American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Arizona State University
National Academy of Education
Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies; Regents’ Professor, Arizona State University
Tashia F. Morgridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Jacob Hiatt Chair in Education, Clark University
James Paul Gee is an Emeritus Professor and Regents’ Professor (ret.) best known for foundational work in New Literacy Studies, discourse analysis, and game‑based learning. After early work in theoretical and psycho‑linguistics, his scholarship turned to literacy as social practice and the learning sciences, culminating in influential books and articles on how video games embody effective learning principles, identity development, and semiotic domains. He has held named chairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Arizona State University and is an elected member of the National Academy of Education.
Concept describing interest‑driven, networked social spaces where people share allegiance to and participation in specific practices; used to explain learning, identity, and knowledge sharing around games and other domains.
A set of learning principles embodied in well‑designed games (e.g., identity, well‑ordered problems, pleasantly frustrating challenges, just‑in‑time information) that inform effective learning design inside and outside games.
An embodied, identity‑projecting stance players take toward avatars and worlds, linking self, goals, and actions; used to theorize learning and agency in and beyond games.
Framework for analyzing identity as Nature‑, Institution‑, Discourse‑, and Affinity‑based, used widely in literacy and learning research to study how power and social practices shape identities.
Concept of domains defined by distinctive symbol systems and practices; literacy entails recognizing and producing meanings within such domains, including games.
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice • Journal
Gee and Zhang argue for a sensation‑based account of cognition and learning, linking embodied cognition, allostatic load, and situational meaning to literacy development. They propose that sense‑making is grounded in sensation and discuss implications for learning design, media, and human flourishing.
Games and Culture • Journal
Gee examines how modern video games illuminate human thinking and problem solving as situated and embodied. He introduces the “projective stance” as a form of embodied cognition characteristic of many games and argues that such stance-taking is also pervasive in everyday social interaction, helping explain why games can be powerful sites of learning.
E‑Learning and Digital Media • Journal
How do designers of successful games get new players to learn long, complex games? Gee contends that good games incorporate strong learning principles. He outlines 13 principles under three clusters—Empowered Learners, Problem Solving, and Understanding—and argues that the main impediment to using these principles in schools is not only monetary cost but the cost of changing beliefs about where and how learning happens.
Phi Delta Kappan • Journal
The authors argue that games—and learning—are most powerful when personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological. They propose designing learning environments that leverage games’ educational properties while grounding them in a contemporary theory of learning. Because games present simulated worlds that embed social practices, they can help learners join valued communities of practice and develop the ways of thinking that organize those practices.
Cognitive Science • Journal
Using spontaneous storytelling, reading, and parsing tasks, the study tests whether empirical data reflect narrative structure as predicted by plot‑unit analysis. Spontaneous pauses aligned strongly with theoretically important boundaries, suggesting that pausing behavior can index narrative structure and inform competing models of narrative organization.
Peter Lang • Book
This collection synthesizes Gee’s essays arguing that good games teach through well‑designed, mentored problem‑solving experiences and through participation in “passionate affinity spaces.” He contrasts drill‑and‑practice approaches with problem‑ and goals‑centered learning, offering a model of collaborative, interactive, embodied learning that can be achieved with or without games.
St. Martin’s Griffin (Palgrave Macmillan) • Book
Gee argues that well‑designed commercial video games embody robust principles of learning and literacy. Using cases from contemporary games, he explores how players develop identities, grasp meaning, and learn to think and act in complex semiotic domains through problem solving, feedback, and performance before competence. The revised edition extends the framework to newer titles and elaborates implications for schooling and digital media‑rich learning.
Phi Delta Kappan • Journal
Argues that well‑designed video games embody social practices and epistemic forms that can support powerful learning. Proposes design principles for learning environments that leverage games’ meaningful, experiential, and social qualities, and outlines implications for integrating game‑based learning with schooling.