Projective identity and procedural rhetoric in educational multimedia: towards the enrichment of programming self-concept and growth mindset with fantasy role-play

There is a growing movement in the behavioral sciences towards exploring more situated, pragmatic and ontological accounts of human learning. Positive psychology shows that a reciprocal relationship may exist between self-concept and the development of expertise, while social psychology reveals that mindsets about the nature of personal traits can have profound impacts on practice behavior. Thus, nurturing psychological constructs through the learning environment may empower students, enabling them to learn more effectively. Educational multimedia is known to support learning in a range of contexts, but its role in facilitating such self-enrichment has seldom been explored. Consequently, it is not clear which designs can aid both self enhancement and skill development. This doctoral symposium paper proposes that an interplay between projective identity and procedural rhetoric, delivered in the form of a fantasy role-playing experience, could be one such practice. Early experiments in the area of introductory programming show promise, but raise questions about external validity, educationally relevant effect sizes and how multimedia elements within the tool could be utilized more effectively to enhance these effects.