Metka Kordigel Aberšek, Maja Kerneža, Boris Aberšek University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
metka.kordigel @um.si, maja kerneza@um.si, boris abersek@um.si
Ilker Citli
Turk Aleman University, Istanbul Turky i.ilkercitli@gmail.com
Abstract
The results of PISA 2018 for Slovenia show a high level of functional literacy, science literacy and mathematical literacy at the end of compulsory school. This result is shadowed by results, which measure students’ emotional condition in school: 35% of Slovene students feel stressed and 52%
feel concerned. The circumstances call for immediate engagement in searching teaching methods for raising learning motivation among students. Intelligent serious games could be the right answer if implemented psychologically grounded and focused on the learning outcomes.
The paper presents the results of part of the survey prepared in the frame of Green Energy Skills for Youth, European project in which preferences for different kinds of computer games were examined, and the preferences and attitudes for different attributes of the games. This data were studied from the perspective of students’ age and gender. The results show, that computer games, if we want them to reach their educational goal, should be designed on the ground of psychological knowledge and differently for different groups of players – they should take in to the account the preferences and attitudes of the population, the addressee of the gaming situation.
Keywords
Intelligent Serious Games. Learning Outcomes. Students’ Preferences. Motivation
INTRODUCTION
Intelligent serious games are raising many hopes for education in following decades (Flogie et all, 2020) They should be an answer of educational system to avoid the growing number of students, which fell the school and teachers are dull – nearly 70% of high school dropouts in USA said, they were not motivated to work hard (Bridgeland, Bilulio & Morison, 2006). Intelligent serious games are namely built on learning principles, they provide personalized learning opportunities, they offer more engagement for the learner, they teach 21st century skills and they provide an environment for authentic and relevant assessment
(McClarty et all, 2012). Intelligent serious games provide opportunity for continued practice.
Important in this context for the player/learner is, that negative consequences are not typically associated with failure. Even more: failure is a typical integral part of playing - and of learning (Gee, 2009; Klopfer, Osterweil & Salen, 2009).
Intelligent serious games provide a high level of motivation for the player (Flogie et all, 2020) This motivation is driven from players’ belief about how good he will be and of his interest to achieve the goal (Jalongo, 2007). An EU study on the sample of 500 teachers confirmed, the motivation is significantly greater when computer games are integrated into the educational process (Joyce, Gerhard & Debry, 2009). Gaming gives in the context of curricula of different school subjects an excellent opportunity for the formative assessment, which is the process by which data about students’ knowledge and skills are used to form the subsequent instruction (Heritage, 2010). Intelligent serious games are often mentioned as an important means for teaching 21st century skills because they can accommodate a wide variety of learning styles within a complex decision making context (Squire, 2006).
Intelligent serious games provide the opportunity for personalized learning, which can be/is of particular importance for students (Flogie et all, 2020). Games can be adapted based on students’ preferences. Appropriate scaffolding can be provided in games through the use of levels. In traditional classroom settings, a student that does not master a concept, could be left with the gap in their knowledge foundation. In contrast, digital games inherently force the player to master a concept in order to advance. Players are able to repeat the same scenario until they master the concept (McClarty, 2012). Good designed intelligent serious games are challenging but achievable – they confront students with tasks/challenges that are matched to their skill level in order to maximize his/their engagement (Kiili, 2005).
This puts intelligent serious game in the context of constructivists’ theory – it is similar to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, which is “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development under adult guidance, or collaboration with more capable peers”
(Vygotsky, 2006, 86 in McClarity, 2012).
The possibility of providing personalized learning opportunities in a way that the game
“tailors education to ensure that every pupil achieves the higher standard possible” (OECD, 2006, p. 24) makes intelligent serious games extremely interesting for the education of students with special needs. Research focused on learning process of people with impairments (mental or sensorial) had revealed that serious games are an excellent didactical tool for reaching their educational goals.
This was a strategy behind the planning the project Green Energy Skills for Youth, an European project focused in to the developing green lifestyle habits, green economy awareness. One of the central questions before starting the defining the curriculum of the games and creating the games, was to determine the playing preferences and computer playing habits of the targeted young population, to avoid the early ISG educational gaming solution, which often missed the aim of their production.
METHODOLOGY
This paper reports on a part of survey data, gathered at the beginning stages of the project before the development of ISG. The presented part of the survey addresses following questions:
• Are there any age/gender-conditioned differences regarding like or dislike educative computer games?
• Are there any age/gender-conditioned differences regarding the preference to different types of computer games?
• Are there any age/gender-conditioned differences regarding the attributes of the computer game?
Participants
The majority of the sample, whose’ surveys were evaluated (1521), belonged to the population between 15 and 18 (53.9%), followed by the population between 8 and 11 (26.4%). Only 19%.5 of the sample belonged to the age group between 12 and 14. Defining the sample according to the gender: 63.72% surveys were filled in by the girls and 37.28%
by boys.
Data analysis
Firstly, surveys were checked with the focus, whether a participant answered all the questions in a way, that his opinion/knowledge was expressed clearly and understandable.
In this procedure 135 surveys were excluded. The remained 1521 surveys were statistically analysed with SPSS 19.0. (SPSS)
RESULTS
Are there any age/gender-conditioned differences regarding like or dislike educative computer games?
Figure 1: Age distribution of like (yellow) or dislike (red) behaviours for educative video games.
Educational type of computer games is, according to results, liked by all ages, particularly within the population between ages 15 and 17 and at the age 8 and 10. But the preference towerd the type of the computer game is strongly connected with the gender.
The results are persuasive: girs like (prefer) educational computer games and dislike the action computer games. And boys like action computer games and do not want to be educated while they are playing on their computers.
Are there any age/gender-conditioned differences regarding the preference to different types of computer games?
In survey children’s’ and young peoples’ preferences for different types of computer games were examined. The participant could choose from the following list of types of computer game:
• action,
• adventure,
• arcade,
• educational,
• family,
• puzzle,
• role-playing,
• -simulation, - strategy or
• trivial.
A participant was instructed he could choose as many possibilities, he wished.
Let’s have a closer look at the results about preferences and no preferences toward puzzle video games.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18