Developing Scientific Thinking in the Context of Video Games: Framework for a Research Agenda on Skills Transfer

• In Event: Digital Video Game Play in Children’s Learning and Cognitive Development

Abstract

Claims have been made that video games may facilitate scientific thinking. Although there is much variability in educational video games, many superficially seem to possess characteristics that could facilitate scientific thinking from a cognitive developmental perspective: self-directed experimentation, problem solving, subgoal decomposition, exploration of problem spaces, hypothesis testing, systems thinking, causal reasoning, conditional logic, and inductive pattern recognition. Researchers studying scientific reasoning in the lab and in classroom settings have used a variety of measures that could be fruitfully applied to assess claims that skills developed in video game contexts could transfer to academic contexts. A review of theory and research on scientific thinking relevant to video games will be outlined in order to contribute to the research agenda examining the potential for video games to foster scientific thinking

Author

• Corinne L. Zimmerman, Illinois State University