Can gambling be useful? You bet
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
Incorporate risk and uncertain outcomes into lessons and you’ll be on to a winner, Darren Evans writes.
From furtive games of pitch-and-toss in the playground to friendly bets on a classmate’s sporting prowess, gambling games have always been played by children in school. But can gambling, or gaming, with its associated and usually negative elements of risk-taking and instant gratification, ever be used in a positive and constructive way to motivate learning in the classroom?
It is a question that has prompted groundbreaking research by a team of neuroscientists at the University of Bristol, who set out to investigate the links between games, brains and learning.
‘We wanted to find out why games educated us,’ says Paul Howard-Jones, who led the research. ‘It has a lot to do with the attraction of uncertain reward.’
The key is a chemical called dopamine, which is associated with the brain’s reward system and creates feelings of enjoyment. It can motivate a person to perform certa...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
