Supporting the Appropriation of Historical Practices in a Game-Based Undergraduate History Classroom

Supporting the Appropriation of Historical Practices in a Game-Based Undergraduate History Classroom

Supporting the Appropriation of Historical Practices in a Game-Based Undergraduate History Classroom

Zach Ryan, Christina Stiso, Joshua Danish, Eric Robinson

Abstract

"This study took a cultural-historical activity theoretical lens to a game-based history learning environment. Situated in an undergraduate history course titled Greek History through Games, students participated in a semester-long bespoke strategy-board game known as Cities on the Edge of War. This study examined how designed elements of the game and course mediated students in appropriating five historical practices, which are difficult to teach in lecture-style courses and noted as important learning goals by the professor of the course and Author 4 of this paper. Alongside designed elements, we considered historical practices to be key mediators of students’ interactions. We analyze where in interaction these historical practices emerged and unpack the most common mediators within the learning environment that co-occurred alongside these historical practices."

Reference

Ryan, Z., Stiso, C., Danish, J., & Robinson, E. (2023). Supporting the appropriation of historical practices in a game-based undergraduate history classroom. https://repository.isls.org/handle/1/10286

Keywords

Game-based learning, Historical practices, Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)