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Using Dungeons and Dragons to Integrate Curricula in an Elementary Classroom
Abstract
This chapter outlines the creation and implementation of a third-grade student-initiated, teacher-directed game design project. The project was initially undertaken to address challenges faced within the classroom, including students’ lack of interest and confidence in math and the math program itself. The students decided that they would like to adapt Dungeons and Dragons for their classroom project, which presented a unique opportunity to integrate the content and skill objectives in math, social studies, and writing into the design and play of the game. Students decided which elements of the game to adapt, what steps to take to achieve these goals, and how to play their game. The teacher provided materials, asked questions, and assessed the students’ progress to ensure that these cross-curricula goals were achieved. While all of the students benefited from engaging with this project, significant positive outcomes were observed in many students who struggled in math, reading, writing, and social interaction.
... Implementing the use of the game with young children brings us to reflect on the role of D&D as an education tool. There are several studies showing how to use D&D to integrate curricula in elementary schools [3] or in higher grades [22]. Since the restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown made it impossible to physically meet at the table to play, the case study described in the following Section required the use of an online platform to run a D&D 5e adventure for the educational experience we are discussing in this paper. ...
... Since the restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown made it impossible to physically meet at the table to play, the case study described in the following Section required the use of an online platform to run a D&D 5e adventure for the educational experience we are discussing in this paper. Therefore, we decided to use Roll20, 3 probably the most used online virtual tabletop to play D&D. Roll20 was already used before the pandemic events of 2020, but its number of users peaked in the first half of 2020 [7], as a consequence of the lockdowns. ...
In this work, we present the results of a role-playing game experience carried out with a group of 9- to 12-year-old children during the COVID-19 emergence. The ‘harmony in education’ approach has been used to adapt the game design to the constraints imposed by the online context and the young age of the students involved. The results show the effectiveness of the approach in terms of 21st-century skills training with particular evidence on perspective-taking.
... The combination of D&D's flexible design parameters, cooperative play environment, and reliance on imagination, has made it an ideal game for players to learn from. As such, there has been growing examination of D&D's educational potential in recent years (e.g., Carter 2011;Clarke et al. 2019;Cook et al. 2017;Garcia 2020;Polkinghorne et al. 2021;Wright et al. 2020, 1)-with a focus on creativity, critical thinking, and social development outcomes (e.g., Darvasi 2019; Sidhu and Carter 2021a). While it may not have been Arneson or Gygax's intention to create an educational game, D&D's nondigital design and adaptive ruleset allows a spectrum of learning experiences to manifest organically throughout D&D play. ...
Contemporary research and discourse exploring intersections of games and learning leans towards the design and experiences of digital games. Despite their growing popularity in recent years, investigation of non-digital games and learning remains limited in comparison. This paper describes the game design process and presents a key finding from early playtest data of All Players Are Equal—a Dungeons & Dragons [D&D] (Arneson and Gygax 1974) one-shot experience inspired by George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm (1945). The game leverages mechanics such as agency, transgression, and death—which are also key themes represented in the novel—to facilitate a shared pivotal play and learning experience. By discussing key design choices and reflections from initial playtests (12 participants total, 7M, 5F, aged 18- 40), this paper offers insight into how opportunities for pivotal play and learning may be created or enhanced within games.
... Elementary students(Carter 2011) • Primary and secondary school students(Abdul Jabbar and Felicia 2015;Geneuss 2021;Cullinan 2024) • Middle schoolers(Bowman and Standiford 2015;Bagès, Hoareau, and Guerrien 2021;Katō 2019) • Youth in after-school programs(Callina, Colbert, Gray 2018;Bandhoesingh 2024) • Youth in summer camps(Hoge 2013;Fein 2015;Faros 2018;Turi and Hartyándi 2023) • College students(Wright, Weissglass, and Casey 2020) • Health practitioners(Standiford 2014;Riser et al. 2024) • Mental health practitioners(Gutierrez 2017) • Camp counsellors, trainers, teachers, players, or researchers(Daniau 2016) • Youth workers and volunteer managers (DiveIn Consortium 2021; Ladišić and Prkosovački 2022)• Government employees and politicians (van Bilsen 2024)• Business professionals (Branch 2018)• Leaders seeking professional development(Jensen 2021;Hartyándi and van Bilsen 2024), among many other professional contexts. ...
This textbook describes theory and practice in analog role-playing game (RPG) design that encourage specific transformative impacts in participants, including tabletop, live action role-playing (larp), and Nordic and American freeform. We describe three types of transformative RPGs: transformative leisure, therapeutic, and educational. We present our model of nano-game design, offering recommendations for designing transformative goals; framing activities such as workshops and debriefs; narrative and culture design. This interdisciplinary book highlights theories from role-playing game studies, peace and conflict studies, psychology, social psychology, sociology, counseling, anthropology, pedagogy, and several other fields. Key concepts include bleed, alibi, RPGs as transformational containers, immersion, identity, transfer, ritual, psychotherapeutic techniques, group theories, and educational theories. We emphasize psychological safety before, during, and after games, as well as strategies for cultivating transformational communities. Key topics include working with specific populations; crisis management; sensitive content and representation. Then, we discuss working with myth, symbolism, and ritual, narrative, and postmodern magic as methods for transforming the stories of our lives. We cover forms of culture within and around RPGs, as well working with conflict in scenarios related to politics, culture, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. We share thoughts around the use of RPGs to foster activism, advocacy, inclusion, and accessibility. Finally, we offer considerations for researchers studying transformative role-playing games, including academic argument, structure, theory, method, data collection, ethics, and other considerations. We introduce key methods, including Research through Design, ethnography, and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The book closes with a summary of evidence-based research available on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of role-playing games.
... Most of this work focuses specifically on D&D; in general, little attention has been given to other TTRPG systems (Bjørkelo, 2022). Some have explored the therapeutic and social benefits of tabletop role-playing (Abbott et al., 2022;Varrette et al., 2023), the educational potential of D&D (Carter, 2011;Garcia, 2019), as well as the link between role-playing and creativity (Chung, 2013). Others have focused on how D&D depicts gender, race, power, and disability (Garcia, 2017;Jones, 2018). ...
Over the past decade and a half, there has been an explosion in the quantity and availability of media focused on tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Episodes of highly-produced actual play series like Critical Role and Dimension 20 regularly get millions of views online and have spawned hundreds, if not thousands, of similar programs. Type in “Dungeons & Dragons” or “tabletop role playing” into your search engine of choice, and you will find copious amounts of meta content covering nearly every aspect of the hobby. This wide range of content caters to a broad audience — from the beginner player with zero real-world experience, all the way to the grizzled veteran Dungeon Master. The popularity of these media has brought more players to the game and has made it easier for new players to become socialized into the subculture. Currently, little research exists on the impacts of these media on the quality of players' games. Central to our discussion is Sidhu and Carter’s concept of “pivotal play,” wherein moments transcend the game and deeply impact the players even after they walk away from the table. We propose a framework necessary for moments of pivotal play to emerge, encompassing three layers of socialization crucial for each player: game competency, subcultural competency, and comradery. Through five qualitative, in-depth interviews with experienced TTRPG players, we sought to understand if this explosion of TTRPG-specific media has changed how players play TTRPGs. As a result of our research, we identify five key impact areas and suggest a new term (parasocial idioculture) to describe how actual play media may affect the process of player socialization.
... Terdapat juga percubaan untuk mengintegrasikan TTRPG dalam kurikulum sekolah rendah di mana kurikulum pelajaran direka untuk mengajar matematik, kajian sosial, kemahiran penyelidikan, komunikasi bertulis dan lisan, pembangunan kreatif dan pembangunan sosial & emosi (Carter, 2011). Ini mendedahkan bahawa TTRPG memang menawarkan peluang kepada pelajar sekolah rendah untuk mengembangkan kemahiran kreatif dan berfikir secara kreatif mereka. ...
Permainan perwatakan atas meja (TTRPG) ialah permainan yang berpotensi menjadi alat pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang berharga. TTRPG ialah permainan naratif berstruktur yang membolehkan sekumpulan pemain terlibat dalam penceritaan kolaboratif untuk membina cerita semasa mereka bermain. Ramai yang terlepas pandang potensinya dalam bidang pendidikan kerana ia merupakan hobi khusus. Disebabkan ini, terdapat kurang penyelidikan TTRPG dalam bidang akademik. Makalah ini akan menerangkan apakah itu TTRPG dan contoh jenis permainan yang terdapat di pasaran. Ia juga akan menggambarkan bagaimana permainan itu boleh memberi manfaat kepada pelajar, apakah kemahiran yang boleh diajar dengan berkesan menggunakan permainan itu, dan cara ia membantu pelajar melibatkan diri dengan bahan pembelajaran. Ini adalah berdasarkan kertas kerja dan artikel dan pengalaman mengajar bilik darjah saya sendiri menggunakan TTRPG, yang telah mendorong saya untuk meneruskannya sebagai topik penyelidikan. Akhir sekali, kertas ini akan memberi cadangan mengenai aktiviti masa depan untuk penyelidikan lanjutan dalam topik TTRPG.
... Pen & Paper-Rollenspiele werden zunehmend im psychosozialen Bereich angewendet, um insbesondere Kinder und Jugendliche in ihrer Entwicklung zu unterstützen. Beispiele finden sich in der Pädagogik (Spotorno et al. 2020;Clarke et al. 2019;Carter 2011), in der Psychologie (Rosselet und Stauffer 2013) und in der Sozialen Arbeit (Matthew et al. 2021;Zayas und Lewis 1986). Blackmon (1994) beschreibt die Verwendung von Dungeons & Dragons in einem psychotherapeutischen Einzelsetting. ...
This article in the Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie (ZPS) discusses options for the use of pen-and-paper roleplaying games in psychodrama group therapy with adolescents and young adults. At the beginning the principle of such games and their rising popularity are introduced using the example of Dungeons & Dragons, to subsequently illustrate prior applications to promote mental health. This is followed by a presentation of virtual worlds and its importance for many young people, who can establish relationships with each other but also with their characters in these virtual realms. Beneficial and inhibiting factors for psychological development provided by these experiences are presented. Finally possible applications within psychodrama psychotherapy are discussed and case examples are presented.
... In more modern contexts, the well-known game Monopoly (Magie and Darrow, 1935) is thought to have over 1500 variants (Horton, 2003), and the My Monopoly version (Darrow, 2014) encourages players to alter most aspects of the game to create their own unique Monopoly game. Boards games and hobby games have even been altered for pedagogical applications such as adapting Dungeons and Dragons (Gygax and Arneson, 1974) to teach maths, social studies, literature and writing in elementary school (Carter, 2011), or altering the board game CO₂ (Lacerda, 2012) to teach climate policy at a university (Castronova and Knowles, 2015). However, it was during the early 1990s that modding culture would take hold in the digital games community. ...
This article explores the use of modding as a formal tool for learning history. The article examines data from a formal analysis of Europa Universalis IV (EUIV), a survey of 331 EUIV forum participants and a case study of 18 university participants. Significant quantitative survey data indicated that 45% (149/331) of participants had modified EUIV, and of the 125 participants who responded with comments about modding, a significant number (86/125 responses or 68.8%) explained how they had learnt about history, geography or other subjects through the modding process. Closer analysis of survey and case study responses and mods reveals the variety of ways participants learnt and critiqued history through the modding process. The article discusses the data and the pedagogical affordance of modding in a few steps. First, the article briefly explores the evidence that indicates modding is popular within the EUIV gaming community. In this instance, it examines whether given the popularity of gaming practice, modding might also be seen as a new casual form of engagement with games. Second, the article reviews the modding process in EUIV and examines how both playing and creating mods may be beneficial for learning history. Modding is examined in terms of its pedagogical importance and the unique educational opportunities it may offer that are not otherwise accessible through other forms of game-based learning. Finally, the article explores how and what the case study participants learnt when they were tasked with creating and implementing playable mods to demonstrate their understanding of history. Overall, the article considers the growing importance of mods, how learners can create and represent history using mods and how mods can provide a platform for learners to develop their own critique and analysis of official history.
Over the last five years Dungeons and Dragons [D&D] (Arneson & Gygax, 1974) has risen in prominence and popularity with a broadening of its player demographic. Though the game’s resurgence has been widely discussed in non-academic outlets, it has been neglected in academic literature. While there are many factors motivating renewed and engaged play of D&D, in this paper we draw on our 2019 study of contemporary D&D players to present key contextual factors of the game’s resurgence. Through discussion of our results, we argue that the influence of representations and trends in popular media, reduction of associated stigma, and impact of convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006) on increased game access, have led to the resurgence of D&D according to our participants and shed light on some key reasons for its success in recent years.
This textbook describes theory and practice in analog role-playing game (RPG) design that encourage specific transformative impacts in participants, including tabletop, live action role-playing (larp), and Nordic and American freeform. We describe three types of transformative RPGs: transformative leisure, therapeutic, and educational. We present our model of nano-game design, offering recommendations for designing transformative goals; framing activities such as workshops and debriefs; narrative and culture design. This interdisciplinary book highlights theories from role-playing game studies, peace and conflict studies, psychology, social psychology, sociology, counseling, anthropology, pedagogy, and several other fields. Key concepts include bleed, alibi, RPGs as transformational containers, immersion, identity, transfer, ritual, psychotherapeutic techniques, group theories, and educational theories. We emphasize psychological safety before, during, and after games, as well as strategies for cultivating transformational communities. Key topics include working with specific populations; crisis management; sensitive content and representation. Then, we discuss working with myth, symbolism, and ritual, narrative, and postmodern magic as methods for transforming the stories of our lives. We cover forms of culture within and around RPGs, as well working with conflict in scenarios related to politics, culture, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. We share thoughts around the use of RPGs to foster activism, advocacy, inclusion, and accessibility. Finally, we offer considerations for researchers studying transformative role-playing games, including academic argument, structure, theory, method, data collection, ethics, and other considerations. We introduce key methods, including Research through Design, ethnography, and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The book closes with a summary of evidence-based research available on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of role-playing games.
Background
Research into transgressive play experiences in games has grown in recent years. In this article, we explore the potential for transgressive play to be constructive in multiplayer settings—something we conceptualize as “benevolent transgression.”
Aim
This article describes the presence and appeal of benevolent transgressive play experiences in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons [D&D].
Research Methods
In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted focus group discussions (3 groups, 14 participants, aged 24–55) and an online survey (354 participants, aged 18–63) with current D&D players to better understand what play experiences were meaningful and appealing for them—in consideration of the game’s contemporary resurgence.
Key Finding and Discussion
Our qualitative analysis focuses on participant responses that described the presence and appeal of transgressive play that knowingly challenges player boundaries or game boundaries, what we term benevolent transgression. We propose two key factors that we believe enable it—1) player agency and 2) collaborative negotiation—and briefly discuss benevolent transgression in consideration of game-based learning [GBL].
In this paper we describe the use of 3D games technology in human anatomy education based on our MSc in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy teaching practice, i.e. students design and develop serious games for anatomy education using the Unity 3D game engine. Students are engaged in this process not only as consumers of serious games, but as authors and creators. The benefits of this constructionist learning approach are discussed. Five domains of learning are identified, in terms of what anatomy students, tutors, and final users (players) can learn through serious games and their development process. We also justify the 3D engine selected for serious game development and discuss main obstacles and challenges to the use of this constructionist approach to teach non-computing students. Finally, we recommend that the serious game construction approach can be adopted in other academic disciplines in higher education.
The theoretical framework of Vygotsky entails specific understandings of learning, development, and the goal(s) of development. In Vygotsky’s usage, the term obuchenie, frequently translated as ‘learning’, more accurately indicates the interaction of teacher and student. Although the various domains (phylogenesis, sociocultural history, ontogenesis, and microgenesis) to which Vygotsky extended the concept of development have differing dynamics, the course of development within each domain is characterized by the transformative effects of cultural tools (mediational means) upon their users. Vygotsky posited a form of abstract rationality associated with decontextualization, a semiotic potential inherent in all human languages, as an ideal endpoint (telos) of development. Evidence that Vygotsky at times assumed the existence of another telos, corresponding to the semiotic potential of contextualization, has implications for a potential developmental account of heterogeneity in human mental functioning.
The paper explores the opportunities and challenges of learning and teaching mathematics in the information era from a Vygotskian perspective. A systemic approach is taken to an investigation of the ways in which information technologies have changed the contexts for and forms of mathematical activity in society and the challenge that this change presents to mathematics educators at all levels.
This article reviews the literature that compares the instructional effectiveness of games to conventional classroom instruction. Studies dealing with empirical research rather than teachers'judgments are reviewed. Published reviews of research in English dating from 1963 to 1984 were examined and the literature was searched for studies from 1984 to 1991. Of the 67 studies considered over a period of 28 years, 38 show no difference between games and conventional instruction; 22 favor games; 5 favor games, but their controls are questionable; and 3 favor conventional instruction. Results for social sciences, math, language arts, logic physics, biology, retention over time, and interest are examined. Math is the subject area with the greatest percentage of results favoring games, but only eight studies have adequate controls. Thirty-three out of 46 social science games/simulations show no difference between games/simulations and classroom instruction. The authors conclude that subject matter areas where very specific content can be targeted are more likely to show beneficial effects for gaming.
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