The power of leveling up

Your child is training themselves to get 1% better with each passing round through an upward spiralling feedback loop that looks like:

That leveling-up system in gaming (well-designed games, at least) can be a good motivator for kids to tackle some work seriously for small improvements.

They rise to the challenges in the in-game and keep pushing for excellence in a range of skills (beyond the quite apparent fine motor skills) such as:

Every time they reach a new level in the game, they may be rewarded with some degree of recognition… and a tiny shot of dopamine.

Games reinforce the player for increments, skill development, and accomplishment of challenges. And as for me, the non-clever parent whose child's eyes are so glued to the screen, I can see why it works.

learn resiliency stay engaged and motivated and learn a vast number of useful skills Not through endless feedback and iteration.

It's such a great system… if only it didn't mean your little one was stuck to a screen. Leveling-up education Gaming uses leveling-up to enhance engagement and skill building. But how does the same concept transfer in a more general sense to subjects within education?

Leveling up is when kids test themselves repeatedly in the challenge format. When kids are testing to do more, the test itself is constructive and motivating and based on improvement.

Testing kids as a means of defining them and assigning fixed scores demotivates the kids. This is an external, fixed, and judgment-based sort of testing.

This doesn't motivate the kids to level up. On the contrary.

A positive motivation or a leveling-up system, one that uses gaming constructs, can soften kids' distress and foster a more positive attitude in learning, position them as an active participant, as well as foster resilience and confidence .

No! You can do exactly the same by bypassing games or gamified learning, even if you or your kid isn't into these. Some other ways of doing this are:

Fixed-score tests that are externally driven are often a cause of stress, anxiety, and defeatism in kids. Tests test information of a child only at one point in time and do not include iteration, growth, or betterment.

This is unlike the endless rounds of self-testing-or challenges that your kid is happily, willingly, excitedly subjecting themselves to in-game.

So how might we translate the magic of leveling up into education?

Anything that has gamified learning, competition or debate creates challenges.

The way to spur a similar interest in small wins is to simply gamify everything under the sun from math to language arts to history.

For instance, a historical event or situation could be the setting for an escape room game that then presents a series of small challenges to a child-for example, finding a missing letter in the text, matching questions and concepts from the reading, or searching for hidden messages and codes.

This type of challenge creates a 'quest' that kids intrinsically find more fun than reading through a dry, boring text, trying to memorize key points of it, and then answering test questions about it.

This kind of challenge can be created by breaking learning objectives into manageable chunks that kids can digest quickly then leveled up by winning a small goal.

The secret to a great challenge? Smaller, achievable goals.

Gamified learning regularly uses a system of rewards to encourage kids to complete challenges. Think badges, certificates or special privileges.

Is that external motivation and therefore not really meaningful? Are we concerned that this kind of motivation isn't authentic because it isn't prompted by the child?

Yes, and no. Sure, rewards and certificates are external motivation.

But when that reward is linked to something bigger, kids are a heck of a lot more motivated: to read more closely in order to find the answer, to solve more math problems, to find out more history facts.

The challenge sets them aflame with determination and imagination -- and perhaps even good-natured competitiveness -- and they go deeper into the subject because they're invested in the quest.

This is merely the spark that sets children's intrinsic motivations in motion, to take on the challenge and delight of this quest for more knowledge and skill.

Reward milestones Points systems or leaderboards, if you are familiar with such ordinary instances in life, such as taking an online course, really are motivating.

Most of us, at any age, have a competitive streak somewhere within us and like to see how fast we can gain the lead. Even if 'ahead' means points on a board. The real 'ahead' is the skills we're building. The real win is the skills we get for ourselves, not who we defeat.

It is highly motivating and empowering for kids to be able to see progress and track it themselves. This gives them a sense of ownership in the process.

Compare this to being seated in front of a fixed-grade test, passively waiting for a teacher to hand back your grade. A fixed-grade test puts a kid into passive mode and fear mode.

Being an active participant in a point scoring system, receiving specific feedback as to what you can do better, knowing how to level up your skills, and having a clear path to moving up on a leaderboard? That's motivating. It puts kids in control. And a bit of healthy competition? That can be a useful thing — especially when your kid sees the results of their improved skills. Build in feedback and iteration

The leveling process of gaming is kind of like getting an endless series of constructive criticism rounds.

Of course it comes with a lot of beeping and "Mahhhh!!! You're dead" type of gaming noises, but it's also telling and showing kids pretty clearly what skills they need to improve.

Your kid is likely racing to test their skills again the second their avatar gets killed off in-game.

They know what they should try differently. They are figuring out what strategy, approach, or problem-solving they should improve. Their minds are calculating at lightning speed what their next strategy will be, their next move. The skills they need to improve.

Feedback. It's what kids thrive on to improve.

When we induct school learning with loops of constructive feedback, self-reflection and iteration, we support kids in developing a mindset and attitude similar to that for gaming.

Benefits as applied to school learning

We can import these game-inspired strategies into schooling. We can give the kids the same fun, growth-based experience they have in-game.

Of course, your child won't be nearly as stoked about solving their story like some better game-winning strategy.

But they will still be significantly more incentivized to continue working on it if they have a combination of:

Small, achievable challenges Points and reward systems Built-in feedback and iteration Can see the fruits of their incremental improvements

This strategy alone sets children of a growth mindset-a drive to continuous improvement, in small increments.

While these strategies keep children interested in the activity even if the drive is extrinsic and superficial, when they assume the quest or challenge, then the motivation becomes inward. They begin challenging themselves to do more and better.

1. Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Inquiry-Based Learning

In PBL, students are confronting a driving question or challenge that pushes them to the very spot where they have to apply a whole range of skills and knowledge.

Just like a game, PBL divides large projects into smaller, more digestible pieces, often tied to milestones and rewards; with feedback and iteration, they find their own unique solution to the challenge.

For example, environmental science PBL can be such an undertaking where the goal is to create a sustainable community, and your child would have incremental objectives like researching green technologies, making models, and presenting ideas.

Each achieved step is a 'level' that brings them closer to the ultimate goal. This would be no different than progressing through game levels. Each iteration would go just like the feedback loop in a game.

2. Socratic Questioning

This is a process using open-ended questions to guide explorations of the thoughts of the learners, clarify the reasoning they bring to the conversation, and have students understand the broader implications of their ideas.

Socratic questioning therefore uses the critical thinking and reflective self-process that can be likened to that iterative gaming feedback loop.

Imagine that your child is doing a homeschool lesson on global warming. The instructor may ask questions such as, 'What are the long-term effects of climate change on coastal cities?

As they discuss, they receive feedback from peers and their teacher or parent. The feedback shapes their ideas and arguments in refinements and is motivation for the same reasons in-game feedback is. It seems to them that their idea development is improving and now clearer.

3. Experiential Learning

Learning by doing, actually, is a very practical means by which children learn to apply their knowledge to life issues at hand. As a matter of fact, it adds small incremental challenges with immediate feedback, what video games sort of describe as an iterative cycle.

For example, suppose your child is working on a science experiment involving creating a simple robot. They can try out their designs, receive instant feedback, and adapt. Every iteration makes them better at understanding and executing — like leveling up.

4. Competitions and Debates

Organized debates with defined goals, problems, and rewards can be very engaging to children just like a game.

Maybe your child is interested in current events. The debate of a current issue can encourage them to engage in research, strategy, and the presentation of arguments. They will immediately experience feedback and rewards as they perform.

Each of these game alternatives avails themselves of the very heart of gamification: incremental progress, feedback, and rewards-without gaming-to make learning more engaging and effective.

Gaming is fun. And learning is fun… when kids are active participants.

By taking a cue from the underlying strategies that make in-game leveling-up fun, and applying them to school learning, it enables kids the chance to be active participants and to take ownership of their skill-building, and ideas.

This allows them to see and celebrate small wins, the tiny milestones of progress. It inspires them to challenge themselves to do more, and better.

And is not that something we love about leveling up our skills? It's fun and makes you excited to do more and better.