Teachers' adoption and beliefs of educational games

Abstract

Academic literature acknowledges the benefits of using educational games as a means to motivate and to engage students in their learning process. Educational games also allow for scaffolded instruction and trial-and-error learning processes which make mistakes recoverable. Despite all these benefits, teachers encounter difficulties when trying to implement educational games in their curricula. These difficulties can act as barriers preventing teachers to adopt educational games as a teaching methodology. This study's main goal is to gauge to what extend teachers are using educational games in their courses and which type of educational games they are using. Moreover, teachers' beliefs about educational games in terms of perceived usefulness and ease of use are also analyzed. A descriptive design using a convenience sample of 111 teachers across different educational levels (Primary Education, Secondary Education, High School, and Vocational Education) was used in this research. Main results suggest a majority of teachers use educational games on a regular basis in their courses. Results also suggest that teachers are equally using technological (e.g. video games, apps) and non-technological games (e.g. board games, card games) with educational purposes. Most of the teachers believe that educational games are useful while teachers disagree regarding the ease of use of educational games. Managerial implications are provided in the conclusions section and limitations of the study and future research are also addressed.