Kahoot! From a Behaviourist to a Social Constructivist Perspective: Enhancing Learning in the Primary EFL Classroom

Alpeque [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Kahoot! has meanwhile become a quite well-known online platform for game-based learning, one can also refer to it as a „student response system” (Licorish et al., 2018, p. 1). The teacher just has to sign up for free to prepare a quiz tailored to the students‘ learning needs. To start the quiz the teacher projects it on a screen. The students themselves can simply join the game via a pin code on a device with online access (most probably the traditional PC, an iPad or smartphone). As soon as the questions pop up on the shared screen, all players choose between four possible answers highlighted in different colours on their own device (Kahoot, 2019). 

I first used Kahoot! in a German primary school for EFL teaching by creating vocabulary quizzes for my class. I displayed either the German or English words, or simply pictures so that the students had to choose the corresponding vocabulary. From a pedagogical perspective, I exploited Kahoot! as a behaviourist quiz since stimuli (questions) and feedback (only the right answers lead to points) were given externally to foster the students’ learning (Bower, 2017). According to Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2013) “technology [should play] a supportive rather than a starring role” in the learning environment (p. 181). I think that applied to my teaching since I used Kahoot! as a tool for formative assessment. I was not only able to practice and assess the students’ knowledge but also to see if there was a need for a recap to ensure the desired learning outcome. Furthermore, I experienced that students who would normally be too shy to perform in front of the class were highly encouraged to choose the correct vocabulary. The findings of Licorish et al. (2018) consolidate my observations: Although some students might feel pressured, at large the use of Kahoot! leads to more engagement and motivation through its competitive edge (getting the highest score). 

However, technology is best used by the teacher and students “as a cognitive tool to develop critical thinking and higher-order thinking skills” (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2013, p. 181). My own beliefs are that we should use a ‘good’ mix of pedagogical approaches. A behaviourist strategy may be good to establish basic knowledge in the beginning but we need to go further to create more self-reliant learners. To advance from simple behaviourism to social constructivism, the game-based learning with Kahoot! would involve some modification. In order to foster the students' creative skills and to focus on student-centred learning Bower suggests that students can create their own quizzes (2017). Deeper thinking and interaction would be required if the students would develop vocabulary quizzes instead of just answering them. They would have to ask themselves "Which vocabularies do we know?" and "What are potential right respectively wrong answers?"

Now one might also argue that Kahoot! could lead to a wear-out effect, but studies show that this happens only to a minimal extent (Wang, 2015). What the teacher should be aware of is “meaningless gamification – the useless implementation of the gaming elements in teaching and learning” (Iaremenko, 2017, p. 131). Like all other games, the efficient use of Kahoot! requires careful pedagogical thinking about what we want to achieve for our students. 

References

Bower, M. (2017). Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating research and practice. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited.

Ertmer, Peggy A., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Anne. (2013). Removing obstacles to the pedagogical changes required by Jonassen's vision of authentic technology-enabled learning (Report). Computers & Education, 64, 175.

Nataliia V. Iaremenko. (2017). ENHANCING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ MOTIVATION THROUGH ONLINE GAMES. Ìnformacìjnì Tehnologì ì Zasobi Navčannâ, 59(3), 126-133. 

Kahoot! (2019). Retrieved from https://kahoot.com. 

Licorish, S., Owen, A., Daniel, H., & George, E. (2018). Students’ perception of Kahoot!’s influence on teaching and learning. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 13(1), 1-23. 

Wang, A. (2015). The wear out effect of a game-based student response system. Computers & Education, 82(C), 217-227.