Academic Self-Efficacy Growth Through Reacting to the Past Games
Presented by:
Carolyn A. Schult, Indiana University South Bend
Students using immersive role-playing games gained academic self-efficacy. While men scored higher than women at the semester’s start, the difference disappeared by the end.
Keywords:
Academic Self-Efficacy, Active Learning, Role-Playing Games
Abstract:
The Reacting to the Past pedagogy uses immersive role-playing games set in times of historical conflict. In playing the games, students exercise a range of academic skills such as public speaking, writing, critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and teamwork. At the beginning of the semester, female students reported lower levels of self-efficacy in their ability to complete such academic tasks. After playing the game, their self-efficacy equaled that of the male students. Self-efficacy plays a pivotal role in academic success and personal adjustment to college life (Bandura, 1986; Vuong et al., 2010), so understanding what contributes to its growth is vital.
Outcomes:
1. Understand the Reacting to the Past pedagogy.
2. Identify ways to increase students’ academic self-efficacy.
3. Understand the importance of academic self-efficacy for student success.
Hear it from the author:
Transcript:
I’m Carolyn Schult, presenting my poster titled Academic Self-Efficacy Growth Through
Reacting to the Past Games.
First, let me define my terms. Academic self-efficacy is a student’s confidence that they can
successfully complete a specific academic task or skill. Academic self-efficacy is a fairly strong
predictor of college success and persistence.
The Reacting to the Past pedagogy uses immersive role-playing games set in times of historical
conflict. Students are assigned roles to play and must immerse themselves in their character’s
mindset to advance their goals in the game. The students give persuasive speeches to
convince their classmates to vote on their side. In playing the games, students exercise a range
of academic skills such as public speaking, writing, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership,
and teamwork.
I studied First Year Seminar classes using Reacting games. I adapted the College Self-Efficacy
Instrument which measures students’ confidence in their ability to perform college tasks. They
included social tasks, like make new friends and academic tasks like write papers. Students
rated their confidence to complete these tasks on a 1 to 10 scale.
Overall, students increased in confidence over the semester, but women showed the biggest
gains. At the beginning of the semester, women reported lower confidence than men. After
playing the game, their confidence equaled the men’s confidence.
In conclusion, Reacting to the Past games give students a chance to practice important
academic skills in the challenging, supportive, and fun context of a game, which is especially
helpful for women.
References:
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice Hall.
Solberg, V. S., O’Brien, K., Villareal, P., Kennel, R., & Davis, B. (1993). Self-efficacy and Hispanic college students: Validation of the College Self-Efficacy Instrument. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 15(1), 80–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/07399863930151004
Stroessner, S. J., Beckerman, L. S., & Whittaker, A. (2009). All the world’s a stage? Consequences of a role-playing pedagogy on psychological factors and writing and rhetorical skill in college undergraduates. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 605–620. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015055
Vuong, M., Brown-Welty, S., & Tracz, S. (2010). The effects of self-efficacy on academic success of first-generation sophomore students. Journal of College Student Development, 51(1), 50–64. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0109