.
∑ Student Achievement- student scores based on testing in the study related to curriculum content mastery.
Sources of Data and collection strategies
One of the most innovative schools incorporating gaming into curriculum is McKinley High School. McKinley is in the heart of Washington, D.C. only 12 blocks from the Capitol, sitting on the corner of T Street, three stories high, consuming 200,000 square feet. The school was recently re-opened with state of the art technology in every classroom. Several cross-platform labs, a motion-capture studio and even a game design program for high school students are on the roster at this school. 2 groups of tenth graders will be tested in this experiment that have the same teacher. One class will be delivered instruction without games, one with the use of Civilization IV. Students will take a pre-test before the semester begins, based on content objectives for the county curriculum guidelines. Students will then be tested at midterm, and at the end of the study for content mastery.
Data Collection Tools
I will be creating these tools based on the DCPS curriculum for the tenth grade history class. Alongside the teacher, I will make sure an accurate depiction of content mastery is evaluated in this study. We will be creating a pre-test, midterm test, and posttest for students to take. The DCPS content objectives will be considered and correlated to the tests (See Appendix A).
Considerations for use of human subjects
I believe this study will be exempt from the IRB review, but I will take the necessary steps with the school to expedite the process there as well. Subjects will only be identified by category (teacher, student, etc.). No specific names or titles will be used.
Other considerations
Things such as validity and reliability of instrumentation, scoring, and achievement of research purpose are areas that I am still working on and will continue to develop up until the research is conducted.