Case Study of Game-Based Learning in a Citizenship Education K-12 Classroom: Opportunities and Challenges

Background

Over the last twenty years (Osler & Starkey 2006), many developed democratic nations have experienced a reduction in voting during elections. Many countries, fueled in part by media anecdotes, believe there is a moral deficit and lack of civic and political engagement among young people. These observations coupled with issues of religion and state in many parts of the world, have created a perceived fear of the demise of democracy (Hébert & Sears 2001; Bennett 2008; Osler & Starkey 2003). In order to counteract these trends CE was introduced as a specific school subject through which young people could be taught how to be good citizens (Hébert & Sears 2001). The use of games in certain subject areas produce easier evaluation of assessment outcomes such as in the subject areas of mathematics, science and geography. Such use of games in those subject areas are probably easier to defend compared to subjects such as Citizenship Education which is a contested subject area already. However it is due to the complexity of the subject area of CE that I believe the use of gaming and ICT is particularly appropriate because they have the potential to allow young people to explore the different facets of CE within the classroom.