Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

Design Patterns for Promoting
Self-Reflection in Learning Games
Ralph Vacca, Meagan K. Bromley,
New York University, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY
Email: ralph.vacca@nyu.edu, meagan.bromley@nyu.edu
Introduction
Self-reflection is an essential part of designing meaningful learning experiences. In formal educational
settings one can see the prominent role of reflective practices in efforts to improve self-regulation skills
such as goal setting and planning, strategic thinking, and monitoring. In therapeutic and counseling fields,
self-reflection is instrumental to cultivating self-awareness and the overall process of long-term behavioral
change. Given self-reflection is so deeply embedded in such a wide variety of learning interventions,
there are multitudes of existing methods to promote self-reflection which range from expressive writing in
journals, guided discussions, portfolio building, and the review of personal performances on video.
However with the emerging use of games and research focusing on benefits to personal aspects of
learning – such as motivation and engagement – the process of designing games to explicitly promote
self-reflection to facilitate learning is still fairly nascent.
Yet games, despite often not explicitly designed to promote self-reflection, are particularly well-suited to
promoting self-reflection given their inherent characteristics - rules, choice, feedback, and monitoring -
which mirror fundamental components to reflective thinking and practice. Choices in game spaces prompt
constrained decision-making within defined contexts that can be used by game systems to help players
meaningfully reflect on decisions in a variety of ways.
Our goal in this paper is to identify potential game design patterns to promote self-reflection in learning
games. We begin with an overview of what scholars have discovered about self-reflection, focusing on
research in education and psychology. This is followed by an examination of scholarship on games, with
a focus on designing games for learning. The design patterns for self-reflection can be thought of as
descriptions of common objectives paired with descriptions of solutions that can be applied, not
prescriptively, but as design guides that interrelate user interactions in ways that can promote selfreflection.
In determining what patterns could be derived from existing games, we identified various
components of self-reflection, and aligned those components with questions for game designers and
researchers. These questions are: 1) Can we reflect on modes of self-representation to promote
motivation? 2) Can we reflect on our own beliefs and assumptions to promote personal perspective
changes? 3) Can we reflect on our emotions to promote self-monitoring? 4) Can we reflect on our own
patterns of behavior to promote self-awareness?
Results
Our method of research was to survey existing commercial games and conduct an in-depth analysis of
mechanics. As a result, we identified four design patterns that can be retrofitted to address the questions
on promoting self-reflection. In the “Ideal Me” pattern, we examine self-representation in the form of
avatars within game play to prompt reflections on self-concept. With the “I Believe it’s Butter” pattern we
examine how the role of framing choices can prompt reflection on personal beliefs and assumptions. In
the “Can I Borrow a Feeling” pattern we question how emotionally regulating features in games like
character experiences and meaningful narratives can be utilized to develop emotional monitoring and
understanding within the self. Lastly, the “Did I Do That” pattern we examine how reflections on
behavioral patterns can be used ex post facto to promote self-understanding.
Conclusion
The patterns we identify are intended to have direct and practical applications to the design of games to
promote self-reflection. A future direction of this survey of existing games will be to incorporate our design
80