Preservice Teachers Consider Game-Based Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Gaming has become a core activity with children and more teachers are using games for teaching content than they did five years ago. Yet, teachers report that they learn about game titles, impact studies, and facilitation techniques through their own initiatives or from other teachers rather than from their teacher education program. This chapter reports on a combined curricular strategy built on game strategy research that asked teacher candidates (n= 125) to discuss news headlines about games, play educational games, review games, and game research, teach others how to play educational games, and construct games. Findings reveal that candidates saw value in using games in K-12 to teach content, were able to develop assessments based on game content at a novice level, and were able to construct games either alone or in small groups. Educators contemplating gaming as an instructional strategy may be interested in the espoused combination strategy to encourage game adoption in K-12 settings.

Integrating Commercial-off-the-Shelf Games into Language Classroom: PCaRD Experience of Two English Language Teachers

“…This observation further reinforced in both teachers' minds the utility of teaching with commercial games and the benefits of using a structured framework to integrate games into the curriculum. Similar positive teacher perspectives were also reported in several recent studies (Hsu & Chiou, 2011;İnce & Demirbilek, 2013;Kirikkaya et al, 2010;Koh et al, 2012;Pinder, 2016;Sardone, 2018;Spires & Lester, 2016;Steel, 2020).…”

“…In game-based learning, games that are specifically designed for educational purposes are used, while in game-enhanced learning, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games are used to facilitate learning (Reinhardt & Sykes, 2012). The literature in game-based learning indicates that teachers believe games are effective tools that can be exploited in educational settings in general (Dickey, 2015;Huizenga et al, 2017;Koh et al, 2012;Mozelius et al, 2017;Pinder, 2016;Sardone, 2018;Schrader et al, 2006;Utami & Bharati, 2020), and teachers who have negative attitudes towards games can change their opinions after they are given the opportunity to play a game or take part in the design of a game (An & Cao, 2016;Kenny & McDaniel, 2011;Ray & Coulter, 2010). Studies investigating teachers' perceptions of game-based learning highlighted several key affordances attributed to games, such as improving students' motivation (Can & Çağıltay, 2006, İnce & Demirbilek, 2013Huizenga et al, 2017;Hsu & Chiou, 2011;Xie et al, 2021), stimulating their creativity (Allsop et al, 2013;Demirbilek & Tamer, 2010), promoting problem-solving and critical thinking skills (Allsop et al, 2013), providing a fun and relaxed learning environment (Hsu & Chiou, 2011;Sardone, 2018), promoting student engagement and cognitive gains (Huizenga et al, 2017) and contributing to the effectiveness of the instructional process (Pinder, 2016).…”

“What if We Explore…” Promoting Engaged Learning and Collaboration with MOUNTAIN RESCUE

“…Increasingly, researchers are using low-tech activities, such as tabletop games, as learning environments (Bayeck, 2020). Teacher candidates see value in utilizing games at the K-12 level (Sardone, 2018) and teachers have shown positive attitudes towards using a low-tech approach for teaching science (Cardinot & Fairfield, 2019). There is also some evidence that tabletop science games can help science teachers scaffold collaboration and engage students in science learning.…”

A conventional and digital mathematical board game design and development for use by students in learning arithmetic

“…Learning through games can be considered for use in teaching and learning (Sardone, 2018), building students' capability (Blackman & Belcher, 2017), may benefit as one way of teaching modelling (Burkhardt, 2018), improving children numerical knowledge (Satsangi & Bofferding, 2017;Cheung & Mcbridge, 2017), have impact to training for adults (Libertus et al, 2017) improving mathematical creativity (Park & Lee, 2017), useful in acquisition of mathematical competencies (Skillen, Berner, & Seitz-Stein, 2018), developing mathematical thinking (Fouze & Amit, 2018), have an effect to Children's Interpersonal Understanding (Chou, 2017) and the mobile version of the game can be used to support education (Nisiotis, 2021). Another article discussed probability learning trajectory regarding game-based learning (Wijaya et al, 2021).…”