“Game Theory Lab”: A Gamification Laboratory for High School Students

Introduction

The extraordinary upheaval that the school world has suffered in the last two years in light of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, has strengthened and accelerated the activation of distance learning to an unprecedented level. Digital technologies, on-line platforms and technological tools support the world of the school system allowing the maintenance of educational activities, enhancing the targeted paths and allowing the continuation of the students' educational and training objectives. Currently the learning environment no longer coincides with the only physical space that delimits the school classroom as per the traditional conception of the school, the virtual and digital world has become an extraordinarily useful space for teaching and learning and for the realization of interactive activities.

The Department of Mathematics in collaboration with the Department of Economics of the University of Salerno (Italy) designed a series of activities developed on-line on interdisciplinary paths that propose contemporary and current topics interpreting them in a mathematical key. The various laboratories have been designed to provide upper secondary school students with mathematical and economic models that allow them to understand and analyze the dynamics of decisions in real historical, political and economic contexts. The aim is to overcome the traditional fragmentation of curricular teaching and create areas and contexts of interconnection between science, technology, economics and literature through the interpretation of mathematics which becomes the bridge among the various cultural fields, guiding students to acquire skills for their future and to choose their university courses consciously (Rogora & Tortoriello, 2021). In particular, the economy is the great absentee in Italian High Schools and this data is in contrast with the survey carried out on the percentage of students enrolled in university faculties of economic orientation which sees about 30% of Italian students choose these paths. The aim of the proposed educational projects was therefore to provide a substantial cultural and notional background to make a conscious and reasoned choice about students’ future studies. Thanks to the enrichment of technology in teaching (Rabardel, 2002) it was possible to design laboratories that developed mathematical skills by exploiting the positive motivation of structured activities in terms of objectives and competences (Gura & Maschler, 2008; Wæge, 2009). Numerous courses in mathematics and economics have been produced and offered to high schools for students, in constant collaboration between training institutions, schools and universities (Bimonte et al., 2020, 2021). Among them is the Game Theory Lab described in this chapter.

In this contingent educational scenario of a liquid society in constant change (Bauman, 2000) and the rapidly evolving school context with students rather to constantly get involved in order to change their learning schemes to realign them and adapt them in a distance learning perspective, we have decided to build an outline didactic path tailored on the model of a video game. The choice can be particularly effective, as it is akin to the world of students, and significant thanks to the evident motivational potential in teaching and training in general, especially when used in appropriate contexts of use (Rodrigues da Silva et al., 2019).

Gamification can be seen as a set of activities and processes to solve problems using or applying the characteristics of the elements of a game. Gamification can be a method of engaging learners and improving motivation through a set of activities and processes in which players solve specific real-life problems. The relationship between Gamification, mathematics and economics is interdisciplinary. Gamification can be used to introduce economic concepts and real-life problems in which analysis through strategic interaction models from Game Theory are the fundamental mechanism (Randel et al., 1992; Lazzaro, 2005; Bimonte et al., 2020, 2021; Sailer et al., 2017).

Learning outcomes may be one of the most important outcomes in learning and education. Many researchers have revealed that gamification for learning and education can improve learning outcomes.

Gamification can improve higher-order thinking skills, declarative and procedural knowledge (Sitzmann, 2011), and performance on tests. In addition, Randel et al. (1992) claim that content-specific subjects, such as mathematics, may show more positive effects as a result of gamification than other subjects.