Professional development at BASIS International & Bilingual Schools • China is an opportunity for our educators to share their expertise and inspire one another. On a recent professional learning day at BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour, faculty explored how incorporating gamification and drama-based approaches to teaching enhances student engagement and lead to new levels of learning.
Gamifying the Classroom by Dr. John Smith
I presented a workshop titled “Gamification.” Gamification refers to using elements normally associated with games in a non-game context. These game elements may include competitive and cooperative mechanics normally associated with traditional games or narrative and storytelling elements associated with modern games.
The activities I shared with my colleagues used elements such as roleplaying, score-keeping, negotiation, resource management, team-based competition, and other game mechanics to immerse students in the material covered by the lesson plan and to motivate them to learn.
What does meaningful professional development look like to you?
Meaningful professional development should give teachers something they can use and encourage them to consider new approaches to their practice. If participants walk away with new ideas or inspiration to try something a different way, the professional development is successful.
What strategies or approaches did you use to engage teachers during your PD session?
As we only had 25 minutes, I was careful to maximize our use of time. I limited myself to 10 minutes of talking, in which I introduced the most important definitions and concepts surrounding gamification and a set of guidelines for gamification drawn from my experience as a teacher.
Participating teachers received a printed “toolkit” with a collection of game elements and rudimentary lesson plans that I have found work well with gamification. The toolkit also included detailed descriptions of five gamified activities I have used in my classroom.
After I finished my presentation, teachers could complete a worksheet to walk them through gamifying one of their lesson plans or explore a gallery of printed materials from my lesson plans that I set up in the back of the classroom.
What was the most surprising or rewarding feedback you received from colleagues?
It was very rewarding hearing how my colleagues from the Primary School division or who teach sciences instead of humanities were able to connect my principles of gamification to their own classes. Several colleagues shared that the session was rewarding and that I had given them new ideas.
What has shaped how you deliver professional learning sessions?
The design of the professional learning session was largely modeled after the way I design lessons for my students. I aimed to value my colleagues’ time and give them agency in how they wanted to approach the material.
How do you hope your colleagues will apply the ideas from your workshop?
I hope my colleagues will consider using game elements to make their lessons more immersive and engaging and to better address the diverse learning styles in any group of students. Gamification can be as simple as adding an imaginative roleplaying element to a lesson plan and can be as complex as an elaborate simulation that takes an entire class period.
Dr. John Smith
East Asian History Teacher, AP Human Geography Teacher
Course Advisor for East Asian History
BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour
Integrating Drama Strategies across the Curriculum by Liana Anthony
In this practical workshop, participants took on the role of students and explored drama-based games and strategies to enhance engagement and understanding across various subjects.
What does meaningful professional development look like to you?
Meaningful professional development is interactive, relevant, and directly linked to participants’ teaching practices. It encourages collaboration, offers practical, immediately applicable strategies, and fosters a supportive environment for sharing experiences and challenges.
How did your session address priorities or challenges at your school?
The workshop taught teachers to integrate drama strategies into their classrooms to energize learning, enhance engagement, foster empathy, improve retention, and promote collaboration while also supporting English Language Learners in their language acquisition.
What strategies or approaches did you use to engage teachers during your PD session?
Emphasizing experience over theory, the session was 100% practical, featuring a fast-paced series of fun group activities. Participants engaged in drama explorative strategies such as tableau, thought-tracking, roleplay, and hot-seating. These strategies enhance engagement, creativity, communication, empathy, and collaboration, providing non-drama teachers with versatile tools for dynamic learning experiences.
What was the most surprising or rewarding feedback you received from colleagues?
Staff expressed that the session reignited their passion for teaching and highlighted the importance of creativity in the classroom. A primary classroom teacher felt inspired to incorporate drama techniques immediately that week, while a math teacher found new ways to energize his morning High School classes.
What has shaped how you deliver professional learning sessions?
I value collaboration and hands-on, experiential learning, which leads to deeper understanding and retention. I felt empowered and motivated by BASIS International & Bilingual Schools • China’s Institute for Management Training (IMAT) workshops offered to chairs and heads of division last April. The IMAT sessions reinforced these ideas, and l left fully resourced with strategies and connected to other educators.
How do you hope your colleagues will apply the ideas from your workshop?
I believe that drama’s inherent ability to bring concepts to life significantly enhances student engagement. While academic focus is important, research shows that play is essential for effective learning, and both students and teachers need to make time to play. I hope my colleagues will embrace drama to create a more interactive, empathetic, and collaborative learning environments.
Liana Anthony
Chair of Fine Arts
Drama Teacher
BASIS International School Park Lane Harbour
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