Challenge Master is a game based interactive tutorial designed to teach students, beginning in the third grade, how to become more enthusiastic, engaged, and effective learners. It is designed to provide students the experiential evidence they will need to answer the critical question all successful lifetime learners must answer:
“Why should I try hard when it gets hard?”
As students work to become Challenge Masters they will be learning what to do when an answer or skill they seek does not appear right away and will, in fact, require focused, solution -oriented effort to find or develop. Challenge Master Students are taught to use a cognitive/emotional set of adjustment skills to maximize their problem solving efforts. They are taught these skills step by step via the tutorial. Whenever they complete a tutorial step students use a challenging multi-level game as their testing ground to experientially validate what they just learned and to develop competence.
As students begin their shuttling between the tutorial and the game, they are shown how to “check inside” to assess their present problem solving mindset and willingness to “try hard when it gets hard.” First they learn to assess the helpful or unhelpful nature of what they are taught to notice internally. Then they learn to make adjustments to make whatever is unhelpful helpful. At first they practice making the adjustments when they are having trouble leveling up in their game. Then when they establish an automatic “check inside and make necessary adjustments” response to their gaming challenges, they begin to practice what they are learning in their academics as well.
The genesis of the tutorial was a simple observation; learners who experience not knowing an answer or how to do something as not knowing “yet” are much more likely to become fully engaged and successful learners than learners who relate to periods of not knowing as not knowing “because.” The purpose of Challenge Master is to help young learners experience not knowing yet as their foundation for lifetime learning.
This is how students are introduced to their Challenge Master tutorial:
“Why should I try hard when it gets hard?”
As students work to become Challenge Masters they will be learning what to do when an answer or skill they seek does not appear right away and will, in fact, require focused, solution -oriented effort to find or develop. Challenge Master Students are taught to use a cognitive/emotional set of adjustment skills to maximize their problem solving efforts. They are taught these skills step by step via the tutorial. Whenever they complete a tutorial step students use a challenging multi-level game as their testing ground to experientially validate what they just learned and to develop competence.
As students begin their shuttling between the tutorial and the game, they are shown how to “check inside” to assess their present problem solving mindset and willingness to “try hard when it gets hard.” First they learn to assess the helpful or unhelpful nature of what they are taught to notice internally. Then they learn to make adjustments to make whatever is unhelpful helpful. At first they practice making the adjustments when they are having trouble leveling up in their game. Then when they establish an automatic “check inside and make necessary adjustments” response to their gaming challenges, they begin to practice what they are learning in their academics as well.
The genesis of the tutorial was a simple observation; learners who experience not knowing an answer or how to do something as not knowing “yet” are much more likely to become fully engaged and successful learners than learners who relate to periods of not knowing as not knowing “because.” The purpose of Challenge Master is to help young learners experience not knowing yet as their foundation for lifetime learning.
This is how students are introduced to their Challenge Master tutorial:
“Video games are challenging and fun because there are opportunities to improve. As soon as you get skilled at one level you can work toward the next. You don’t get bored because there are challenges. There are always points where you get stuck until you find out which adjustments to make. Maybe you need a little more of this, less of that, or something different. But when you do make the right adjustments you get unstuck, and that’s how you improve!
Different people get stuck in learning at different points in gaming, school, sports, hobbies and lots of other areas. We call these challenge points. You learn by moving through your challenge points, and you move through your challenge points by making adjustments. Challenge Master will teach you what adjustments to make when you get stuck and don’t feel ready to do your best. Then you can get better and better at gaming or anything else you decide to learn.” |