Computer games and education

Learning life skills with Peer Gynt - the game

Abstract

A computer game version of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt has been developed for use in schools. In addition to introducing the students to Ibsen's famous drama, the game is designed to be a learning resource in the interdisciplinary topic Health and life skills. In collaboration with teachers of Norwegian at an upper secondary school and inspired by Engeströms methodology for Formative interventions, the game was played in three classes of the Education Programme for Specialization in General Studies, with some variation in the teaching plans and procedures in each class. The project generated data in the form of field notes, audio and video recordings from the classrooms and a group interview with the teachers. A thematic analysis of this material shows that the students' dialogues while playing were mainly about understanding and discussing the story line of the game. Reflections on the students' own lives and life skills was not thematized until the teacher raised such perspectives in the plenary discussions. Thus, it became important how the teacher initiated a discussion about the students’ experiences when playing. In my analysis I draw upon Biesta's model of an educational relationship, where the teacher's task is to help the student to respond to the learning material. The findings of this study suggest that a successful establishment of an educational relationship is important for how the game is organized and scaffolded by the teacher in the classroom.