I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• All Aboard! Towards Inclusiveness in Digital Game-Based Teaching

  2020. Melinda Máthé, Harko Henricus Verhagen, Mats Wiklund. Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere

  Konferens

  Digital games and gamification tools have the potential to address a variety of pedagogical objectives across a range of subject areas in education.They can be valuable learning environments, increase student motivation and engagement, improve cognitive learning outcomes about processes, causes and effects, programming and the development of collaborative skills . In practice, however, teachers may have varying gaming backgrounds, game-related pedagogical competencies and access to relevant resources. This paper discusses the challenges of teachers regarding the implementation of digital games in education as identified in two studies conducted by the authors.

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• Mapping the Landscape of Digital Game-Based Learning in Swedish Compulsory and Upper Secondary Schools

  2020. Melinda Máthé.

  Avhandling (Lic)

  Interest in the use of digital games in education has been increasing over the past few decades. Advocates argue that digital games are powerful learning tools with the potential to support increased motivational, cognitive, behavioural, affective, physiological and social outcomes. However, empirical evidence for their effectiveness is mixed. Research has focused primarily on measuring the effect of games on learning in researcher-controlled experiments, whilst relatively less attention has been paid to the role of teachers. The thesis addresses the research gap by investigating how teachers in Swedish compulsory and upper secondary schools use digital games on their own initiative and how they develop their competencies. It also considers the challenges they face.

  Data from in-depth qualitative interviews and a mixed method survey are used to investigate the research questions. Both the data collection and analysis have been informed by activity theory. This is also used to problematise the adaptation of digital games as teaching and learning tools. In addition, the analysis explores teachers´ self-reported activities in relation to their disposition towards digital games.

  The findings show that a diversity of digital games and gamification tools have found a foothold in Swedish classrooms. The participating teachers are interested in introducing and further developing digital game-based approaches, though there are limitations in their use of gaming resources and the extent to which they can leverage these to achieve educational outcomes. The research identifies and discusses four general categories of teachers: non-game users, sceptics, curious adopters and advanced adopters. Results indicate that the more positive disposition of game-using teachers tends to be related to a higher level of pedagogical integration, a greater variety of game use, and a wider range of educational outcomes, as well as an interest in professional development. Digital game-based learning is often understood as the use of gamification tools in the form of quizzes, whereas complex games and longer gameplay are less typical. Whilst most teachers agree on the motivational benefits of digital games, not as many perceive them as effective in teaching new knowledge and cognitive skills. The introduction of digital games is hampered by the lack of access to relevant and good-quality products, financial resources, preparation time and adequate technology, as well as contextualised and flexible forms of professional development. These challenges hint at deeper issues with preexisting education structures. Future research should have a twofold focus: the development of adequate game resources that can support collaborative forms of learning and higher-level skills, and flexible and contextualised competence-development solutions for teachers which are relevant to their needs.

  The thesis contributes to the current literature by mapping the landscape of digital game-based learning in Swedish compulsory and upper secondary schools. It provides a nuanced understanding of the perspectives of teachers on digital game use and the opportunities and challenges presented by digital game-based learning.

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• Digital Games-Based Teaching in Swedish Compulsory and Upper Secondary Schools

  2019. Melinda Máthé, Harko Verhagen, Mats Wiklund. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Game Based Learning, 503-511

  Konferens

  The interest in research around digital games in education has been significant; however, the integration of games in teaching and teachers´ practice-based use is still somewhat an unexplored area. In this study, we investigate digital game implementation practices and challenges of teachers in Swedish compulsory and upper secondary schools and investigate how factors such as age, gender, and teaching-gaming background may influence digital game-based teaching practices. This study is the first to collect a comprehensive set of data in the Swedish context. Data were collected during March and April 2019 through an online survey consisting of 37 questions from 181 respondents. Our findings show that teachers in our sample apply gamification tools and a variety of digital games across different subject areas, typically to motivate student and practice knowledge. We find that slightly more females use gamification tools and educational games than males while males and young teachers are more likely to use entertainment games for teaching. Teachers report motivational and cognitive outcomes of digital games-based learning but perceive games as less effective for teaching communicative and analytical skills. The access to good quality resources applicable to the curriculum is a concern among all the teachers. However, teachers new to digital games-based teaching are mostly concerned about the integration of games and their unfamiliarity with game-related technologies. Teachers with experience in the area are mostly concerned about game costs, access to good quality resources and preparation time. Future work will include a broader analysis of the data and results may be used to support the customization of game-based teaching tools and professional development programs to meet the needs of teachers.

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• From Skeptics to Advanced Adopters

  2019. Melinda Máthé, Harko Verhagen, Mats Wiklund. Games and Learning Alliance, 73-82

  Konferens

  To effectively support digital game adoption in education, stakeholders need to understand teachers’ current game-based teaching practices, challenges, and needs. This study investigates digital game use of teachers at compulsory and upper secondary school levels in Sweden. Data were collected from 181 respondents during spring 2019 through an online survey. Cluster analysis and descriptive statistics are used to establish the characteristics of game-using teachers and explore their teaching practices, challenges, and professional development needs. Based on their disposition, three subsets of game-using teachers are identified. Findings indicate that a more positive disposition is related to increased pedagogical integration, a greater variety of game use, higher and more varied educational outcomes, as well as interest in professional development. Perceptions of inhibiting factors of games-based teaching tend to shift with teachers’ level of game-based teaching competency. Results highlight teachers’ need for good quality games with curricular relevance as well as relevant professional development options. Moreover, the potential of games to facilitate a collaborative form of learning and skill development may not have been yet fully realized in Swedish schools. Future research should have a twofold focus; the development of adequate game resources that can support collaborative forms of learning and higher-level skills development, as well as competency development solutions for teachers relevant to their needs.

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• Digital Games in Education

  2018. Melinda Máthé, Harko Verhagen, Mats Wiklund. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Game-Based Learning, 388-395

  Konferens

  Digital games have potential to support increased student motivation and engagement in education, but their use is not yet a widespread practice. Meta-research indicates that empirical evidence for digital games as effective learning tools is mixed. The research area is predominantly quantitative with an emphasis on researcher-led, stand-alone experiments that disconnect research from real-life practices of teachers. This study examined teachers´ practice-based use of digital games. We conducted in-depth interviews with eight teachers from five Swedish schools. Findings show that teachers using nonserious games and game development tools co-design the gaming and learning experience. They develop and share conceptual and practical game-based pedagogical tools or use alongside games, and adopt these to their unique contexts. While access to technology and diversity of students´ background have implications for game implementation, we also find that teachers not only understand digital games as teaching tools but also as contemporary literature to be subjected to critical analysis. Future research includes examining students’ interaction with the pedagogical tools in game-based learning settings.

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• Investigating Social Media Potential for Supporting Teachers’ Digital Games Literacy

  2022. Melinda Máthé, Harko Henricus Verhagen, Mats Wiklund. Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Games Based Learning - ECGBL 2022, 329-338

  Konferens

  Digital games have the potential to address a variety of pedagogical objectives across a range of subject areas in education and research shows that teachers are interested to learn about the use of games in teaching. However, due to the lack of professional development opportunities, teachers typically learn about the use of games informally from their peers and on social media. This raises questions about the kind of knowledge that social media resources may be catering to teachers and their relevance for more formalized ways of game literacy development. Further, the reason for the lack of professional development options could be that research is lagging behind in testing and developing systemic models that frame teachers’ knowledge of game-based learning such as the recently proposed Game Literacy for Teacher Education (GLTE) framework. To address the research gap, we investigate the following question: How do social media resources address key literacy areas of the Game Literacy for Teacher Education framework? The study tests the GLTE framework to investigate the research question. Data has been collected between autumn 2021 to spring 2022 from YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter using 1) search words in English, German and Swedish, 2) built-in recommendations and discovery functions, and 3) following links and references. Data relevant to supporting teachers in Digital Game-based Learning (DGBL) at primary and secondary levels in education were included, and 150 multimedia resources were selected for further analysis. Data were deductively coded onto the broad categories of the GLTE framework and descriptive coding was used to explore new categories. Findings show that DGBL resources shared on social media address the key literacy areas of the GLTE framework at least partially while also indicating that conceptualisations of games literacy for teachers need to go beyond technological and pedagogical integration and consider the broader societal role of games and gaming. Based on the findings we propose that game literacy for teachers is conceptualised from a broader social-cultural, critical perspective, and we suggest an updated model and recommendations for future research

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