Contributing factors to digital game efficacy for learning among children and early adolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Digital game play has become increasingly integrated within children’s and early adolescents’ formal education (Flynn et al., 2021). For example, in 2018, 47% of 1208 kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers reported having used digital games in their classrooms. This incorporation has further enhanced interest in the individual difference factors (goals for game play; Nietfeld, 2020) and game features (e.g., interactivity, Ricker & Richert, 2018) that contribute to the efficacy of digital games as instructional tools. Efficacy, in this context, refers to the transfer of learning and cognitive skills from digital game play to more traditional academic tasks. To date, evidence of transfer of learning remains elusive among the children and early adolescents (Blumberg et al., 2019) despite findings showing linkages between their digital game play and enhanced executive functioning (Flynn, et al. 2014), spatial reasoning (Uttal, et al., 2013), metacognition (Ricker & Richert, 2021), and problem-solving (Sun, Chou, Yu, 2022).
This symposium shares new work that shows how individual difference factors among children and early adolescent students and features of the games they are asked to play may impact their learning, and transfer of learning across diverse learning settings. Specifically, presenters will consider how children goals for learning a game (e.g., have fun, reflect on one’s learning) affect their negotiation of their gameplay, how the affordances of a popular game can be adapted for the learning of STEM content, and how features of commercial games afford types of play that support the development of different aspects of children’s wellbeing.

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Chair

• Fran C Blumberg, Fordham University

Discussant

• Rachel M Flynn, San Francisco State University

Individual Presentations

• Developmental differences inc children and early adolescents’ approaches to educational game play - Presenting Author: Fran C Blumberg, Fordham University; Harneet Kaur Sahni, Fordham University; John D. Randall, Rutgers University; Colin Teeter, Fordham University

• Leveraging Minecraft to measure and promote middle school STEM interest - Presenting Author: H. Chad Lane, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Matthew Gadbury, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign; Jeff Ginger, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign; Sam Hum, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

• Identifying Digital Play Experiences that Support Wellbeing in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence - Presenting Author: Bruce D Homer, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Yuli Shao, New York University; Fabian Froehlich, New York University; Jan L Plass