Abstracts - Earli

Sibren Fetter, Maastricht University, NetherlandsEllen Essers, Maastricht University, NetherlandsJanine van der Rijt, Maastricht University, NetherlandsOne of the most salient and discussed aspects of problem based learning is the fact that manyeducational institutions make use of peer tutors next to their staff tutors. These peer tutors have theresponsibility of leading the discussion group and assessing whether all the important subjectmatters are being discussed. An important question which keeps arising is whether peer-tutors areup to this task. This empirical study investigates, by means of a survey, first year law students’perceptions about peer tutoring versus staff tutoring. Furthermore, students’ study outcomes wereexamined. The results give a good indication that there are no important long lasting effects fromhaving either a peer or a staff tutor. While sometimes the peer tutor is seen as less experienced,this clearly does not translate to the perceived difficulty or the actual grades. This indicates thatwell trained and carefully selected peer tutors can be a surplus value within a Problem BasedLearning education.A participatory, design-based approach to enhancing engagement and motivation in academicgaming environmentsDaniel Hickey, Indiana University, USAEun Ju Kwon, Indiana University, USASteven Zuiker, Indiana University, USAEllen Jameson, Indiana University, USAThe pervasive use and scholarly consideration of video games have led to an explosion of interestin games for learning academic content. Current efforts suggest the need to further refinemotivation theory and practice concerning academic gaming. Guidance is particularly neededconcerning incentives, which are essential in most non-academic games, but which are widelyassumed to undermine intrinsic motivation. This paper proposes that participatory models ofengagement and associated design-based research methods can provide useful guidance in thisregard. Such models grant primacy to collective participation in domain-specific discourse, whiletreating both the cognition and behavior of individuals as "special cases" of socially situatedactivity. Our own model is being refined and tested in design-based studies of Quest Atlantis(QA), an on-line multi-user academic/fantasy environment for 8-12 year olds. Completing thevarious academic "quests" embedded in narrative "missions" gives students "cols" (used topurchase virtual or real commodities) and "lumens" (used to signify status within the narrativebackstory). The most recent design cycle involved four classes of 5th graders who devoted tenclass periods to learning ecological science topics and scientific inquiry. Two classes completedTaiga, a QA-based curriculum, while two other classes used a conventional textbook curriculum.Analysis of discourse "in QA" (student submissions, feedback, chat) and "on-QA" (student &teacher conversations) revealed ways that the incentives both encouraged and discouraged valueddiscourse. Conventional measures of individual cognition revealed comparable gains on near- andfar-transfer measures of academic knowledge but a significantly greater improvement in domaininterest in the QA classrooms. These insights are being used to refine Taiga and QA more broadlyto enhance engagement and the resulting individual learning and motivation. In early 2007,multiple versions of the Taiga curriculum will again be implemented in the same teacher’s fourclasses to more formally test several key refinements.Perceived academic goal structures and cognitive engagement in classroom activities: an empiricstudy– 445 –