Kahoot! - Less Daunting, More Exciting

Art by Ava Heffernan

I can still recall those days when I witnessed smiles fading from my students' faces upon hearing the word "dictation", and those moments when I had to resort to a carrot-and-stick approach to encourage some students to at least write something on their paper. I made up my mind to find an alternative method to assess my students' understanding of lexis, one that could alliviate the "torture" for both them and me. I'm not saying that that learning a language can always be fun, but we can at least make it less daunting (I guess?).

Can Kahoot! becomes a qualified candidate?

1. Overview of Kahoot!

https://instructionaldev.umassd.edu/kahoot/

Kahoot! is a game-based, corss-platform learning tool designed to engage students in multiplayer quiz competition. Among many game-based student response systems (GSRS) (Wang, 2015), Kahoot! leaves me a lasting impression with its playful avatars, tension-filled music and eye-catching buttons.

In the following part I would briefly introduce how Kahoot! can provoke students' intrinsic motivation, reduce their anxiety level, and how it can be applied to facilitate the practice of different thinking skills in language learning. An example of teaching puns with Kahoot! will also be provided.

2. Motivation & Anxiety

In the attempt to unveil the features that make computer games captivating, Malone (1981) organised three features that are considered to contribute to an intrinsic motivating environment: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. According to a recent systematic review on Kahoot! (Wang & Tahir, 2020), the game concept of Kahoot! is based on the three features.

https://create.kahoot.it/details/7a5c50a0-aa7f-4223-850a-85e95a1c58b9

In Kahoot!, the challenge lies in accurately and quickly answering multiple-choice questions, with sometimes uncertain outcomes in terms of if the answer was correct and how many points were awarded. The fantasy in Kahoot! is that the classroom is temporarily transformed into a game show characterised by the pulsating

music, points, scoreboards, and podium. This fantasy is enhanced through the introduction of different game modes (E.g., The lost pyramid, submarine squad, color kindoms). Some of these game modes introduce additional missions during games, such as escaping from the shark mouth and coloring territories, which amplifies the immersive game atmosphere. Curiosity in Kahoot! is said to be stimulated through bot sensory elements like animated graphics, audio and music, and cognitive engagement by revealing whether an answer is correct or not.

At the same time, students' anxiety can be decreased through having the option to be anonymous both to fellow students and the teacher through the use of nicknames. Several studies reported the importance for students to be anonymous, which can result in reduced stress and a safer environment to fail (Wang & Tahir, 2020, Kohnke & Moorhouse, 2022). 

From my observations, students frequently overestimate the consequence of quizzes and dictations to the extent that they can't recognise that these assessments as tools used by teachers to highlight the key contents and offer them an opportunity for self-assessment in their learning journey.

3. Thinking skills

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/29428436431

At a first glance, Kahoot! seems to be quite limited to practicing students' lower-level thinking skills such as remembering and understanding according to Anderson and Krathwohl's revision of Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). This is because the free version of Kahoot! is limited to closed-ended questions, such as true/false multiple choice questions. This assessment format aligns closely with the behaviourist perspective, which posits learning as an observable change in behavior that is brought about by learner responses to stimulus (Bower, 2017).

In Kahoot!, teachers pre-programme the target content in the form of questions (stimulus) with corresponding answers. By choosing only one answer (response), the student can receive feedback that reinforces the desired responses. While this format allows teachers to perform formative assessment on students' memorisation and understanding of the target content, it has been criticised for not being suitable for cultivating students' higher-level thinking skills and for reducing opportunities for them to interact verbally (Kohnke and Moorhouse, 2022). To identify a solution, some propose to jointly use other platforms like Mentimeter to generate open-ended responses and other question types (Kohnke & Moorhouse, 2022). However, alternative solutions arise from the perspective that a learning technology is not tied to a fixed, inherent pedagogy. Instead, it is employed in diverse ways within specific contexts (Bower, 2017). Coinciding with this view, some recommend fostering follow-up dialogue around questions as they are answered, encouraging more resoning and metacognitive thinking by getting the students to support the correct answer with eveidence, or explain why incorrect answers are incorrect (Speroff, 2016). There are also suggestion about letting students to create questions for their own practice or for their peers (Bower, 2017; Kohnke & Moorhouse, 2022), thus shifting from lower-level thinking skills to higher levels of production and creativity.

4. Teaching puns in Hamlet using Kahoot!

In the following part, I'll illustrate how I might employ Kahoot! in the future for teaching puns using Hamlet as the text.

1) To start off, I will use some quizzes to activate students' content schemata including their knowledge about the text and the target literacy device. Upon creating the "Blind Kahoot!" (Castle, 2015), it is expected to spark learners' curiosity about the new topic, and to lay the foundations for understanding increasingly complex concepts. Here are some examples:

2) Following the introduction and exploration of the definition and functions of puns, subsequent quizzes will be administered to gauge students' comprehension. If students choose answers that deviate from the intended ones, I will promptly delve into the reasons behind their choices through focused questioning.

3) After introducing and evaluating the concept of puns, I will immerse students in the world of puns in Hamlet by encouraging them to interpret the attitudes of the characters through the quizzes. This design is aligned with constructivist perspective, which advocates for creating moments wherein learners recognise inconsistencies or gaps in their knowledge. This, in turn, serves as a catalyst for them to proactively address and reconcile their misunderstandings (Bower, 2017). As a subsequent activity, students will engage in a dramatic reading of selected extracts, permitting them to embody the tone and attitude in a playful manner. This activity is purposefully crafted to foster a balance between their cognitive processes and verbal expression.

4) The homework is composed of two parts. The first part is a group work wherein students are required to find some other puns from Hamlet. Subsequently, each group is expected to construct a Kahoot! quiz incorporating the identified puns, which will then be shared in the upcoming class. This process is designed to cultivate higher-level thinking skills and provide opportunities for practicing collaboration and negotiation within the groups. The second part of the assignment entails individual work, encouraging students to generate their own puns. This component serves as a creative exercise, allowing students to apply their understanding of puns independently.

5. Some final thoughts

Returning to the question posed at the beginning of this blog: Can I use Kahoot! to make language learning, quizzes specifically, less daunting? The answer is yes. This is because Kahoot! with its game elements has been empirically proved to boost students' intrinsic motivation and lower anxiety.

As for its several aforementioned "weaknesses" such as an emphasis on close-ended questions and no verbal answers, it is suggested that it can be combined with other tools or with other classroom interactions.

Apart from its positive impact on students' learning, the platform also significantly reduces the time teachers typically spend on correcting quizzes, synthesizing results, and finding suitable images. This allows teachers more time to focus on aspects that require human attention and care, areas where robots and AI are less capable—such as students' individual development.

References:

• Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., & Bloom, B. S. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives (Complete ed.). Longman.

Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning : Integrating research and practice. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Castle, S. (2015, October 28). The Art of Blind Kahooting. Kahoot! Blog. https://kahoot.com/blog/2015/10/28/art-blind-kahooting/

• Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive science, 5(4), 333-369.

• Speroff, Y. (2016, September 30). Using Kahoot! in a Language Classroom. Yuliya Speroff Blog. https://yuliyasperoffblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/using-kahoot-in-a-language-classroom/
  

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

Wang, A. I. and Tahir, R. (2020) The effect of using Kahoot! for learning – A literature review. Computers & Education, 149, 1–22.