Guided Heads-Up: A Collaborative Game that Promotes Metacognition and Synthesis of Material While Emphasizing Higher-Order Thinking

Games are a way to engage students with course material in a low-stakes environment. In the popular game app “Heads Up!”, participants give clues to a guesser who is holding a word on their forehead. Here, we present a modified version of this game where students are required to give clues in a specific order that emphasizes higher-order thinking in the early rounds and moves to lower-order recall events in the later rounds. The collaborative group environment promotes oral communication, metacognition, and student–student interactions and may lead to improved student learning. This game, called guided heads-up, was used in three courses at two institutions. Student perceptions were gathered and analyzed for all three classes. Recommendations from students and instructors for designing and implementing the guided heads-up activities into additional courses are included.