David Townsend · Professional Working Philosophy

Learning in Motion: Implicit, Narrative-Driven, Game-Based Learning Hypothesis

01 · Experience

01 / Experience

Notice where learners get stuck

Give learners several ways to begin, show understanding, and apply what they learn in new situations.

  1. College A clear starting point made difficult course material easier to approach.
  2. Essential Dynamics Graphics and animation helped explain products to retail and vendor teams.
  3. Teaching English in China K–8 lessons and university IELTS preparation showed the value of observing learners before choosing supports.

02 / Design

Offer several ways to begin

Star Bridge: Ancient Ruins offers three ways to start the same task.

  1. Picture Connect the word bridge to the object.
  2. Bilingual directions Give instructions in a familiar language.
  3. Paper Mark the object on a printed scene.

Shared goal · Identify nouns in a story scene.

03 / Assessment

Look for evidence of transfer

  1. The Word Bridge Record what learners identify and how much prompting they need.
  2. Spellbound Relics Observe learners ordering runes to build sentences and open portals.
  3. Proposed delayed task Ask learners to describe movement in a new scene without rune cues.

Project examples

Project images

Select either image to see it at a larger size.

Star Bridge · Original project screenshot. Formative assessment for Grade 2–3 English learners.
Spellbound Relics · Earlier ZL Classes artwork

Artwork

Working hypothesis for Implicit Narrative-Driven Game-Based Learning (IND-GBL)

Learners who play with only the story goal will use the sentence pattern more successfully in a new communication task after a delay than learners who receive explicit grammar instruction with guided practice or learners who hear the grammar objective before playing the same game.

Classroom use The game adds an implicit option alongside explicit instruction. The proposed study compares when learners first connect the game task with the classroom lesson in each lesson order.