Productive failure in learning from generation and invention activities

Kapur, Manu; Rummel, Nikol

doi:10.1007/s11251-012-9235-4

Cited by 60 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Failure is often perceived as a negative, undesirable event, that creates feelings of sadness, inadequacy, frustration, and confusion (D'Mello, 2013). However, the importance of introducing challenges and cognitive conflict to enhance learning is well recognized (D'Mello, 2013;Kapur, 2008Kapur, , 2014Kapur & Rummel, 2012). Specifically, Gadamer (1998) suggests that negativity-in the form of irritation, disillusionment, and failure-facilitates learning by exposing the learner to something new about a concept that highlights the limitations of their prior knowledge and of their own consciousness, allowing them to reach a new horizon of consciousness through the experience.…”

Section: [Insert Figure 1]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When designed to be followed by a productive response (i.e. learning), failure is referred to as productive failure or productive negativity (Gadamer, 1998;Kapur, 2008Kapur, , 2014Kapur & Rummel, 2012). Productive negativity can play a particularly important role in misconception identification and resolution (further discussed in Section 2.3.1), as well as in gameplay (Section 2.3.2); our serious game and interactive simulation are designed to facilitate productive negativity to help students resolve misconceptions about the random nature of molecular environments.…”

Section: [Insert Figure 1]mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Designing productively negative experiences with serious game mechanics: Qualitative analysis of game-play and game design in a randomized trial

Gauthier

Jenkinson

2018

Computers & Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Design, rather than medium, ultimately predicts learning outcomes, but the game-based learning literature has had difficulty successfully linking game design decisions to learning behaviours and outcomes. The current research investigates how explicit game design strategies can promote productive negativity (i.e. learning from failure), which has been identified as an important mechanism in both gaming and learning. We performed a randomized controlled trial with undergraduate biology students to investigate how game design might facilitate misconception resolution about random molecular behaviour through productive negativity. Students engaged with either a computer-based interactive simulation (n=20) or serious game (n=20) for 30 minutes, while their computer screens were recorded and click-stream data collected. We described in detail the theoretical framework underpinning our serious game and simulation using the Activity Theory Model of Serious Games (ATMSG); qualitatively coded and analysed video recordings of gameplay; and visually overlaid this data with the ATMSG models to draw conclusions about how game-design decisions influence learning-related behaviours. We found that the serious game resulted in significantly more productively negative experiences, while the interactive simulation allowed for greater exploratory or experimental behaviours. Based on our analyses of the qualitative gameplay data, we were able to recommend three game design strategies to enhance the occurrence of desired game-flow loops (e.g. productive negativity) with respect to an ATMSG framework: 1) including additional game mechanics on the primary game-flow axis of the ATMSG framework (i.e. mandatory interactions) limits the exploratory nature of the application; 2) integrating two or more primary-axis mechanics in a game-flow loop increases the frequency of interaction with this loop; and 3) gameplay loops that involve mechanics that fall off the primary-axis (i.e. nonmandatory mechanics) occur less frequently than those which involve primary-axis (i.e. mandatory) mechanics. This study is one of the first to successfully make direct comparisons between students' interactions in a game and a non-game application to provide concrete and actionable serious game design recommendations.

show abstract

Section: [Insert Figure 1]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: [Insert Figure 1]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing productively negative experiences with serious game mechanics: Qualitative analysis of game-play and game design in a randomized trial

Gauthier

Jenkinson

2018

Computers & Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, struggle and inevitable failure in the process of inventing solution strategies are conceptually beneficial [14,15]. Given appropriate design, students can discover key aspects of conceptual systems.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reverse scaffolding

Chase

Abrahamson

2015

Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the context of a design-based research effort to develop a technology-enabled constructivist algebra unit, a new activity architecture emerged that steps students through discovery levels. As they build a virtual model of a problem situation, students figure out technical principles for assuring the model's fidelity to the situation. These construction heuristics, we find, are precisely the conceptual foundations of algebra, such as tinkering with the model to assure that the variable quantity is of consistent size throughout the model. We articulated these principles as situated intermediary learning objectives (SILOs). At each interaction level, the student discovers a SILO, and then the technology takes over by automatizing that SILO, thus freeing the student for further discovery. We call this architecture reverse scaffolding, because the cultural mediator thus relieves learners from performing what they know to do, not from what they do not know to do. In a quasi-experimental evaluation study (Grades 4 & 9; n=40), reverse-scaffolding students outperformed directscaffolding students, for whom the technical features were preautomatized. We speculate on the architecture's generalizability.

show abstract

“…Kapur's work on Productive Failure (Kapur, 2008(Kapur, , 2014Kapur & Bielaczyc, 2012;Kapur & Rummel, 2012;Kapur, Voiklis, & Kinzer, 2005) suggests that students dealing with "desirable difficulty" (for example, solving ill-structured problems without scaffolding) experience cognitive processes such as the exploration of a problem space and the differentiation of prior knowledge, which contribute to learning. In this study, the dyads' reflection on Analogue FF might have led to similar processes, which contributed to their learning with Analogue FF.…”

Section: Discussion With Regard To Analoguesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can “less” create “more” in analogical reasoning?

Huang

Kapur

2015

Learning: Research and Practice

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Successful analogical reasoning requires an analogue in a source domain to have high degrees of structural and surface similarity with a learning task in a target domain. It also requires learners to have sufficient source-and target-domain knowledge. We review the literature and speculate that "less" might create "more"; in some situations, analogies that have fewer degrees of similarity may be more effective for learning. In this exploratory study, we engaged eight school leaders in dyads to develop a bottomup perspective on innovation diffusion through analogical reasoning. The qualitative data in the study appear to echo our speculation. The dyads that have less prior targetdomain knowledge face challenges with regard to innovation diffusion when they learn with analogues that have more degrees of similarity -both structural and surface. They, however, are able to learn with analogues that have fewer degrees of similarity. Learning was shown to take place when the dyads reflected on an analogue first, before they compared the analogue and innovation diffusion to make any analogical inferences. Although constrained by the exploratory nature of the study, the findings provide preliminary evidence that "less" is possible to create "more" in analogical reasoning under certain conditions, implying an interesting direction for experimental examination in future.

show abstract

Productive failure in learning from generation and invention activities

Cited by 60 publications

References 22 publications

Designing productively negative experiences with serious game mechanics: Qualitative analysis of game-play and game design in a randomized trial

Designing productively negative experiences with serious game mechanics: Qualitative analysis of game-play and game design in a randomized trial

Reverse scaffolding

Can “less” create “more” in analogical reasoning?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About