Game-Based Writing Strategy Practice with the Writing Pal

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors consider the value of educational games to support students’ writing strategy acquisition and practice. Sixty-five high school students participated in a summer program using the Writing Pal, an intelligent tutoring system designed to support adolescents’ persuasive writing across multiple phases of the writing process. Overall, students who interacted with the full W-Pal intelligent tutoring system (i.e., animated strategy lessons, game-based practice, and essay-based practice with feedback) were better able to articulate new writing strategies than students who engaged in intensive essay-based practice by writing and revising twice as many essays with feedback. Importantly, performance within several educational games was found to be a significant predictor of strategy acquisition. The authors argue that these strategy benefits arise from the ways in which strategy-specific, game-based practice activities support the decomposition of task goals, clear operations for achieving those goals, compensation for individual differences, and motivation to practice.