The Minecraft Aesthetics: Interactions for Reflective Practices

Introduction

Game-based learning environments adopt games’ systematic and data-driven pedagogies to engage learners in problem-solving (Johnson, Adams-Becker, Estrada & Freeman, 2014; Gee, 2008). Some game studies elaborate on rhythmic immersion of games and how game aesthetics could be an inspiration for learners to comprehend academic content (e.g., Squire, 2011). Hunicke, Leblanc and Zubek (2004), in theorizing the game design and research approach, defined aesthetics as the “desirable emotional response evoked in the player as the player interacts with the game system” (p.2). In this paper, we connect gaming experience with how learning can be an aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience “is marked by focused intent to resolve an indeterminate situation and becomes aesthetic” when someone is “deeply invested in the effort” (Parrish, 2009, p.513). Eisner (2005) defines aesthetic experience as a mode of knowing in two ways – through aesthetic experiences that allow for vicarious participation in situations beyond practical possibilities and through knowledge of or the developed ability to experience the subtleties of the engagement in the activity. We have previously argued that the game aesthetic reveals the core learning concepts and provides complexities for deeper engagement in digital games (Gupta & Kim, 2014). By the game aesthetic, we refer to the ways that different genres of games guide player interactions and experiences with its design elements such as rules, geography and representation, number of players, and time (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith & Tosca, 2013). In this paper, we delve into the Minecraft aesthetic as a specific game genre to establish how interactions with its design elements help create an aesthetic learning experience. Our analysis examines the process of students’ finding design solutions for the problems they encounter as they proceed with their goals in Minecraft. Minecraft is an open sandbox-style game where the players are able to develop and showcase creativity (Nguyen, 2016) through experiments within the digital game environment. These creative experiments evolve out of the two key player activities within Minecraft, as in construction and survival. The interrelations and tensions between these two activities contribute to the play experience of Minecraft (Duncan, 2011). Researchers argue that learners identify and solve problems through critical thinking (Snyder & Snyder, 2008), but more specifically we suggest that learners engage in problem-solving through what Schön (1983) called “reflection-in-action” enabled by the Minecraft aesthetic. By interacting with the design elements of Minecraft, learners shape the problems through their perception, understanding and experience of the game, and then assess and act upon the problems both individually and collaboratively. Our research therefore examined: (1) how the learners interpret the problems contextually undergoing an aesthetic experience as they interact with Minecraft, and (2) how these interactions help them to engage in reflective practices and solve the problems. Our research was based in an arts immersion school in Canada where students started using Minecraft to achieve curricular outcomes in high school Social Studies.