The Quest for Learning: Promoting Engagement and Disciplinary Literacy Through Game-Based Quests

Introduction

Disciplinary literacy may hold some distinct learning advantages over content area literacy including increasing students’ ability to better comprehend discipline-specific texts in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), as well as the texts of history, social science, and literature (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012). The Common Core State Standards have recognized the importance of disciplinary literacy as well, through the addition of specific English language arts and literacy standards in the areas of history/social studies and science/technical content areas as (National Governors Association, 2010). With this in mind, it is important to consider the ways in which educators might better approach teaching disciplinary literacy, and what contexts, strategies, and tools can help.

Content area literacy is a teaching method that “focuses on study skills that can be used to help students learn from subject matter specific texts” (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012, p.8). The goal of content area literacy is the development of students’ ability to use general reading skills and strategies to understand information and text in the content areas (Fang & Coatoam, 2013). Conversely, disciplinary literacy is focused on the “knowledge and abilities possessed by those who create, communicate, and use knowledge within disciplines” (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012, p.8). Unlike content area literacy, disciplinary literacy moves students beyond the most basic levels of knowledge consumption to more deeply understand discipline-specific communication and practices (Fang & Coatoam, 2013). More specifically, disciplinary literacy concerns itself with what it means to work like, think like, and communicate like a historian, scientist, or mathematician, etc. As such, proponents of disciplinary literacy “recommend that literacy instruction be anchored in the disciplines and advocate explicit attention to discipline-specific cognitive strategies, language skills, literate practices, and habits of mind” (Fang & Coatoam, 2013, p.628).

According to Grysko and colleagues (2019), “disciplinary literacy is important because a generalized approach to literacy development does not prepare students for meeting the specialized content and literacy demands of the disciplines” (p. 486). National and international assessments seem to support this conclusion, as they continue to show that many students struggle to demonstrate basic comprehension of and facility with discipline-specific reading tasks (de Brey et al., 2019). It may be that general approaches to the instruction of reading and writing skills are not fully preparing the majority of students to read proficiently across the various content areas. For example, the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress reports just over one third of students in grades four and eight are able to read at a proficient level (de Brey et al., 2019) – skills which are “considered essential for reading and comprehending the specialized texts of English language arts, science, mathematics, and other content areas” (Grysko et al., 2019, p. 486).

Developing disciplinary literacy has important implications for students’ achievement, as it allows them to become better problem solvers and demonstrate more transfer of skills and knowledge outside the school setting. When one understands how to think like a mathematician, one is better able to confront novel problem-solving situations using logic and mathematical reasoning. When one understands how to think like a scientist, one is better able to employ the skills of observing, generating and testing hypotheses, and communicating results. International tests such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are rife with simulations of authentic problem-solving tasks that require students to think critically in a disciplinary way (McGrath, 2008). These problems cannot only be solved with mere knowledge of facts, information, and procedures, but rather require students to employ disciplinary thinking in order to successfully complete the task. As a result, an overemphasis on content area literacy at the expense of disciplinary literacy may be a contributing factor to students’ lack of achievement on international standardized tests (McGrath, 2008).