5 Ways Educational Games Outdo Teachers – The Effectiveness of Educational Games

Educational games have come a long way. From being an unknown concept endorsed primarily by their makers and a few stray voices, they have gradually proved their worth in classrooms and homes across the world and won the appreciation of parents, teachers and kids. What is it about these games that make them so popular? A lot of research has gone into the effectiveness of educational games, and the results are pretty interesting.

 Photo by Erik (HASH) Hersman

According to modern research, educational games by their very design are able to do certain things that most classroom teachers cannot. Here are five areas in which educational games outperform teachers:

1.       Educational games give instant feedback

Instant feedback is an important contributor to a positive learning experience. For kids doing well, it provides reassurance and motivation to continue performing well. For kids who are performing a task incorrectly, it prevents them from learning the incorrect procedure and encourages them to attempt a different approach. The same feedback when provided after a delay cannot reproduce the same results. However, teachers rarely provide test results or even corrected assignments immediately after the students turn them in. Educational games, on the other hand, respond to every input with feedback on the player’s performance.

2.       Educational games keep kids engrossed

Being focused and involved during lessons greatly impacts how well a student retains information. However, students find it difficult to remain alert and involved throughout the school day, in part due to the teacher’s inability to make lessons interesting for the students. In direct contrast, educational games give great importance to engaging players, and keep them engrossed for hours on end.

3.       Educational games do not threaten a child’s self-esteem

Many kids feel threatened by the learning atmosphere in classrooms where mistakes are looked down upon or ridiculed by classmates and teachers. Children are afraid to make mistakes, and this limits their enthusiasm to try and learn new things. In educational games, mistakes are never laughed at. Kids are constantly given motivation and positive reinforcement when they are working on a task, and this gives them the self-esteem to try newer and more difficult tasks.

4.       Educational games recognize and reward achievements

Educational games have a multi-level reward system that rewards every achievement of players, whether big or small. This allows players to see the results of their efforts and motivates them to try harder and aim for bigger rewards. It is nearly impossible for teachers to monitor every student’s performance so carefully, forget rewarding every small achievement. 

5.       Educational games provide a customized learning experience

In most classrooms, teachers teach the same lesson to the entire class, catering to only a few of them. Students familiar with the concepts end up bored, and those who have difficulty understanding it end up frustrated. Educational games customize every lesson according to the abilities of the player, moving to more complex lessons or providing extra practice with the same lessons based on the player’s performance.

Keeping students engrossed, customizing lessons, monitoring progress and providing constant feedback and motivation are just a few of the ways that educational games help kids learn scholastic skills. These innate characteristics of educational games are what make them so effective and have earned them a permanent place in many students’ learning experience.