Ten of the Very Best Reasons for Using Classroom Games (and for Justifying Their Use in Your Organization)

Over the past 15 years, we have raised the question, "Why do you use classroom games?" to our clients and workshop participants. From their feedback we have constructed a list of the ten very best reasons for using learning games. We hope these 10 descriptions will remind and stimulate you to consider learning games as a training alternative; and, then to consider one of our fine, field-tested, fun-to-play, classroom proven products.


Reason #1: Games are Fun with a Purpose
Games create a cognitive engagement between the learner and the topic in a flowing, smiling 
environment. Games celebrate your topic and reward individual and group achievement. 
Games bring fun and energy into a buoyant learning zone, but with the focus on learning.

Reason #2: Games Provide Feedback to the Learner
Learners want and need feedback on their performance. Games give them immediate 
feedback on the quality of their input — their successes and their errors. With the 
appropriate corrective feedback, this can become an invaluable learning opportunity.

Reason #3: Games Provide Feedback to the Trainer
Games provide a practice field where learners interact with the topic, demonstrating their 
knowledge and ability to apply the information. By observing this real-time demonstration, 
the trainer can adjust the subsequent level of lecture, readings and interventions, 
accordingly.

Reason #4: Games are Experiential
Today's learner needs to do and to try things on her own. Games provide an environment 
that transforms the passive student into an active part of the learning process where she 
can connect her own dots and experience her own ideas. Games also remind both player and 
teacher that energy in the classroom is a good thing. 

Reason #5: Games Motivate Learners
Games engage players and then motivate them to interact with the topic. This interaction 
drives players to demonstrate their understanding of the topic in a friendly contest where 
successes are memorable moments of shared triumph and celebration and where mistakes 
mean only that the learner is being stretched to his or her own limits. 

Reason #6: Games Improve Team Work
Games are real-time activities that bring players into teams, demonstrate the rules and 
roles of working together as a team, and underscore the value of team collaboration. Games 
give your learners a chance to know their peers as they share the same real-time 
experiences, allowing for strong networking and bonding.

Reason #7: Games Provide a Less Threatening Learning Environment
Because the game format is playful, the inherent challenge of the material, even new or 
difficult material, is less threatening. During game play seemingly difficult questions and 
scenarios are "just part of the game." And, teachers can use the window following 
classroom responses to build a bridge between the topic and the learner. 

Reason #8: Games Bring Real-World Relevance
Games allow you to present real-world information in the form of questions, scenarios, role-
plays, and so forth. In this way, players learn not only the "what," but the "why," of the 
topic from a real-world perspective. Players also observe their own behavior and that of 
others during game play. Post game debriefings give insights into those behaviors in 
thoughtful examples observed during game play. 

Reason #9: Games Accelerate Learning
Games allow you to compress your topic and demonstrated learning into shorter periods of 
time, accelerating the speed of learning. The visual presentation, oral interactions, and 
active participation of game play appeals to all of the learning styles (visual, auditory and 
kinesthetic), involves both the rational and experiential mind that helps players remember 
what they have learned. 

Reason #10: Games Give You Choices for Your Classroom 
Games allow you to add variety and flexibility to your teaching menus. Games allow you 
to do any or all of the following:

• Vary the level of learner involvement
• Vary the level of skill level and knowledge
• Customize to any size of audience, even one-on-one
• Vary the type and level of activity 
• Vary the level of classroom control 
• Introduce or review topics, or both
• Vary the mix of theoretical and practical information

 

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