Now that online games have become so popular among K-12 students, school and district administrators can use gamification techniques to create a positive school climate and encourage positive behavior by individual students who have differing needs.
Shawn Young, co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, explained during a recent edWebinar how gamification techniques can be combined with research-based approaches such as Response to Intervention (RTI), to create engaging and systematic Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).
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Shawn pointed out that esports—the playing of online games—have become one of the most popular activities for young people across all demographic and social segments of the school-age population. And gaming has evolved into a cultural medium with its own processes that many students find engaging and motivating, so using similar approaches to improve behavior and school environments with gamification is a natural extension that can prove popular and successful.
Gamifying PBIS
The application of gaming techniques to PBIS works well because games are so engaging, and many are built to provide intrinsic motivation. They often develop autonomy, meaning and competence, and so are aligned with self-determination theory. They also provide zones of proximal development, enabling players to make continued progress, and many games enable young people to build social relationships through their participation.
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