Lameras, Petros, Arnab, Sylvester, de Freitas, Sara, Petridis, Panagiotis and Dunwell, Ian (2021). Science teachers’ experiences of inquiry-based learning through a serious game:a phenomenographic perspective. Smart Learning Environments, 8 ,
Abstract
This study employed a phenomenographic approach to investigate science teachers’ conceptions of inquiry-based learning through a serious game. Simaula is a prototype game designed and used as a virtual practicum for eliciting understandings on how in-game inquiry was appeared to, or experienced by, the participating teachers. Group interviews with 20 secondary education science teachers revealed four qualitatively different ways of experiencing inquiry-based learning through Simaula: (a) as uncovering insights about student’s learning needs, interests and emotions; (b) as generating ideas and concepts for meaningful inquiry; (c) as a set of operations for designing and carrying out scientific research; and (d) as authentic inquiry for enabling knowledge building processes. Seven dimensions of variation have been identified viewed as contextual influences on conceptions of in-game inquiry constituting discernment of: epistemic inquiry-based learning modes; role of teacher; role of student; game-play focus; core mechanics focus; feedback and progress mechanics and game uncertainty. The results illuminated a partial in-game inquiry approach with distinct epistemic modes from developing empathy and meaning making to knowledge construction and knowledge building. The findings also indicated that game design elements played central role in shaping conceptions of in-game inquiry from focusing on rules and logic as means to completing the game’s level to understanding the complexity of core mechanics for developing and transferring in-game inquiry to the real classroom. This insinuates that distinct game design properties may be considered in terms of extending intrinsic in-game inquiry experiences to actual in-class inquiry practice.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-021-00152-z |
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Divisions: | College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Operations & Information Management College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School |
Funding Information: | The design and development of Simaula was fulfilled as part of the Inspiring Science Education (ISE) project funded by the European Commission (CIP-ICT-PSP-2012-325123) and the research has been funded by Coventry University, School of Computing, Electron |
Additional Information: | Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Funding: The design and development of Simaula was fulfilled as part of the Inspiring Science Education (ISE) project funded by the European Commission (CIP-ICT-PSP-2012-325123) and the research has been funded by Coventry University, School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Inquiry-based learning,phenomenography,science teachers,serious games,Education,Computer Science Applications |
Publication ISSN: | 2196-7091 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2024 07:30 |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2021 08:42 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK
(Scopus URL) https://slejour ... 561-021-00152-z (Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2021-05-12 |
Accepted Date: | 2021-04-22 |
Authors: |
Lameras, Petros
Arnab, Sylvester de Freitas, Sara Petridis, Panagiotis ( 0000-0003-3593-8261) Dunwell, Ian |