Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms by Nicholas Iati

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms

Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................3 Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology...........................................................................................................3 Typology as Triadic Reciprocality.......................................................................................................................4 Insight Yielded Through Typology: Serious Games in the Classroom..................................................5 Postulation of Sequence.......................................................................................................................................5 Postulation of Relationships................................................................................................................................6 Practical Implications of Social Cognitive Theory - Serious Games in the Classroom....................7 Sources Cited............................................................................................................................................................8

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms

Introduction In 1941, Neal Miller and John Dollard proposed a theory on social learning which broke new ground in the social sciences community by attributing the manner in which humans, as social beings, acquire knowledge to an individual’s observation and imitations of other people in his or her social environments. Albert Bandura subsequently set-out, in the early 1960s, to broaden the scope of Miller and Dollard’s profound work by theorizing that people not only learn through observation and imitation of others in their social environment, but are also driven to learn through their individual cognition processes. Through continued research and experimentation, Bandura developed what would become known as Social Cognitive Theory, linking factors native to the individual - such as cognitive, affective, and biological events - with environmental and behavioral factors. The concept of self-efficacy - “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, Self-Efficacy, 3) - became a central focus in Bandura’s research on social cognitive theory and plays a pivotal role in understanding personal factors which influence an individual’s aspirations, behavioral courses, effort, and affective reactions. Today, social cognitive theory has expanded in its scope to provide a learning model which intimates individual observation and imitation with social interactions - both human interpersonal interactions and human-media interactions. As the human race makes tremendous strides in the development of technology - more specifically, educational technology - social cognitive theory can be closely correlated to the positive affects serious games - video games which are classified as “purpose-driven” - can have on students when used as a supplemental teaching aid in the classroom (DeMaria, 145). In this essay, I will discuss the key concepts of social cognitive theory and relate them to the concept of serious games, supporting their use as learning aids in the modern classroom. I will begin by discussing the theory’s inherent ontological, epistemological, and axiological considerations and provide the typological framework around which the theory is constructed, describing the insight it lends. I will reveal the relationships and sequences the theory postulates and, finally, draw conclusions on its practical application as it specifically relates to serious games used as learning aids in classrooms.

Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology Ontological, epistemological, and axiological factors are equally important in forming the basis of social cognitive theory. From an ontological perspective, “people are self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating, not just reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by environmental events or inner forces” (Bandura, Social Cognitive, 266). Concepts such as self-efficacy, or a person’s belief in their own competence, as well as the environment in which he or she has grown-up, are factors which drive change in thought and behavior. “Perceived self-efficacy is concerned not with the number of skills that you have, but with what you believe you can do with what you have under a variety of circumstances” (Bandura, Self-Efficacy, 37). Bandura posited that levels of self-efficacy drive performance in a number of different ways; for instance, individuals with similar skills and abilities often times perform differently. Furthermore, a single person may perform a specific skill well in one instance and poorly in another if his or her levels of self-efficacy fluctuate. Individuals with low levels of self-efficacy tend to avoid difficult tasks, abandon efforts towards goals, adopt low aspirations, focus on their weaknesses and failure and therefore suffer from the psychological consequences associated with helplessness and failure. Individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy welcome difficult tasks “as challenges to be mastered” (Bandura, SelfEfficacy, 38). They tend to invest more, engaging more in intellectual pursuits due to heightened interests in learning and enacting which results from the perception that they themselves are capable of learning and performing. High levels of self-efficacy ultimately lead to the conditioning of strategic thinking, quick recovery responses to failure, and a reduction in stress. Epistemologically, the theory states that we learn by observing others and that these observed behaviors can change the way the observer thinks and behaves. Such observation, in a social context, is reciprocal - the observer’s changed behavior influences the thoughts and behaviors of the very people he or she observes or others who may be observing his or her behavior. An individual’s observations are not only limited to other people, media observation plays a significant role in shaping thought and behavior. “During the course of their daily lives, people have direct contact with only a small sector of the physical and social environment. They work in the same setting, travel the same routes, visit the same places, and 3

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms see the same set of friends and associates. Consequently, their conceptions of social reality are greatly influenced by vicarious experiences—by what they see, hear, and read - without direct experiential correctives. To a large extent, people act on their images of reality” (Bandura, Social Cognitive, 271). Therefore, it is social cognitive theory’s contention that the greater the role media plays in delivering information to our society, the greater its role becomes in shaping our social realities and impacting societal change. Observation of and interaction with media and other people, greatly influence the base of knowledge to which an individual applies in skill development. “[I]n most activities, sub-skills must be improvised to suit varying circumstances. Modeling influences convey rules for generative and innovative behavior as well. This higher level learning is achieved through abstract modeling. Rule-governed judgments and actions differ in specific content and other details while embodying the same underlying rule” (Bandura, Social Cognitive, 275). Therefore, abstract images and concepts presented in media and social interaction provide a framework for individuals to extract, learn, and enact rule-based concepts and skills that can later be applied within a host of different contexts. In the context of a classroom setting, the use of a serious game as a supplemental learning aid could potentially generate a powerful mediated enactive experience with the added benefit of heightened social interaction between students. Research on video games used in educational settings suggests that “students desire e-learning technologies for three reasons. They want to be connected to one another; be entertained through games, music, and movies; and present themselves and their work” (Annetta et al., 17-18). Video games present a medium to which school-aged kids can identify - an important factor in increasing self-efficacy. Students can not only identify and feel comfortable with the medium, but they will also feel more comfortable with the learning content within since it is presented in a format that has intrinsic entertainment value. The two most important and influential aspects of video games are the teamwork, or collaborative aspect, and the simulation of real world skills. Most kids are playing video games together, in either physical environments where each child is physically present and participating in game-play, or online environments in which a great deal of communication is taking place over a gaming network. The hybridization of video games as not only entertainment media but also social media supports an environment in which real world skills are practiced and honed. “Through trial and error, players can directly yet virtually experience the outcomes of their own behaviors and generate rules of behavior. It is an enactive experience because players are taking active control and experiencing the game world through their game character” (Peng, 650). Most games incorporate achievements and punishments for certain gameplay behaviors. Such implicit rewards and consequences foster a mediated experience. Such a model provides learners with a safe environment to learn and put the subjects being taught to practical use, simultaneously building additional skills such as problem solving and teamwork. The overall experience can have a significant impact on increasing self-efficacy as students become more confident in their abilities to grasp subject matter and apply it in practical terms. From an axiological perspective, the theory places emphasis on the value of high self-efficacy and personal agency, vicarious learning, observation of behavioral models, and enactment or imitation. In order to empower students, educators must strive to create opportunities for them to better acclimate themselves with subject matter by providing relevant, real-world applications in which they can put concepts to practical use. The profound effect such a mediated enactive experience generated by a serious game can have in strengthening self-efficacy and academic competencies is staggering. The goal of any educator should be to ensure that each student reaches their highest level of self-efficacy and individual potential. Through the use of serious games in the classroom, educators can potentially increase the odds that students, especially those at the lower end of the proficiency spectrum, are afforded the opportunity to experience subject matter from a perspective in which they may better identify with it. Therefore, serious games may pose as a powerful new educational tool which can benefit learning goals in the area of special education, providing a fresh and more concrete perspective for individuals who face challenges with learning to better identify with subject matter and make sense of it.

Typology as Triadic Reciprocality Social cognitive theory establishes a universal typology by identifying the factors which determine how people adopt and exercise knowledge and behaviors. The identification of such factors provides a framework around which we may develop intervention strategies. “Seen from the sociocognitive perspective, human nature is a vast potentiality that can be fashioned by direct and observational experience into a 4

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms variety of forms within biological limits” (Bandura, Social Cognitive, 265-266). Bandura’s concept of triadic reciprocality which suggests that behavioral factors, environmental factors, and personal factors - such as cognitive, affective, and biological events - engage in mutual exchanges, ultimately determining an individual’s ability to acquire knowledge and perform specific behaviors observed and enacted in a social context. (See Figure 1.)

Insight Yielded Through Typology: Serious Games in the Classroom Teachers can use the triadic reciprocality model as a reference for building strategies which maximize learning outcomes in students while simultaneously building self-esteem and confidence. Using serious games as teaching aids, teachers can reinFigure 1: Causal Model of Socio-Cognitive Theory force course content in a format which most Triadic Reciprocality students can easily engage and better apply lessons thus improving personal factors such as self-efficacy beliefs and habits of thinking. As personal factors develop, so do behavior factors such as skills and self-regulation, ultimately leading to a transformation of the environment - the classroom - as a whole as students overcome the hurdles which once worked to the detriment of individual academic achievement. Serious games can have a profound impact on helping learners overcome personal factors which inhibit their ability to cope with even biological challenges. Vision Audio Incorporated developed EASe Games, the first series of video games designed to help train children with autism to cope with sensory integration challenges. “The first in the EASe Games video games series, EASe Off-Road, further expands on sound-based therapy. The games employ a virtual vestibular game environment to train a child to develop the integrated systems responsible for organizing balance and body awareness – the visual/vestibular/cochlear triad” (Joppa). Bill Mueller, president of Vision Audio, states, “’EASe Games have been used in clinical testing with therapists since December 2007, and the responses have been incredibly positive,’” in fact, the games have even been featured at the Games for Health conference as examples of excellence in therapeutic technology (Joppa).

Postulation of Sequence Social Cognitive Theory postulates a clear sense of sequence when the aim is to “transform knowledge into skilled action” through a monitored enactment (Bandura, Social Cognitive, 272-273). Bandura delineates four sequential sets of processes in the Behavior Production Process which lead to such a transformation in an individual (see Figure 2): •

Attentional Processes - the first set of processes engage the individual’s perceptual set, cognitive capabilities, cognitive preconceptions, arousal level, and acquired preferences. These processes correlate to the level of engagement the individual is willing to commit.

•

Retentional Processes - the second set of processes engage the individual’s cognitive skills and cognitive structures. These processes correlate to rehearsal.

•

Production Processes - the third set of processes engage the individual’s physical capabilities and component sub-skills. These processes correlate to feedback devices and corrective adjustment.

Motivational Processes - the fourth and last set of processes engage the individual’s incentive prefer5

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms

Figure 2: Behavior Production Process - Sequential Processes ences, social comparison biases, and internal standards. These processes correlate to perceived selfincentives. These processes correlate to the sequence of processes serious games can engage in students. The teacher introduces a familiar concept which will act as a supplemental learning aid - a serious game. Game-play generates students’ emotional engagement (Ritterfeld, Cody, and Vorderer, 274). Most students will feel confident in their abilities to play the video game since it is a widely interiorized medium among youth culture, therefore generating a heightened degree of self-efficacy in what is expected of them in class (Attentional Processes). Heightened sense of self-efficacy in playing the serious game influences students to feel more confident in exploring the concepts covered in the game and social aspects of the game reinforce the lessons learned through identification - students interact with the media while simultaneously interacting and relating with one another. At this stage, students are effectively practicing or rehearsing the subject matter (Retentional Processes). Since the serious game functions as a mediated enactive experience, the inherent rewards and consequences (i.e., achievements such as reaching the next level of game-play or consequences such as returning to the beginning of the level) provide feedback to the students so they may adjust their game-play (Production Processes). As students engage in social game-play, they can monitor one another’s strategies and progress, adjusting their own in the process. The social engagement and entertainment value of the game alter the students’ approach to learning, generating a perception that the subject matter is fun which, in turn, fosters a more intimate bond with it and a deeper understanding of it. The students ultimately discover that they are capable of attaining academic goals and become more motivated to actively pursue those goals (Motivational Processes).

Postulation of Relationships Development is facilitated by the close relationships postulated in the causal model of Triadic Reciprocality. Learning is most likely to occur if there is a close identification between the observer and the model. The observer’s sense of self-efficacy also relates to his or her ability to develop personal knowledge by driving motivation, critical thinking, and individual initiative. Identification allows the observer to develop an intimate bond with the other students with whom he or she engages in social game-play or the medium (serious game) with which he or she engages in a mediated enactive experience. Cognitive skill-building efforts, such as the development of problem solving skills, face “difficulties that researchers have identified occur when a subject is taught only in a very narrow context” (DeMaria, 64). The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University conducted extensive research in the 1990s on technology and its relationship to learning and suggested that “learning would be situated in realworld problems and presented in story, or problem, formats” (DeMaria, 64). The solution set-forth by Vanderbilt was referred to as anchored instruction and its goal “is to stimulate learning in the form of problems that inspire greater understanding in students while also exposing them to different approaches to the problem. Ultimately, through these techniques, students learn the abstract underlying principles of a subject and how to apply them in a variety of situations” (DeMaria, 64). Since video games act as experiential simulations, they have the ability to put language used in traditional lecturing into “the context of dialogue, experience, images, and actions. They allow language to be situated” (DeMaria, 65). Furthermore, video games inspire self-improvement through a series of tasks which engage all the processes Bandura delineates in the Behavior Production Process. For instance, in the video game World of Warcraft, 6

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms

players engage in social game-play marked by a high level of excitement and variety which certainly piques a player’s attentional processes. A player’s ultimate goal, engaging motivational processes, is to improve his or her avatar by gaining “experience, more abilities, stronger armor, more skills, more talent, and a bigger reputation” (McGonigal, 53). Players improve these traits by earning points acquired while managing a series of quests, battles, and training which engage their retentional processes. Points can be tracked in their gamer profile, engaging production processes - the more points a player earns, the higher his or her level, and the higher his or her level, the more challenging his or her work becomes. The challenges presented in the game ranging from high-stakes work, exploratory work, busywork, teamwork, and strategic work, engage the players’ motivational processes. “For some players, it’s the promise of ultimate challenge that makes the incredible workload worth it. At the highest levels of the game, you get to experience the extreme adrenaline rush of what players call the ‘endgame’” (McGonigal, 54).

Practical Implications of Social Cognitive Theory - Serious Games in the Classroom From a social cognitive theory perspective, one of the greatest hurdles serious games must overcome is the widespread misconception - due in large part to inaccurate portrayals of the overall effects video games have on adolescent development in the mainstream media - that video games produce only negative effects such as aggression and laziness. Ironically, this shared social perception can be explained by discourse theory, specifically Sandra Ball-Rokeach’s theory of media power which states that people’s perceptions are formed through “selective perception, or the idea that individuals’ needs and interests affect what they select out of an environment to perceive” (Ball-Rokeach, 6). This notion of selective perception suggests that most adults do not identify a “need” for video games and therefore dismiss any possibility that they can be of any value rather quickly due to highly publicized rhetoric on their potential negative effects. Through the practical application of social cognitive theory, we can combat this arguably inaccurate public perception by examining and delineating the potential positive effects of serious games, constructing clear differentiations between serious games and video games designed with entertainment as their primary focus, and communicating our findings. By building this kind of awareness, we move closer to fulfilling our ethical obligations as communication, technology, and education professionals - empowering students with an increased sense of achievement, self confidence, and knowledge.

Socio-Cognitive Theory: Examining Serious Games in Classrooms

Sources Cited Annetta, Leonard A., Murray, Marshall R., Gull-Laird, Shelby, Bohr, Stephanie C., Park, John C. “Serious Games: Incorporating Video Games in the Classroom.” Educause Quarterly. (3 November 2006): 16-22. Web. 20 November 2011. Ball-Rokeach, Sandra. “A Theory of Media Power and A Theory of Media Use: Different Stories, Questions, and Ways of Thinking.” Mass Communication and Society 1.2 (1998): 5-40. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EbscoHost. Web. 14 October 2011. Bandura, Albert. Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W.H.Freeman, 1997. Print. Bandura, Albert. “Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication.” Mediapsychology 3.3 (2001): 265-299. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EbscoHost. Web. 10 October 2011. DeMaria, Rusel. Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007. Print. Joppa, MD. “Vision Audio Inc. Announces New EASe Games Designed for Children with Autism” PRWeb. com. PRWeb, 6 October 2008. Web. 14 November 2011. McGonigal, Jane. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: The Penguin Press, 2011. Print. Peng, Wei. “The Mediational Role of Identification in the Relationship between Experience Mode and Self-Efficacy: Enactive Role-Playing versus Passive Observation.” CyberPsychology & Behavior 11.6. (2008): 649-652. Web. 11 October 2011. Ritterfeld, Ute, Cody, Michael, Vorderer, Peter. Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects. Routledge, 2009. Print.