Videogame-Based Learning for peace education. A literature review and instructional indications, according to directivity, modifiability and sociality dimensions.

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Digital Education Innovations for Equity and Peace: Tools, Evidence, and Design Approaches

Proposal

In the last years, Game-Based Learning (GBL), intending by this phrase the redesign of a learning task that takes advantage of the particular potentialities of games, in such a way as to form both good learning and a good game (Plass, Mayer & Homer, 2020), is been rapidly evolving. Being traditionally associated with simulation-type instructional architectures (Bonaiuti, 2014), GBL, namely Videogame-based, is now encompassing a variety of instructional strategies, thanks to the potentialities of the new so-called “next-gen” consoles, are founded on the exploration of highly photo-realistic open worlds, and on the other, a renewed interest in constructionism.
In the light of these evolution, we managed to define a theoretical framework aiming to support teachers both in the choice of games and in the planning of teaching activities which include them (Ugolini & Morreale, 2023; Sardo, Morreale & Ugolini 2024). Such framework is based on three main dimensions, coming mainly from the Jens Jensen definition of interactivity (2008) and Thorkild Hanghøj’s (2013) scenarios. All three dimensions are supposed to be properly balanced considering both the game and the related learning activity, in order to foster the learners' agency. These are:
- Directivity: related to the freedom granted to the player/learner to decide their own actions along alternative routes for the resolution of problems;
- Modifiability: refers to the player’s ability to personalize the elements of a game, namely in self-expression;
- Sociality: measures the potential of a game to favor interaction among players, promoting peer learning.
Within this framework, this paper focuses specifically on games and GBL activities dealing with peace education.
We first report the results of a literature review about how GBL – especially Video GBL – has dealt with peace education. Special attention will be paid on country-specific approaches, according to a comparative perspective.
Secondly, we will adopt the aforementioned framework in order to both evaluate the potential of the games that have been used from an instructional point of view, and give indications to teachers to properly design effective learning GBL activities.

Bonaiuti, G. (2014). Le strategie didattiche. Roma: Carocci.
Hanghøj, T. (2013). Game-Based Teaching: Practices, Roles, and Pedagogies, in New Pedagogical Approaches in Game-enhanced Learning: Curriculum integration (pp. 81-101). Hershey: IGI Global.
Jensen J.F. (1998). Interactivity: Tracking a New Concept in Media and Communication Studies. NORDICOM Review, 19(1).
Jensen J.F. (2008). The Concept of Interactivity – Revisited: Four New Typologies for a New Media Landscape. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Designing Interactive User Experiences for TV and Video UXTV ’08. New York: ACM.
Plass, J.L., Mayer, R.E., & Homer B.D. (Eds.) (2020). Handbook of game-based learning. Boston: The MIT Press.
Sardo, M., Morreale, D. & Ugolini, F.C. (2024). Directivity and Modifiability in video-game environments for learning. Two paradigmatic cases compared. Journal of Inclusive Methodology and Technology in Learning and Teaching, 4 (3).
Ugolini, F.C., & Morreale, D. (2023). Ambienti videoludici per l‟apprendimento: un framework per la progetta-zione di attività didattiche. I Problemi della Pedagogia, 2023(2), 359-386.

Author

• Francesco Claudio Ugolini, Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi