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Spatial reasoning is an important skillset that is malleable to training interventions. One possible context for intervention is the popular video game Minecraft. Minecraft encourages users to engage in spatial manipulation of 3D objects. However, few papers have chronicled any in-game practices that might evidence spatial reasoning, or how we might study its development through the game. In this paper, we report on 11 middle school students’ spatial reasoning practices while playing Minecraft. We use audio and video data of student gameplay to delineate five in-game practices that align with spatial reasoning. We expand on a student case study, to explicate these practices. The identified practices may be beneficial for studying spatial reasoning development in game-based environments and contribute to a growing body of research on ways games support development of important and transferable skills.
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The role of representational competencies for students’ learning from an educational video game for astronomy
Educational video games can engage students in authentic STEM practices, which often involve visual representations. In particular, because most interactions within video games are mediated through visual representations, video games provide opportunities for students to experience disciplinary practices with visual representations. Prior research on learning with visual representations in non-game contexts suggests that visual representations may confuse students if they lack prerequisite representational-competencies. However, it is unclear how this research applies to game environments. To address this gap, we investigated the role of representational-competencies for students’ learning from video games. We first conducted a single-case study of a high-performing undergraduate student playing an astronomy game as an assignment in an astronomy course. We found that this student had difficulties making sense of the visual representations in the game. We interpret these difficulties as indicating a lack of representational-competencies. Further, these difficulties seemed to lead to the student’s inability to relate the game experiences to the content covered in his astronomy course. A second study investigated whether interventions that have proven successful in structured learning environments to support representational-competencies would enhance students’ learning from visual representations in the video game. We randomly assigned 45 students enrolled in an undergraduate course to two conditions. Students either received representational-competency support while playing the astronomy game or they did not receive this support. Results showed no effects of representational-competency supports. This suggests that instructional designs that are effective for representational-competency supports in structured learning environments may not be effective for educational video games. We discuss implications for future research, for designers of educational games, and for educators.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1651781
- PAR ID:
- 10421206
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Education
- Volume:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2504-284X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.919645
