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Instructor–student interaction and regular feedback are seen as teaching strategies designed to support effective learning. These days, there is increasing reliance on technology to support this in the classroom; one such technology is a student response system or its more recent development of this, that is, a game-based one. This study investigates the potential of using game-based student response systems for formative assessment through the analysis of learning outcomes and students' perceptions of the gamified experience in terms of engagement and pleasantness. A quasi-experiment was conducted within an undergraduate course on educational technologies, involving about 400 students. Learning improvements were measured through a pre- and posttest, and students' perceptions were elicited through a questionnaire. Data analysis showed a high level of student satisfaction and an overall improvement of learning outcomes due to the use of game-based student response systems. However, differences in terms of effectiveness were found according to the nature of the topics dealt with in the course, that is, whether or not they were used in the development of theoretical knowledge rather than the use of that knowledge in a more practical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main findings of an action-research study that took place in seven European countries in order to develop effective educational responses to prevent and combat discrimination. The study entailed the design of media and citizenship education activities, their implementation in the different educational contexts and the evaluation of their effectiveness in raising young people’s awareness of discrimination. The results of the study shed light both on the advantages and constraints of educational practice, variations that often depend on the specific cultural and social context. On the one hand, the analysis and the evaluation of educational experiences suggest that critical media literacy can enable the development of critical reading/viewing skills as well as acts of participatory and inclusive citizenship that question derogative and essentialist media representations of the Other. On the other hand, the results highlight the difficulty of promoting young people’s awareness of discrimination through active methods of teaching and learning or through media content which is far from young people’s experience, interests and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]