Innovating Higher Education via Game-Based Learning on Misconceptions

In recent years, serious games and game-based learning have received growing attention in educational contexts in general and science teaching and learning. They play an especially prominent role in higher education, where they are used to promote content knowledge as well as higher order cognitive skills and competencies such as communication, collaboration, or problem solving. Despite some known positive effects of serious games on learning, critical voices claim that the objectives of a specific game often do not match the learning objectives and that the games focus on entertaining much more than learning. Considering these arguments and some general guidelines of using games in (higher) education, we developed a game on typical chemical misconceptions based on the popular game "Activity©" using Participatory Action Research. The game was developed based on the contents of a seminar on misconceptions for pre-service teachers (M. Ed. students) in a northern German university. It covers seven content areas where misconceptions are most prevalent and therefore aims at contributing to pre-service teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). The students are supposed to draw or mime specific misconceptions. Initial trials in three university courses showed a very positive perception of the game.