Abstract
In this chapter, the results of a multidimensional study about the perceptions of Greek primary school teachers on the educational value of serious games and their impact on cognitive, social and emotional development of children in middle childhood are presented. A literature review, conducted prior to the study, led to seven hypotheses, which formed the basis for the design of a quantitative research and the development of a structured electronic questionnaire. This research tool comprised of five sections, addressing demographics, digital skills, perceived impact and educational value of serious games, and identified barriers to their application in the classroom. The questionnaire was deployed to 110 primary school teachers. Results indicate a high prevalence in the use of serious games (83.6%), but with low frequency. Participants rated positively the educational value of serious games and their effect on children’s development in middle childhood. A positive correlation among perceived value as a motivation, collaboration and instructional tool was observed, as well as among their perceived effect on cognitive and on social-emotional development, with statistical significances between perceptions of teachers that had used serious games at least once and those that had not. A positive correlation between self-reported ICT skills and serious game usage was also observed.
The research included in this chapter was conducted as part of the master thesis for the postgraduate degree M.Ed. from the Hellenic Open University.
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Megagianni, P., Kakana, D. (2021). The Educational Value and Impact of Serious Games in Cognitive, Social and Emotional Development in Middle Childhood: Perceptions of Teachers in Greece. In: Tsiatsos, T., Demetriadis, S., Mikropoulos, A., Dagdilelis, V. (eds) Research on E-Learning and ICT in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_8
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