Epistemic Play: Analysis of Epistemic Thinking in a Simulation Game

• In Event: 61.030 - Epistemic Cognition Across Multiple Texts and Contexts

Abstract

This study analyzes the ways in which epistemic aims, epistemic ideals, and reliable processes for achieving epistemic ends (Chinn et al., in press) are represented in a city simulation game and are adopted and interpreted by the players. Employing an exploratory multiple case study design, 15 year-old students were asked to think aloud while playing the game and were interviewed. The results revealed that players adopt specific epistemic aims, epistemic ideals, and reliable processes as they play the game, and that these aims, ideals, and processes are implicitly introduced and supported by the game design. The study offers new tools for analyzing epistemic thinking in digital games and provides insights that may inform the design of games for fostering epistemic thinking.

Author

• Sarit Barzilai, University of Haifa