By Edgardo Hidalgo Chacón - Student of the Licentiate in English Language Teaching
Constructivist education generates significant learning spaces, where the error is the compass that guides the improvement and development of an academic scaffolding that responds to the educational framework of the 21st century. Considering the above, teachers should use innovative and didactic strategies to handle mistakes in the learning journey, given that this mediation should be a valuable learning opportunity and never a demotivating space. Besides, the Laboratory of Social Neuroscience and Education has conducted neurodidactic studies to confirm the impact of feedback through gamification. Through simulations using electrodes placed on many students’ scalps, voltage fluctuations have been analyzed, which has been a considerable advance for cognitive neuroscience focused on gamification-oriented feedback. It has been shown that there is greater depth and interest among pupils in correcting errors through this constructivist strategy. Therefore, the didactic mediation of flaws should focus on a gamified, fun, and empathetic environment that motivates students to take risks and not consider mistakes as enemies. Thus, when a teacher is sympathetic and seeks to build on improvement areas, students will increase motivation rates.
The feedback process should be productive and fun, where students take risks and improve as necessary through gamification. “Gamification is a didactic strategy, which strengthens feedback spaces, reduces the stress of failure because of learning by playing, and its mediation gives pupils an active role in the learning journey” (Bell, 2017, p. 43). The feedback stage may be one of the most important stages since it learns, improves, and avoids fossilization. “Gamification motivates students to take part, improve, communicate and share with their peers, which is part of the 21st-century educational framework” (Llorens-Largo & Molina-Carmona, 2020, p. 51). The above considered that feedback spaces developed through gamification favor academic advancement and enhance soft skills, such as empathy.
The teacher’s empathy and desire to promote improvement in their students are fundamental pillars in the feedback process, as they favor student motivation rates. “Mediation and suitable materials are not enough to cultivate positive and learning spaces, but an empathetic, assertive, and inspiring teacher profile is required for students to learn, which is an imperative need for feedback” (Anderman, 2020, p. 35). The teacher’s role and attitude are essential in the learning process since they stimulate pupils’ attitudes. “From social psychology, it has been proven that the teaching profile must show a high percentage of soft skills, given that these develop a constructive and warm environment, which motivates students” (Heinzen & Goodfriend, 2021, p. 29). In sum, the teacher’s attitudes and behaviors impact the school environment and the students’ encouragement, highlighting extrinsic elements’ effect.
In contrast, it is relatively impossible in many schools to promote gamified spaces to develop feedback because they do not have the necessary technological or physical resources. This scene deserves to be considered, given that it has validity; however, the teacher can develop playful spaces where the game is enhanced to promote feedback so that technological access does not impede innovating the learning process. “Being creative in education does not depend on the availability of technology, but on the development of ideas from the raw material available” (Bemiss, 2019, p. 18). Thus, it is acknowledged that although technology is the means to reinforce gamification, other alternatives support the need to innovate and encourage play during the feedback stage.
Based on what has been argued, education requires gamification to generate the feedback space because it is an appropriate didactic strategy. The previous is a substantial advantage because it answers to student profiles. Simultaneously, gamification is an innovation that transforms the students’ perspectives and strengthens a positive attitude towards the learning process. Although this proposal is not perfect, it responds to the ongoing educational modality’s curricular and methodological design. What do you think the changes can be when pupils learn by playing collaboratively?
