Discourses of Digital Game Based Learning as a Teaching Method: Design Features and Pedagogical Opportunities Associated with Teachers’ Evaluation of Educational Game Apps

In recent years, digital games have increasingly become an important
part of children’s lives. As a consequence, digital game-based learning (DGBL)
activities have also been merged into the school context and tried out by teachers
in various ways. The pedagogical and didactical values of integrating DGBL in
education are however not yet concluded. In this paper we examine how groups of
teachers construct ideas about digital game-based learning as a teaching method
and base for developing teaching activities. The study is drawn from a couple of
creative workshops with Swedish and Danish school- and preschool teachers, in
which their pedagogical design processes while evaluating and trying out different
game apps have been studied. The research questions we ask in this paper are: 1).
In what ways do teachers concretise their comprehension of digital game-based
learning in their discussions of educational games for school children? And; 2).
How are different discourses about the learning process and/or didactical potential
in relation to digital games constructed in teachers’ discussions while assessing
game apps? Using a discourse analytical approach, the results of the study show
that the teachers’ were stuck by their preconceptions about games as offering different
learning qualities compared to their traditional teaching practice. Teachers
acknowledged that DGBL is a complex issue as also designers’ preconceptions
are tied to traditional qualities of game design.