Use stealth-assessed persistence to deliver adaptive challenges at appropriate difficulty¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The authors recommend that educational games embed a stealth assessment of persistence and use the resulting information to adapt problem difficulty to each student. This lets both low- and high-performing students face challenges that train persistence, since high performers showed less persistence on problems that were easy for them. They add that challenges must sit at the right difficulty: "too difficult problems may lead to frustration and quitting behaviors (Karumbaiah et al., 2018), while too easy problems may be boring."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A stealth assessment of persistence embedded in the game
• Log-based persistence estimates usable to select subsequent problem difficulty

Constraints¶

• Problems that are too difficult risk frustration and quitting; too easy problems risk boredom, per the authors' cited work

Target Learners¶

• Both low- and high-performing students in game-based learning environments

Target Learning Goals¶

• Fostering persistence during gameplay

Affordances¶

• Stealth Assessment Persistence Time On Task

Related Strategies¶

• Embed adaptive, intentional EF challenge within age-appropriate mathematics activities rather than reducing EF demands

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Rahimi, S., Shute, V., & Zhang, Q. (2021). The effects of game and student characteristics on persistence in educational games: A hierarchical linear modeling approach. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), 5(2), 141-165. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijtes.118