#STUDENT AHA MOMENT HOW TO#

With games, every player knows that the solution is there to be figured out if they stick with it. Games can also increase studentsвЂ™ persistence in the face of failure. First, games can offer a safe place to fail over and over, gaining new information, updating our model, and carving newer or deeper pathways. With this understanding of the perception-action cycle, itвЂ™s plain to see how games can be extra powerful learning environments. If the feedback is in line with our existing model, it reinforces our model and strengthens the neural pathways underlying it.Д«ut when we get something wrong, if the right immediate informative feedback is available, we gain valuable information about what is right, and that not only informs our understanding of the question at hand, it triggers our brains to extend existing schema or create entirely new ones. As we take action based on that model, we get feedback from our environment. Our brains form a model of how the world works based on past experiences-a schema-and then use that model to make predictions about new stimuli. One of these systems, which neuroscientists call the perception-action cycle, shows that human beings learn much better by actively doing than by passively being told. Our brains come equipped with powerful learning systems, and if we design materials to match these systems we can learn very efficiently and effectively.

With a focus on how our brains actually learn, properly designed games can help students persist and develop a conceptual understanding of the material that is not dependent on rote memorization. But educational games can offer a lot more than increased engagement. Who doesnвЂ™t like games? As educators, we know our students are playing them, and we know that students learn better when they are intrinsically motivated to engage with material. ItвЂ™s easy to see why educational games are appealing. It turns out that we know enough about the brain to make aha moments happen for students, and games are good vehicles for inspiring them. As profound as it felt to me to inspire my students, these moments are even more powerful for the students to whom math suddenly makes sense, to whom college may no longer feel out of reach.

#STUDENT AHA MOMENT HOW TO#

I decided that I wanted to learn how to make those moments happen at scale. There were many aha moments for him along the way and, more importantly, a future with college in it, but it required a lot of investment and hard work from both of us-and that was for one student!

I worked with him through the regular semester and summer school, and he progressed from Algebra I through AP Calculus in about two years. I had a student in his junior year who was years behind as a result of illness and was struggling to catch up. Of course, those moments donвЂ™t happen every day, and I learned just how hard it can be to create them myself shortly after that experience. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I thought, вЂњOh my God, I want that to happen every day.вЂќ I still remember the first time students in my high school geometry class had one of those вЂњaha moments.вЂќ I was drawing a conclusion on the board, and I heard an audible gasp from half the class as they thought, вЂњOh, wow, I get it!вЂќ

Student aha moment