Safe science classrooms: Teacher training through serious educational games

<i>Hazagora: will you survive the next disaster?</i> – A serious game to raise awareness about geohazards and disaster risk reduction

“…However, some ingredients are important to make a game attractive: (1) it has to be playful and nourish the desire to play it again (Annetta et al, 2014;Castella et al, 2005;Turkay and Adinolf, 2012); (2) the rules have to be coherent to the target audience and should be easy to understand (i.e., rules should have a logic similar to reality) (Dieleman and Huisingh, 2006;Souchère et al, 2010); (3) players need tension, have to be surprised, and be challenged without having to wait too long (Martin et al, 2011;Turkay and Adinolf, 2012); (4) the appearance of the game has to be appealing and should help the player to relate the game to real situations, since it is a player's first impression of the game (Martin et al, 2011).…”

HAZAGORA: will you survive the next disaster? – a serious game to raise awareness about geohazards and disaster risk reduction

“…The appreciation of a game is something highly personal and players have different standards for what they are looking for. However, some ingredients are important to make a game attractive: (1) it has to be playful and nourish the desire to play it again (Annetta et al, 2014;Castella et al, 2005;Turkay and Adinolf, 2012); (2) the rules have to be coherent to the target audience and should be easy to understand (i.e., rules should have a logic similar to reality) (Dieleman and Huisingh, 2006;Souchère et al, 2010); (3) players need tension, have to be surprised, and be challenged without having to wait too long (Martin et al, 2011;Turkay and Adinolf, 2012); (4) the appearance of the game has to be appealing and should help the player to relate the game to real situations, since it is a player's first impression of the game (Martin et al, 2011).…”

“…Serious games are designed to support learning and raise awareness of important issues (Boyle et al, 2014;Pereira et al, 2014). Their main purpose is not entertainment but to use the potential of games to get people engaged and motivated in order to transfer knowledge (Susi et al, 2007).…”

Simulations as practice‐based spaces to support elementary teachers in learning how to facilitate argumentation‐focused science discussions

“…The research literature focused on practice‐based teacher education within specific disciplines, and in particular the use of approximations of practice, has been growing, partially because the focus on practice‐based learning is as relevant in work on content teaching as it is in work on more general teaching skills. Much of the content specific work in this area to date has focused on the teaching of K‐12 mathematics and science (Annetta et al, 2014; Benedict‐Chambers & Aram, 2017; Chazen & Herbst, 2012; Davis et al, 2017; Davis & Boerst, 2014; Dotger et al, 2014; Straub, Dieker, Hynes, & Hughes, 2015; Windschitl et al, 2012). Content‐specific teaching practices are particularly important to cultivate because the skills needed to engage in rich content teaching are theorized to be more than simply general pedagogical skills layered over a deep knowledge of content (Ball & Forzani, 2009; Shulman, 1986).…”