Edu-Snippets

The educational impact of Kahoot!; the motivational value of clarity in teaching; the counterintuitive relationship between motivation and achievement.

Photo by John Smith on Unsplash

Highlights:

• The game-based platform Kahoot! can be a valuable tool for engaging students in retrieval practice.

• Teaching in a clear and straightforward manner produces superior learning outcomes and is linked to higher levels of student motivation.

• Research suggests we may be thinking about motivation backwards. The impact of motivation on achievement is often surprisingly low. The more interesting finding is the strong impact achievement has on motivation.

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Does the popular game-based learning platform "Kahoot!" offer educational benefits?

A new meta-analysis of the game-playing platform, Kahoot! was recently published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. Kahoot! is an interactive learning application designed to reinforce learning and assess knowledge. It is popular in schools and other educational settings. Its reputation for being a fun and engaging environment is due, in part, to its extensive use of graphics, animations, leaderboards, and other gamification elements (Özdemir, 2024).

Educationally, Kahoot! is perhaps best understood as a tool for retrieval practice. It engages learners in activities that require them to actively recall previously-taught content. Doing so strengthens their recall of that content.

The meta-analysis conducted by Özdemir (2024) combined data from 43 controlled studies. This produced a collective sample size of 1706 students in the experimental condition and 1647 students in the control condition.

The findings from the meta-analysis revealed the following statistically significant benefits for Kahoot! compared to the control condition:

• a medium positive effect on academic achievement;

• a large positive effect on retention;

• a large positive effect on student motivation;

• a medium positive effect on students’ attitude towards learning;

• a small effect on anxiety reduction (i.e., student engagement with Kahoot! is associated with slightly reduced anxiety levels).

Findings from this meta-analysis are consistent with the retrieval practice literature. Actively recalling information from memory strengthens memory traces, thereby promoting long-term retention and higher levels of academic achievement.

Takeaway Message: Kahoot! appears to be a useful platform for engaging students in retrieval practice activities. For teachers, it offers a number of benefits: it is easily customizable, it maintains records of student performance, it’s appealing to students, and it provides students with immediate feedback. Like other forms of retrieval practice, teachers should remember to design Kahoot! activities that:

• are clear and easy to understand;

• align tightly with curricular learning objectives;

• are low-stakes or no-stakes;

• focus students on recalling and applying previously-taught knowledge.

Note: Teachers who decide to use Kahoot! are urged use the leaderboard feature with great care. Struggling learners can be discouraged by leaderboards. Although some students thrive in class-wide competitions for high scores, others may decide to disengage from the environment entirely.

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Lesson clarity is positively associated with both learning outcomes and student motivation

We have long known that clear teaching results in greater student learning (Titsworth et al., 2015). What are the characteristics of clear teaching? It involves:

• Explaining course concepts with simple jargon-free vocabulary;

• Providing concrete examples / worked examples;

• Being aware of students' working memory limitations;

• Removing distractions and unnecessary or irrelevant material from lessons;

• Ensuring lessons are well-structured and properly ordered;

• Providing opportunities for students to practice and consolidate new knowledge.

In comparative studies, students who are taught using clear teaching techniques have been shown to:

• learn more (i.e., they retain and recall more of the lesson): (Bolkan et al., 2016; Chesebro, 2003);

• take more detailed notes (Titsworth, 2004);

• be more cognitively invested in course material (Mazer, 2013).

Why does clarity have this impact?

Clarity reduces cognitive load, which can interfere with students' ability to learn new material. When watching a clear presentation, students spend less time trying to figure out which information is relevant and which is irrelevant. There are fewer distractions. This makes it easier for learners to store new knowledge in their long-term memories.  

A recently-published paper by Seri and Bolkan (2023) asked the question, "Does clarity have an impact on student motivation"?  Researchers recruited 252 students to participate in a learning activity where the level of clarity was manipulated by the experimenters. After watching a five-part text-based presentation, participants completed a short test to measure their comprehension. They were also asked to comment on their experience of the lesson.  

As expected, the students who were exposed to the clearer lesson had higher examination scores. These students experienced less cognitive load while learning. However, the researchers also found that students who observed the clearer lesson ended up with higher levels of self-efficacy, motivation, and interest in the material.

Why does clarity have a positive impact on student motivation?  

The authors hypothesize that motivation can be affected by cognitive load. When the load on working memory is too high, students will have trouble understanding the content. In such situations, students may begin to question their own abilities and competence. This leads to lower self-efficacy and motivation.  

On the other hand, if students experience low levels of cognitive load, they feel more confident that they understand the new material. This increases both their interest in the material and their confidence in their own abilities.

Takeaway Message:  Making your lessons as clear as possible, and minimizing the cognitive load of your learners, produces more learning and more motivated students.

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What is the relationship between student motivation and student achievement?

We've long known that motivation and achievement are correlated. When we see more motivation, we see more achievement. And when we see less motivation we see less achievement.

Many people naturally assume that motivation drives achievement. They believe that if teachers can invent ways to motivate their classes, their students will be more likely to learn. However, it’s equally possible that the association works the other way around. Perhaps a student’s success in a subject causes their motivation to increase. And yet a third possibility is that both relationships are true: motivation can increase achievement and achievement can increase motivation.

In an attempt to learn more about this complex relationship, a group of (mostly) Canadian researchers carried out a four-year longitudinal study of the math motivation and math achievement of 1,478 Canadian children, following them from grade 1 to grade 4. Data were collected at regular intervals using a series of age-appropriate, standardized instruments that include the Elementary School Motivation Scale, the Number Knowledge Test, and the Canadian Achievement Test. The researchers then used cross-lagged structural equation modelling to determine whether motivation predicts achievement, or vice versa.

Interestingly, the researchers found no evidence of a reciprocal relationship. Their results suggest that higher achievement leads to higher intrinsic motivation, but not vice versa.

For many people, these findings may come as a surprise. What explains these results?

The authors suggest that motivation may not play as large a role in driving academic success as many educators believe. A student’s lack of motivation in math class should not be viewed as a problem that can be solved by devising new, more exciting activities. Instead, it should be understood as a symptom of a deeper issue: the student lacks the prior knowledge necessary to complete the task. When a learner finds a task overwhelming and anticipates failure, motivation naturally diminishes. This often stems from gaps in fundamental math concepts that are essential for success. No matter how engaging the activity or how motivated the student may seem, these gaps in foundational knowledge will continue to hinder progress until they are addressed.

On the other hand, successfully completing a math task can be deeply rewarding for a student. It provides a sense of accomplishment and builds their confidence in their ability to solve problems they once found challenging. This success not only boosts their motivation but also enhances their self-esteem, creating a positive cycle of learning and growth. This is also known as a positive feedback loop, which refers to a self-reinforcing process where a student’s success or effort leads to increased confidence, motivation, and further improvement in their skills. This cycle can help sustain and amplify a student’s progress over time.

Takeaway Message: One of the very best ways to motivate students is to help them succeed at something. This idea can be somewhat counterintuitive at first, but it has significant educational ramification. It suggests that rather than investing a lot of time trying to design motivating experiences for students, teachers might be better off creating clear lessons and active learning opportunities that are carefully crafted to give students the experience of success.

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References:

Bolkan, S., Goodboy, A. K., & Kelsey, D. M. (2016). Instructor clarity and student motivation: Academic performance as a product of students’ ability and motivation to process instructional material. Communication Education, 65(2), 129–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1079329

Chesebro, J. L. (2003). Effects of teacher clarity and nonverbal immediacy on student learning, receiver apprehension, and affect. Communication Education, 52(2), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520302471

Garon‐Carrier, G., Boivin, M., Guay, F., Kovas, Y., Dionne, G., Lemelin, J. P., ... & Tremblay, R. E. (2016). Intrinsic motivation and achievement in mathematics in elementary school: A longitudinal investigation of their association. Child development, 87(1), 165-175. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12458

Mazer, J. P. (2013). Student emotional and cognitive interest as mediators of teacher communi- cation behaviors and student engagement. An examination of direct and interaction effects. Communication Education, 62(3), 253–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2013.777752

Özdemir, O. (2024). Kahoot! Game‐based digital learning platform: A comprehensive meta‐analysis. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.13084

Serki, S. & Bolkan, S. (2024) The effect of clarity on learning: impacting motivation through cognitive load, Communication Education, 73:1, 29-45.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2023.2250883

Titsworth, B. S. (2004). Students’ notetaking: The effects of teacher immediacy and clarity. Communication Education, 53(4), 305–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/0363452032000305922

Titsworth, S., Mazer, J. P., Goodboy, A. K., Bolkan, S., & Myers, S. A. (2015). Two meta-analyses exploring the relationship between teacher clarity and student learning. Communication Education, 64, 385–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1041998

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