Professional Inquiry Project
Describe your inquiry
My inquiry has been focused on Minecraft Education. I have been interested in learning about Minecraft Education for a long time, but this project gave me the opportunity to look more in depth and really begin to understand the ways that Minecraft Education can be used in classrooms to support learning. Many students are familiar with Minecraft as a game, playing creatively, competitively, and collaboratively with their peers to create worlds, meet objectives, and survive. I was very interested in learning how Minecraft Education could bring together the world of learning and the world of gaming.
Course Essential Questions
“How might we use technology to enhance real world, collaborative, learner centered education?” – This question connects to Minecraft Education because it is designed as a platform for collaborative, student-led, open-ended educational experiences. It is a tool that teachers can use to give students a safe place to explore and learn real life skills, in a game setting.
Course Outcomes
“Demonstrate fluency with new educational tools, and articulate the affordances and constraints of such tools to support educational practice.”
Studying Minecraft Education has helped me to meet this course outcome by taking several professional learning trainings designed to support educators in their pedagogical practices. These courses prepared me to teach students how to use Minecraft Education as part of their existing curriculum. It helped me to understand the scope and limitations of the program.
“Read and synthesize literature and research on educational technology to support personal experiences and deepen conceptual knowledge.”
Finding peer-reviewed articles about gaming in education and Minecraft Education in particular has helped me to meet this course outcome. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses that have been revealed by these studies, I have a more thorough understanding of what is possible with Minecraft Education and this can help me set goals and have measured expectations.
Scholarly Articles
I found two complementary articles to be very helpful “Teachers’ experiences of using Minecraft Education in primary school: An Irish perspective” and “Primary School Students’ Experiences using Minecraft Education during a National Project-Based Initiative: An Irish Study” (Slattery et al, 2023) – These joint articles connect to my study by providing research and results from both teachers and students who participated in a Minecraft Education experience. Overall, the students reported that Minecraft Education provided good opportunities for learning, especially with creativity and collaboration, the program was user-friendly, and that they enjoyed the learning experience. Teachers reported that Minecraft Education helped them with the development of skills and abilities that students need to succeed and the program was effective at supporting curricular content. Teachers also noted that Minecraft Education provided a platform that was both inclusive and equitable.
Slattery, E. J., Butler, D., O’Leary, M., & Marshall, K. (2023). Teachers’ experiences of using Minecraft Education in primary school: An Irish perspective. Irish Educational Studies, 1–20. https://doi-org.wv-o-ursus-proxy02.ursus.maine.edu/10.1080/03323315.2023.2185276
Slattery, E.J., Butler, D., O’Leary, M. et al. Primary School Students’ Experiences using Minecraft Education during a National Project-Based Initiative: An Irish Study. TechTrends(2023). https://doi-org.wv-o-ursus-proxy02.ursus.maine.edu/10.1007/s11528-023-00851-z
“Effects of digital game-based STEM education on students’ learning achievement: a meta-analysis.” (Wang et al, 2022) – This report is a synthesis of the findings of 33 research studies that took place from 2010 to 2020. An analysis of the results of these studies suggests that digital games, such as Minecraft Education, are a promising teaching strategy in STEM education and the studies show that digital games effectively improve learning gains and support increased student achievement. This demonstrates that including Minecraft Education as a part of a teacher’s instructional method, could be a benefit for students.
Wang, LH., Chen, B., Hwang, GJ. et al. Effects of digital game-based STEM education on students’ learning achievement: a meta-analysis. IJ STEM Ed 9, 26 (2022). https://doi-org.wv-o-ursus-proxy02.ursus.maine.edu/10.1186/s40594-022-00344-0
“The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis” (Sailer, 2020) – This report is another synthesis of research about the effect of digital games on cognitive, motivational, and behavioral learning outcomes. The meta-analysis demonstrated that digital games have a positive effect on all three areas, although the authors recommend that more research be done to demonstrate what aspects of gaming in particular support these outcomes. This demonstrates that, while games are useful teaching tools with positive effects, they cannot be relied upon to fully replace more thoroughly researched pedagogical methods.
Sailer, M., Homner, L. The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis. Educ Psychol Rev 32, 77–112 (2020). https://doi-org.wv-o-ursus-proxy02.ursus.maine.edu/10.1007/s10648-019-09498-w
Inquiry Question
“How can I use Minecraft Education to redefine teaching and learning methods in my school community?” – Following my inquiry question led me to participate in a series of trainings from the Minecraft Education website. I was able to take several courses and came away with the ability to teach children how to participate in lessons, design my own instructional plans within the Minecraft Education platform, and develop a lesson to teach my fellow educators how to utilize it within their own classrooms. There are also trainings about coding and esports. I learned that teachers can utilize Minecraft Education to enhance, modify, and completely redesign their instructional methods. There are innumerable ways that students can follow their own inquiry, work together, and meet goals.
Will I share my learning?
I would like to provide a professional development opportunity for educators at my school to teach them about Minecraft Education using the Minecraft Trainer Academy coursework that I have completed. I think this could be a useful tool that teachers can use. I would also like to join a classroom teacher as a facilitator when they use Minecraft Education in their classroom.
Best Resources / Certificates
The resources that I found the most beneficial were the training courses provided by Microsoft itself:
101: Let’s Build Individually - This is designed to prepare students to begin playing in their own world and prepare teachers to deliver their first lesson. Students build something related to their curriculum.
201: Let's Modify Together - This lesson prepares teachers to bring students together in a Minecraft world to collaborate on a shared curriculum-related problem and provides teachers with training on assessment tools.
301: Let’s Build Worlds Together- This lesson is a more advanced lesson on worldbuilding and prepares teachers to include in-game context, assignments, and small-group instruction.
Minecraft Trainer Academy - This lesson is designed to prepare a tech facilitator or integrationist to present a Minecraft Education training to their school/learning community, including training materials. The first three trainings are recommended prerequisites for this course.
Next Steps
My next step is to present my learning to my supervisor and principal and open a discussion with them about offering a professional development opportunity to the staff on integrating Minecraft Education into their classrooms.