If I organize competition in game design I need to prepare some rubrics for evaluating games: how game looks, content of game, complexity, ….

The best game can be used for new competition in playing that game.

It’s fun and exciting for our students. There is an intrinsic value in a classroom competition even without any rewards or prizes; the game itself is enough to get learners more interested. We note that students  are  more interested in   sports they play also more interested in  practicing hobbies where they can play some rules such as theater , than their studies. So it is necessary to take profit of this factor so that to raise our students interest for the academic side of things. Our learners enjoy practicing   sports because that's usually a game, and because improving makes us performing. So as teachers we need to bring that same attitude and level of effort to academics, and to the general development of one’s thinking and problem-solving skills. 

About starting our lessons with a competition or a game, in order not to make the differences between students and according to the new pedagogical studies we need to avoid the big number of exams, for students, even a competition, for students it will be considered as an exam for that reason we can evaluate what they learnt before by mixing competition and game so that we can reach evaluate and start indirectly the new lesson. 

In some cases we can only start a lesson with a competition where students will work in teams, in other cases we can start with a game that will not take too much time from the lesson duration. 

A competition sometimes can be damaging. I imagine a student with mental problems who does not benefit by learning in groups, due to his/her physical/neurological problems and who is too anxious in a competitive context. In such a situation, cooperative games are more useful than competitive ones. A game can motivate if it is played in team, the more expert student helps the weaker students to win a race and both learn, have fun and the review activity is now a success. LearningApp can allow us to prepare games to review, but also Kakhoo or other structured creative games. If students play or prepare games using these simple tools and learn, are motivated to learn and develop their HOTs having fun the competitions in the game is not a source of frustration. 

In my subject (Science) I can use geocatching to review geological or geographic aspects, tools such as  Tactileo Map for geolocalization, a competitive reseach of some species of plants, little animals, fungi, rocks, minerals in the natural environment. A treasure hunt fit to the purpose, especially if the prize is something correlated to my subject (for example a mineral). 

I think that well prepared competitions can motivate the students a lot. I could organize someone where students would have to find the solution to a given problem or to create a game in teams where would be assessed by all students of the class. The winning team could gain tickets for an escape room or for an adventure park! 

Competition is always motivating 

When we use this fact in repeating the lessons and try a different ways to do that: through a quiz of knowledge, memory games or other kind of game related to previous knowledge, we will get more motivation, higher level of student's knowledge and  another proof to monitoring and  targeting  the level of achievement of the student's knowledge for each lesson.

Il the rules are clear and if students are trained early in fair play and to respect others, it will be easier to set up motivating competitions. If we can unite a class around a project/game and if the competition is between classes, then it will undoubtedly be very motivating. And no one stays behind 

Potential Benefits

Potential Drawbacks

I teach French and I use charades to revise vocabulary before starting a new topic.     

A gamification project must stimulate competition and gratification through active behavior
Avoid the frustration of the game to encourage collaboration

 

“We have empirical evidence that deliberate practice, while important, ... does not largely account for individual differences in performance. (...)  Mostly, though, it depends on the domain. Practice explained 26 per cent of the variance in achievement for games, 21 per cent in musical accomplishment, 18 per cent in sports, 4 per cent in college grades, and less than 1 per cent in professional success.”

 

Therefore, the process of review is one that does not benefit largely from practice. Instead, the best results come from other factors like (1) how early in school year it was introduced as a classroom routine, (2) how open and collaborative it is, and (3) how much students enjoy doing it (intrinsic motivation). According to this, does anyone think it pays off to gamify the process of review? I do not.

A well-balanced competition will be extremely positive for students. A code game, related to the curriculum, should be fun to propose to students.

I think competition can be a great way for students to get motivated in more repetitive tasks but to enable them to improve their performance.
Depending on the ages of the students the competition should be used and monitored with caution, dominating the teacher what they want to reward, if only the final result, the process, the effort the commitment ..

I sometimes make quizzes where members of the team have different tasks so everyone can help the team to win.