Abstract:

As teachers, it is common to be asked to wear multiple “hats” and to teach classes in a variety of interrelated yet distinct subject areas. For the past two years, I have worked as a music teacher, art history teacher, and gaming coach at a school that exclusively serves students with learning differences. At first, teaching across this breadth of subject matter with a neurodiverse student population posed numerous challenges for me as an instructor; however, over time I developed a program that broke the mold of more traditional arts curriculum and transformed our class time into an interdisciplinary year-long immersive and gamified experience.

Numerous studies have noted a drop in attention span in children and young adults in the last few decades, particularly in the area of school work. This issue is amplified among students who are neurodiverse. Although the arts have the potential to hold students’ attention through the use of project-based learning, this attention boost can be further cemented by including STEM components and topics that align with student interests.

In order to accomplish that task, I devised a game-inspired course structure that spans over multiple classrooms. In this model, students manage their own digital portfolios and compete for sales on Friday art markets. They curate art auctions, manage their own money, settle disputes and in art court, and now (new for the 2023-2024 academic year) they attend a simulated art school. By simulating real world careers and activities in the arts, student engagement has skyrocketed, as has awareness of and interest in arts careers.

From what I have witnessed, a game-inspired framework serves as an effective support structure that the students can rely on. It satisfies the need for regular routines as well as their desire to participate in a variety of activities. By interacting with other classes through auctions and collaborative projects, students begin to recognize and develop their role in an art world. By mimicking game elements with which most students are already familiar, outcomes can be easily monitored while students gain a sense of ownership and achievement that can be difficult to achieve in a traditional arts classroom.

In this presentation, I will share the ways in which gamification and connection between classes has boosted engagement in my arts classroom and offer a series of templates for attendees to use in planning their own immersive class experiences. Through survey data and a demonstration of creative output, I will demonstrate the impact that gamification has had on the learning outcomes and overall well being of a neurodiverse student population.

This project is an extension of work previously presented at the EDULEARN Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in July 2023.

Keywords:

STEAM, STEM, interdisciplinary, art history, curriculum, arts, student support, gamification, inclusivity, learning differences.