Games can contribute to student learning in diverse settings. Social constructivism, situated learning, and social-historical theories support this; but what about students who lack a feeling of competence to learn through failing, who quietly drop out from school, or simply extinguish their desire to learn? The card game ProblemUp! derives its substance from the Cognitive Enrichment Advantage (CEA) approach, which provides the means for creating a community of practice where students adapt 22 specific strategies to meet personal needs in overcoming school, home, work, and interdependent learning problems. ProblemUp! focuses on helping underachieving students in high school and college settings by providing unusual, and often bizarre, game-generated problems that require creative solutions, strategic resourcefulness, and lateral thinking. Such “outside of the box” reasoning exercises supported by the CEA approach and enacted in a social and playful environment can help students develop metacognitive strategies that can be applied in real life.
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