How to make learning irresistible

Failure is a positive act of creativity. Scientists, artists, engineers, and even entrepreneurs know this as adults. But in schools, the notion of failure is complicated.

Any practice – athletic, artistic, even social – involves repeatedly failing till one gets the experience or activity right. We need to “keep the challenge constant so players are able to fail and try again,” she said. “It’s hard and it leads to something rewarding.”But the opposite is true in school. School usually gives students one chance to get something right; failing grades work against practice, mastery, and creativity. To keep kids motivated, learning needs to be irresistible.

Few terms of gaming principle which can be applied to education:

1. Don't shoot the player while the player is learning: Students need space to think, look around, process, and reflect.

2. Learning is Social: We need to design a classroom as a community in which the participants’ knowledge is valued and the exchange of their own expertise is valued.

3. A strong sense of community creates safety:Open up space for students to interact with one another, a space for which you’ve created 1) a need to know, 2) a need to share what they know, and 3) the infrastructure for that sharing.

4. Learning that empowers the learner helps make it irresistible: Empowering a player to do something feels like a “force flows through your veins like you can change the world around you.” When we can design learning experiences that feel like that, we make learning irresistible.

Ms. Kirti Narang