Are Video Games An Effective Pedagogical Tool?

By Super

Friday, October 7, 2011, 12:20

You must have heard mums saying no to video games and urging their kids to study instead. Here's a good news for the kids, at last – According to a new study, video games may not necessarily affect academic results of children.

On the contrary, the research claims that video games can have a positive influence on the education of children, when used in moderation.

The research aimed to investigate the attitude of the users toward playing video games and how they use them. Playing video games have a significant impact on cognitive variables, specifically in spatial intelligence, self-efficacy and academic performance.

After analyzing a group of 266 participants, aged between 11 and 16 with their parents, it was found that boys not only play more than girls, but they start earlier. It was also revealed that once the children started playing they went on for a long period of time.

Therefore it was concluded that playing video games in moderation aided the reasoning and cognitive ability among children but playing it for long hours was a sign of addiction.

The boys were found to prefer realistic, challenging, impressive and competitive games. Regarding the variable of academic performance, the researcher points out that it is not only affected by the use of video games, but also hours of study and the retaining power.

Therefore, video games are a very useful pedagogical tool to encourage self-efficacy, a variable that improves academic performance.