The Impact of a Preinstructional Digital Game on Middle-Grade Students’ Scientific Misconceptions

• In Event: Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning Research in K-12 and Higher Education

Abstract

Students’ inaccurate understandings of some scientific concepts (often termed misconceptions) are persistent and rarely displaced by explicit instruction alone. This paper reports on an experimental study that tested the potential of a portable, digital game as a pre-instructional experience to improve student learning about photosynthesis. Gameplay engaged middle-grade students with core game mechanics that were structurally analogous but nominally unrelated to the target concepts.

Study results demonstrate that gameplay did not have a significant impact on student outcomes. Teacher instructional quality played a moderating role across the sample as a whole, suggesting that even when students and teachers can draw on a relevant, shared pre-instructional experience, teachers need to play a central role as translators of these experiences.

Authors

• Katherine E. Culp, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Wendy B. Martin, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Peggy Clements, Education Development Center, Inc.

• Ashley E. Lewis Presser, Education Development Center, Inc.