Providing Career Guidance to Adolescents through Digital Games: A Case Study

Background

The 2013 NMC Horizon Report (Johnson, 2013) asserts the perspective that games are effective tools for increasing student’s motivation and engagement by involving them in a memorable learning experience. A serious game can be defined as “a game in which education (in its various forms) is the primary goal, rather than entertainment” (Michael, 2006). Concept scaffolding and simulation of real world experiences may allow the a student to solve problems and enhance their subsequent performance (Ferreira, Palhares, & Silva, 2013). As an example, a survey of 264 students playing an online educational game (Huang, Huang, & Tschopp, 2010) found a relationship between reward and motive. Further studies (Schaffer, 2004) have shown that games can support novel approaches to learning by scaffolding players’ experiences in new worlds, allowing them to learn by trying to solve loosely defined problems inside the game. This brings to the fore the notion of ‘learning by doing’. Other authors (Hwang, 2012) have argued that pedagogically-driven games reflect strong commitment to educational values and have great potential to drive students in achieving intended learning outcomes.