Game production - Teachers Challenges in a Danish Public School

In many Danish primary schools the lack of motivation among students in the last grades is a big problem, and especially among boys. At the same time there is a political pressure on the primary schools there should be more focus on technical courses (e.g. math and science) and more students should continue their education either in college or in training schools. There is an identified need for learning designs that can engage a broad spectrum of learners in meaningful learning activities that develop motivation and resilience in order to continue education. To solve those problems many primary schools have started to use different kind of games in the teaching. Several studies have shown good results for students when producing their own games, they will get motivated, they learn programming, and they can see the benefit of learning and getting an education, but those learning activities require a lot of pioneering spirit, knowledge and skills as well as cooperation from the involved teachers. This study focus on how a team of public school teachers have developed the use of a game production which dealt with several subjects as programming, Danish language, geography, social subjects and “nature and technology” as well as motivating students to learn. About 60 students from the 9th grade were involved. In order to investigate the teachers’ experiences during the purposive game production, we have followed the teachers’ work during 4 months until the students’ games were launched. The findings illustrate that there are great potentials in using the power of game development in education, but it requires a useful structure for teachers using this tool in their teaching. We conclude with guidelines for other educators, who want to incorporate a purposive game production in their own activities.