Teaching Methods in Computer Science Education - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 104

Table 7.1 Advantages and disadvantages of games from pedagogical, social, and emotional
perspectives

Pedagogical Social Emotional

Advantages Based on active learning Enables all students to

participate

Breaks the routine

Enhances interactivity (if
played with more than
one player)
Most games are com-
petitive and can increase
motivation

Disadvantages May distract learners'

attention from the intended
computer science content

Dominant students may
control the game process

If a player loses a
game, it may influ-
ence his or her feeling
regarding computer
science learning

Teachers' conception that
time is wasted and that no
meaningful learning takes
place while playing

May cause chaos in the
class
Learners' disagreement
to participate in an
activity they conceive
childish
Most games are com-
petitive and may distract
some learners

Activity 47 presents a lesson (or two—pending on the available time) of the
MTCS course that focuses on how to use games in computer science education.

Activity 47: Pedagogical Examination of Games
• Stage A: Playing a game
In the spirit of the active-learning-based teaching model (see Chap. 2),
the lesson starts with playing a pedagogical game. The Conditional-State-
ment-Bingo (Hebetim 1995 ), presented in Table 7.2 , is one optional game.
Such experience may help the students sense the potential use of games in
computer science education and may expand their creative ideas for addi-
tional games that they will be asked to design in a later stage.
• Stage B: Class discussion
After the students had felt the pedagogical potential of games in the con-
text of computer science learning (Stage A), they are presented with sev-
eral questions (see Table 7.3 ) in order to initiate a discussion about the
topic. The questions can be presented orally or as a worksheet on which the
students work as a preparation toward the class discussion. In the discus-
sion, the instructor can choose the questions to focus on according to the
lesson's flow.
• Stage C: Game design

Based on the discussion that took place in Stage B, the instructor, together