Intergenerational Play: Helping Educators Bridge In- and Out-of-School Learning With Games

• In Event: Research on Digital Media, Games, and Simulations in Teacher Education

Abstract

Purpose: Successful integration of digital media into school-based learning depends on the support of parents. Both parents and teachers need to engage with children in shared activities to support children’s learning across the contexts of home and school. In the case of digital media, parents may be skeptical or unsure of how to best support their children’s learning with new or unfamiliar tools. In this poster, we present design-based research aimed at understanding how particular kinds of intergenerational play experiences engage parents with their children’s digitally-mediated learning and draw implications for how educators can support home-school connections as part of integrating games into school curricula.

Theoretical Framework: Over the last two decades, our understanding of learning has shifted from a view of learning as acquisition of knowledge to learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. Schools make up one of the most important communities of practice in which children participate. Too often, educators view parents as outsiders instead of part of the school community. Building stronger home-school connections is crucial to creating communities of learners that bridge the varied contexts of children’s learning.

Methods/Data Sources: This study utilizes data from a total of 28 families who participated in intergenerational play events held in four schools, organized in collaboration with district staff. These events, lasting from 90 minutes to two hours, were designed to have pairs of parents and children (or occasionally, siblings) play a game selected from games and game design tools provided by the researchers. Game play was open-ended; participants were given game challenges to complete if they desired. Primary data were video and audio recordings of parent-child game play; additional data were collected through pre and post session questionnaires about family gaming practices and reactions to the sessions. Several analytic methods were used to assess joint engagement, interest, and other features of parent-child interactions.

Results: Parents and children were almost unanimous in their enthusiasm for the sessions. Games like Minecraft, The Sims, and Civilization proved to be more appealing than game design tools such as Kodu or Gamestar Mechanic. These open-ended games were challenging for inexperienced parents and children alike. Providing guidance in the form of “challenges” (specific goals for game play, such as “create a sim that looks like yourself” in The Sims) was important in fostering joint engagement. Another important design feature was requiring that both parent and child have hands-on time playing the game. Challenges prompting connections between game play and real life (i.e., creating sims representing each other) were also useful in fostering discussion. Spending time together on an enjoyable activity and learning about each others’ interests and problem-solving strategies were reported as favorite parts of the experience by many participants.

Significance: Our findings indicate that valuable outcomes of intergenerational play events may be enhancing parent-child relationships and helping them discover common interests. As a first step towards building home-school connections, this may be just as or more important than simply teaching parents about the educational benefits of gaming.

Authors

• Sinem Siyahhan, California State University - San Marcos

• Elisabeth R. Gee, Arizona State University