Eat Your Vegetables and Do Your Homework: A Design-Based Investigation of Enjoyment and Meaning in Learning

Barab, Sasha, and Craig Jackson. "Eat Your Vegetables and Do Your Homework: A Design-Based Investigation of Enjoyment and Meaning in Learning." Educational Technology (2005): 15-21. Print.

            This article begins with a discussion of the natural act of learning as done by children.  Without formal schooling, they make sense out of sights and sounds, learning complex language skills while in this process (Vygotsky, 1978).  Barab contends that children progress to recognizing letters and reading within an atmosphere of play, not work.  Once they reach elementary school, learning becomes more closely associated to work; an act accomplished before they can go out to play.  A similar connotation emerges with a child having to eat vegetables before having desert.

            Barab’s core argument is:  “Is it possible to reconnect the two [learning as play] and do so even in the context of school?” [p. 15].  Specifically, “what if we were to combine the framework of gaming, with the content and inquiry-based pedagogy of schools, reuniting the early childhood experience of learning and play?” [p. 15].  While many schools are struggling for student attendance, the entertainment industry captures the passion and attention of kids.  This is often accomplished by the electronic gaming industry.

            Quest Atlantis developed out of these questions, which includes the three dimensions of education, entertainment, and social commitments.  While on the outside Quest Atlantis looks like a 3D, multi-user virtual game, it proves to incorporate “meaningful context for significant learning and pedagogy” [p. 15].  More specifically, it seeks to incorporate and foster deeper understandings of learning, playing, and helping.  This process is achieved through activities Barab describes as design-based research.  This type of research is meant to support learning (local needs), as well as, “advance a theoretical agenda, to uncover, explore, and confirm theoretical relationships” [Barab & Squire, 2004].  Design-based research involves a reflexive attitude on the design side of Quest Atlantis.

            This project, through “generating, testing, refining, and evolving theories of participation,” sought to preserve the inherent joy in the learning process.  Barab contends that Quest Atlantis is more than a technology, but more of a brand.   “It (includes) the multiple facets and attributes, both tangible and intangible, that communicate a certain type of experience between the players and the experience” [p. 16].  Barab poses three attributes of a theoretical process that underlies the Quest Atlantis:  learning, playing, and helping.   Additionally, Barab adds the context of motivation to these attributes to arrive at a theoretical framework that he titles “Learning Engagement Theory” [p. 16].

            Quest Atlantis, as described on the website of this virtual world, “is an immersive context with the potential to engage children in a form of socially-responsible dramatic play that has both fictional and non-fictional realities, and whose storyline inspires in children a disposition towards social action” (http://questatlantis.org) [p. 16].  Quest Atlantis (QA) is also described as an interactive narrative that includes:  a 3-D environment, storyline, novels, comics, Quests, social commitments, a mythical Council, a global community, etc.  QA seeks to promote within children the desire to take action upon larger issues within the world.  The narrative of QA is one that fosters an idea of a world in trouble, solvable by active student participation within this world.

Children go on Quests, educational activities to virtual places, to restore lost knowledge for the Council of Atlantis.  Barab describes these quests as “developmentally appropriate activities that include a task description, specific goals, and useful resources” [p. 16].  One of the hallmarks of these Quests is the ability of Questers to develop virtual personas, which serve as powerful motivators for engaging participation in virtual worlds [Turkle, 1995].  To further strengthen active and motivated learning, Questers are encouraged to draw on “personal experiences, families, and cultures, as legitimate material for reflection” [p. 17].

To participate in Quest Atlantis, children must be registered users within participating centers such as elementary schools, children’s museums, local libraries, or Boys and Girls Clubs.  The virtual world Quest Atlantis contains different levels of worlds, made up of villages that contain 25 Quests.  Quests are themed units with the topics of community power, all about us, global issues, water, sound of music, habitat, and understanding numbers.   Quests vary in complexity and range from simulations to application problems.

The ongoing design process of Quest Atlantis incorporates motivators for children.  Completion of Quests results in points earned that can be traded in for Quest Atlantis trading cards.  Cards detail a person who has made important contributions in the real world (Goodall, Gandhi, Da Vinci), along with highlights of these personal qualities such as kindness, creativity, personality, strength, and wisdom.  Feedback from children in the early stages of Quest Atlantis development, showed criticism of a trivial backstory that did not rival popular multi-user online role playing games.  Further development of Quest Atlantis incorporated a backstory that supported children in “developing their own senses of purpose as individuals, in seeing themselves as legitimate members of their communities, and in becoming knowledgeable citizens of the world” [p. 17].

Quest Atlantis popularity among teachers and after-school centers have already reached a worldwide appeal.  At the time the time of this article, QA had over 3,000 registered users with 49% of which are female.  Questers have initiated over 5, 500 Quests, with 47% completed by females.  Results from studies of QA have shown marked improvements in learning over time, character depth, appreciation for learning world history, ability to take multiple perspectives in international topics, and academic efficacy.

As Quest Atlantis matured, Barab revisited his initial argument of making learning more like play, of which he felt QA was unique.  “QA situates this ‘academic’ learning in the context of important social issues and aesthetically-rich dramatic play—establishing both a use and entertainment value for the learning activities” [p. 18].  His premise was partially based on a survey of 153 fourth and fifth graders, where students rated QA “higher than any other activity in their lives” with respect to the degree to which “they involve learning, playing, and helping” [p.18].  These other life activities included domains such as school, QA, playing with friends, doing house chores, watching TV, etc.  Similarly, studies of QA have shown significant learning gains in respect to academic learning, along with improvement in metacognitive skills.

Lastly, Barab examined the complex notion of motivation within Quest Atlantis.  He contends that engagement in meaningful learning experiences while learning academic content produces increases in motivation.  Barab examined data that included interviews, observations, and document analysis.  It showed QA possessing 14 motivational elements that included playing, learning, achievement, helping, and rewards to name a few.  He deduced that understanding student motivation in the learning process is multi-dimensional and complex.  Barab further asserts, “policy-makers have spent too much time thinking about standards, grades, and outcome measures and too little time focused on developing contexts that will truly engage children” [p.20].  In conclusion, Barab argues that design-based research, held in naturalistic settings, promotes rich theory that can be utilized by practitioners thereby breaking down the barrier that often characterizes typical, laboratory-based, educational research done in universities.

Potential Questions for Discussion

1.     Quest Atlantis is a virtual world proven to be an effective and motivational “brand” of learning.  How might this brand of learning be implemented into classrooms throughout America?  What are some barriers?  How might these barriers be overcome?

2.     The Learning Sciences produce research results that illustrate successful, cutting-edge methods of learning, yet are slow to be implemented into traditional schooling.  How might this learning research be utilized more effectively and efficiently?  This research if often done in universities, separate from practitioners in the field, and thus slowing down implementation.  How might this be overcome?