Serious science games, social selves and complex nature of possible selves

Margaret Beier, Leslie Miller, and Shu Wang’s paper, Science games and the development of possible selves examines the effects of game-playing in a serious scientific game on science possible selves identity creation, utilizing a possible selves identification instrument they created. This paper continues the discussion that Beier and colleagues start in the paper by calling into question both the idea that a predictive model of science career choice can be attained by serious science game-playing and the nature of the instrument created and used by Beier and her colleagues to identify participants’ creation of science possible selves. Recommendations include incorporating the idea of possible selves as being complex, dynamic and intertwined with self-concept in interpreting their findings and casting a wider net to capture the phenomena of their participants’ identities and experiences by potentially making use of possible selves identification methodologies from the career training arena.

[1]  D. Chambers,et al.  Stereotypic images of the scientist: The draw‐a‐scientist test , 1983 .

[2]  Leslie Miller,et al.  Science games and the development of scientific possible selves , 2012, Cultural studies of science education.

[3]  J. Bruner.  Acts of meaning , 1990 .

[4]  Christopher Hoadley,et al.  Leveraging Identity to Make Learning Fun: Possible Selves and Experiential Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) , 2007 .

[5]  P. Ackerman,et al.  The Problem Is in the Definition: g and Intelligence in I–O Psychology , 2012, Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

[6]  Deborah Bybee,et al.  Possible selves and academic outcomes: How and when possible selves impel action. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  C. Steele,et al.  Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[8]  Kevin D. Finson.  Drawing a Scientist: What We Do and Do Not Know After Fifty Years of Drawings , 2002 .

[9]  H. Markus,et al.  THE DYNAMIC SELF-CONCEPT: A Social Psychological Perspective , 1987 .

[10]  H. Markus,et al.  Possible selves and delinquency. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  M. Hoskins,et al.  Changing Metaphors of the Self: Implications for Counseling , 1996 .

[12]  Becky Wai-Ling Packard,et al.  Science Career-Related Possible Selves of Adolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Study , 2003 .

[13]  B. Zimmerman,et al.  Social Origins of Self-Regulatory Competence , 1997 .

[14]  Sasha A. Barab,et al.  Children's Sense of Self: Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age , 2008 .

[15]  E. Erikson.  Identity, youth, and crisis , 1968 .

[16]  John D. Smith.  The self-regulated nature of self-concept and the Life World – investigating the process of personal change and transition , 2006 .

[17]  R. Sternberg.  Metaphors of mind: Conceptions of the nature of intelligence. , 1990 .

[18]  A. Marshall,et al.  Possible Selves Mapping: Life-Career Exploration With Young Adolescents , 1999 .

[19]  Christopher Hoadley,et al.  Online Identity as a Leverage Point for Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) , 2006 .

[20]  H. Markus,et al.  Self-Schemas, Possible Selves, and Competent Performance , 1994 .

[21]  Christina C. Norman,et al.  Aspects of possible self that predict motivation to achieve or avoid it , 2003 .

[22]  H. Markus,et al.  Possible selves and performance : the power of self-relevant imagery , 1992 .