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Performance–Play–Dialog (PPD) model of game-based learning

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

The PPD model is the article's explanatory framework for game-based learning designed around inquiry. Performance is the primary thrust, encompassing development of understanding in the subject domain and construction of self-identity; it is realized through the sub-constructs of play and dialog, which stand in dialectical relation — "3OD\ VXVWDLQV GLDORJ DQG GLDORJ LQIRUPV SOD\". The model holds that "WKH SULPDU\ WKUXVW RI OHDUQLQJ LV GULYHQ E\ SHUIRUPDQFH WKDW HQFRPSDVVHV WKH GHYHORSPHQW RI XQGHUVWDQGLQJ LQ WKH VXEMHFW GRPDLQ DQG WKH FRQVWUXFWLRQ RI VHOI-LGHQWLW\". Play is mediated by embodied engagement with a material digital game world via an avatar, while dialogism, a key Bakhtinian idea, fosters internally persuasive discourse that allows students to construct new ways of meaning. The model underpinned the design and classroom enactment of the Legends of Alkhimia curriculum.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • A coherent, single, substantial digital game enacted as a full curriculum or curricular unit rather than a short embedded resource
  • Teacher-facilitated classroom dialog following game play, in which student voices are heard, valued, and harnessed in service of student learning
  • A developmental trajectory of becoming within a professional domain, instantiated through incremental game levels

Constraints

  • The model was developed and evaluated in the domain of lower secondary school chemistry; the article states its principles are applicable to effective design of game-based learning in general but reports evidence only from chemistry

Target Learners

  • lower secondary school science students (14-year-olds)

Learning Goals

  • learning chemistry through inquiry
  • developing identity as a chemist
  • epistemological understanding of the nature of science
  • scientific argumentation and critique

Claims

  • Alkhimia Outperformed Control Separation Effectiveness [+M]
  • Alkhimia Outperformed Control Conceptual Understanding [+M]

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Yam San Chee and Kim Chwee Daniel Tan. (2010). Becoming Chemists through Game-Based Inquiry Learning: The Case of Legends of Alkhimia. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, Volume 8, Issue 1. https://www.ejel.org
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id performance-play-dialog-model
title Performance–Play–Dialog (PPD) model of game-based learning
description The PPD model is the article's explanatory framework for game-based learning designed around inquiry.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-03
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — yam-san-chee-and-kim-chwee-daniel-tan-2010

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