*4.3.5 Maxim 19 happy students*

Learning is an emotional process. It does not just rely on logic, but instead involves the whole self. A happy learner does better. MBE says the brain responds better to joy than to fear. It also emphasizes the use of the five senses in learning. As students are meaningfully engaged in learning that has fewer negative motivators, students will be happier and freer to take risks.

There are three elements of gamification that specifically relate to this maxim. The first is accumulative grading. The traditional grading system is punitive. A student enters the class with 100% of the grade but loses points across each assignment. This gives a sense of losing. It uses a negative motivation component of fear. Students fear they will lose too many points for their desired grade, so they work hard not to lose points. Accumulative grading has students begin the class with 0 points. Each task earns points, so grading is no longer subtractive. This reverses the psychological element with positive motivation. It is more pleasant to see a grade grow than shrink. Levels help to support this feeling of growth and progression. This gives a positive psychological boost to learners. Also, the ability to resubmit assignments to earn full points eliminates the fear of subtractive grading because students have a second chance of getting their full points.

#### *4.3.6 Maxim 24 performances of understanding*

The brain desires recognition of understanding. This happens through creation of products that are visible and demonstrative of students' knowledge. As students learn, they should produce products that represent their level of mastery of what is being taught. In MBE, it is understood that each student is unique with their own way of thinking and processing information. So, tasks that students produce should be adaptable so that individuals and/or groups can produce work that is unique to those learners. MBE also advocates for building upon learners' previous knowledge. As tasks are flexible for students and adaptable to build upon unique life experiences and diverse cultural differences, the tasks become more meaningful and conducive to how the brain processes information. Finally, these tasks should be organized in a way that allows students to progress logically from easier concepts and ideas to more complex ones. Good instruction is adaptable to student differences while building upon their unique prior knowledge and organized in a way that will build from easier to harder. All this should be done while providing demonstrable products that can be recognized visibly.

One very common way to implement gamification is through badging. Badges are visual representations of learning, or as NeuroELT states, visible "performances of understanding". Badges visually recognize objective completion and achievement. The tasks created to earn each badge should be adaptable to accommodate the uniqueness of learners. They should allow for personalization of tasks to build upon each learner's previous knowledge. The organization of badges should provide a clear progression of difficulty. The nature of most badging systems have smaller badges that are earned, often for microskills. When the set of these badges are earned, this can qualify learners for a more complex task to earn a more advanced badge. Hence, there is a visual representation of understanding and clear progression from easy to hard provided by this style of gamification.

#### *4.3.7 Maxim 25 assess in three ways*

Assessment from the teacher should be the culminating assessment. Prior to that experience, students should self-assess and engage in peer assessment. Utilizing the three types of assessment creates a culture of metacognition and learning from errors. MBE posits that the brain learns from errors. Errors happen and in the process of fixing those errors, learning occurs. Further, this use of self and peer assessment provides a personal environment where people have a voice for why they believe tasks should be done the way they are. This can also inspire changes and further steps to be taken, which is in sync with tailoring education to the uniqueness of each learner.

There are a few features within gamification that can be utilized to increase the metacognitive aspect of assessment and error correction. The do-over options on assignments are very helpful to provide additional and personalized feedback to students at the moment that they are most receptive. Ideally, students use the benchmarks for each assignment to evaluate if the assignment meets the objectives set. In group tasks, students give peer feedback as they prepare tasks for successful submission. If the submission is not successful, the student or group of students receive timely feedback and then self-assess and strategize to better meet the set objectives.

#### *4.3.8 Maxim 41 encourage mistakes: Celebrate mistakes*

Errors should not be viewed negatively. The natural process of learning involves unsuccessful attempts. If a student does not make mistakes, they are not taking risks, and thus are not maximizing their learning. Embracing errors and using them as learning opportunities is at the heart of both NeuroELT and MBE.

A central tenet of gamification is learning from doing, making mistakes, learning from mistakes, and fixing the problem. The use of accumulative grading deemphasizes the grade by focusing on the increase in points versus highlighting their subtraction. The allowance for do-overs contributes to a culture that does not penalize errors, but instead uses them as an educational tool.

### *4.3.9 Brain-friendliness and potential challenges of gamification?*

While gamified learning shows the potential to promote a brain-friendly classroom, questions nevertheless remain about the implementation of such an approach particularly given the overall impact of technology on the classroom setting. Anderson and Rainie [22] noted that today's networked lifestyle leads many learners to seek instant gratification and quick choices, resulting in a lack of patience. Such
