Minecraft: Education Edition for Educational Impact - QUT
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Minecraft: Education Edition for Educational Impact
A Research Report developed for Microsoft by Queensland University of Technology's Digital Media Research Centre
Michael Dezuani and Jo Macri, February 2020
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Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
3
Impact Tool
4
Key Recommendations
5
Part 1: Project Introduction
9
Education in Australian and Queensland
9
Research Process
10
Phase One: Existing M:EE materials for Grades 3 and 4 mathematics Education
10
Phase Two: Evaluation of the use of M:EE in six Queensland Schools
12
Part 2: School Profiles
20
School One (Brisbane North)
20
School Two (Brisbane South)
24
School Three (Toowoomba Region - rural)
30
School Four (Cairns Region - Far North Queensland)
34
School Five: Toowoomba City
39
School Six: Gold Coast
43
Part 3 - Overall Data
49
Teacher data - Findings
49
Student data - Findings
50
Presentation of teacher data
51
Presentation of student data
59
Appendices
Appendix 1: Minecraft Mathematics Lessons and Australian Curriculum
66
Alignment - Grade 3
2
Appendix 2: Minecraft Mathematics Lessons and Australian Curriculum
77
Alignment - Grade 4
Appendix 3: Number Pattern Learning Activity and Student Instructions
92
Appendix 4: Volume Learning Activity and Student Instructions
103
Appendix 5: Minecraft Teacher Survey
114
Appendix 6: Minecraft Student Survey
121
Appendix 7: Minecraft student focus group questions
123
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report was produced by researchers at Queensland University of Technology's Digital Media Research Centre for the M:EE team at Microsoft. It outlines findings from research conducted from October to December, 2019 in six Queensland Schools, with a focus on the educational impact of using M:EE for mathematics education in grades 3 and 4.
The research gathered data from 307 students and 14 teachers located in a diverse selection of schools, including two schools in Brisbane, one school at Gold Coast city, one school in Toowoomba (a regional city), one school in a rural location in South East Queensland, and one school in a rural location in Far North Queensland. Schools were chosen to ensure a range of socio-economic status, and cultural and geographical diversity. The research mostly involved teachers who had not previously used Minecraft either at home or in school. We classify them as `non-early adopter', or novice Minecraft educators. In contrast, almost all the students had previously played Minecraft in some form. The research involved two stages. In stage one, a thorough review of the M:EE mathematics materials available for grades 3 and 4 was conducted to evaluate their alignment to the Australian curriculum, and to make judgements about the suitability of the materials for non-early adopter teachers. In stage two, a tool was used to assess the impact of using M:EE in the six schools. Each school received a short teacher professional development and planning session; and then teachers implemented a single mathematics activity. The research team collected data during the implementation, and administered follow up surveys and conducted interviews. The research found that students overwhelmingly identified themselves as better mathematics students when learning within Minecraft with M:EE resources. When asked how they would generally rate themselves as a mathematics student, 80 of the 307 students rated themselves as `very good'. Following the Minecraft lesson, when asked how they would rate themselves as a mathematics student in Minecraft, 127 students rated themselves as `very good'. This indicates a significantly greater number of students felt confident when learning mathematics in Minecraft. The students also overwhelmingly indicated they enjoyed Mathematics learning in Minecraft (287 students), and that they would like to undertake Mathematics learning with Minecraft in future (290 students). The research also showed that the teachers believed the students' learning was enhanced when learning in Minecraft.
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On the teachers' side, the majority of teachers involved in the research indicated in the lead up to the trial they were enthusiastic about trying out Minecraft in the classroom, despite their lack of experience with it. Following the trial, the majority of teachers said they would be keen to use M:EE resources again in the future. Some teachers indicated that if improvements were made, they would be more likely to use M:EE in future. A small number of teachers did not enjoy the experience, and indicated they would not try Minecraft in class again. The trial identified two key barriers to teachers' use of M:EE. Firstly, technological challenges were a significant barrier and the majority of the classes experienced difficulties with connecting to M:EE and downloading worlds onto local machines and devices. Secondly, the design of the M:EE learning materials could be improved. The review of the M:EE mathematics materials and worlds for Grades 3 and 4 mathematics indicated that many could provide clearer and more consistent guidance for non-early adopter teachers.
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IMPACT TOOL
The research outlined in this report is underpinned by an impact tool designed specifically for this project. It was devised to determine the impact of introducing M:EE into Grades 3 and 4 mathematics teaching. The tool includes the following measures and attributes. It was used to generate the research questions informing this study.
Teachers
Prior experience with M:EE:
? Outside school ? In school lessons ? In mathematics lessons
Confidence with MEE:
? Outside school ? In school lessons
Confidence with `usual' mathematics resources
Enthusiasm to participate.
Perception:
? Of student enthusiasm to participate ? Of student engagement with resource for
mathematics ? Of student engagement with `usual'
mathematics resource ? Of value added to student learning.
Commitment:
? To reuse M:EE for teaching and learning ? To explore other M:EE resources
Motivation:
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? To use M:EE in future mathematics
lessons.
Students
Barriers to using M:EE resources in mathematics lessons
Level of enthusiasm to participate
Self-belief:
? As a mathematics student with `usual' mathematics resources and learning.
? As a mathematics student with a M:EE resource.
Engagement:
? As a mathematics student with `usual' mathematics resources and learning.
? As a mathematics student with a M:EE resource.
Desire to continue to use M:EE as a mathematics resource.
Perception of the value added to mathematics learning when using the resource.
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KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations emerge from the analysis outlined in the rest of this report. They outline specific improvements to the M:EE resources to make them more accessible for novice Minecraft educators in Australia. Recommendation 1 - Create visible stories of successful student learning with M:EE
The consistent feedback from both teachers and students in the project was how much students love learning with Minecraft, and that M:EE is a powerful learning platform. Almost all the teachers were convinced by the quality of student mathematics learning with the M:EE materials, and they particularly responded to seeing specific instances of student learning (as opposed to claims that Minecraft is somehow `educational'). We recommend that local examples of student learning should be made visible to teachers who are considering using M:EE in particular subject areas. Highlighting how students are learning with specific worlds for specific Australian Curriculum outcomes would provide a powerful message for novice Minecraft educators. These could be provided via video-based stories featuring inspiring, but realistic examples. Some examples of the kinds of messages that might be featured are provided in the student comments in each of the six school profiles.
Recommendation 2 - Reduce barriers for novice Minecraft educators The majority of novice Minecraft educators involved in the project were enthusiastic about using M:EE in mathematics education. However, when there are barriers to using the resources, they are less likely to continue to use the resources. Therefore, barriers to implementation should be reduced to ensure implementation is as trouble-free as possible. The barriers are primarily technological (usability of M:EE in local circumstances) and design-based (design of the Minecraft `worlds' and support materials for local curriculum requirements). Details of the technological problems are outlined in the six school profiles, while details of the design-based challenges are outlined on pages 10 to 12.
Recommendation 3 - More effectively align the M:EE resources with local (countryspecific) curriculum requirements.
The M:EE website includes a link to "Resources Aligned to Australian Curriculum Standards ? Teach Down Under", and refers teachers to a "collection of easy to use training resources for M:EE that have been mapped across the Australian Curriculum". For mathematics, however, the document refers teachers to the US Curriculum Standards and Alignment
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