| Description | What are students learning from 10,000 hours of video games? In this study, we explored sensemaking in video games and gamers. Sensemaking is defined as how people make sense of ideas, develop theories, and make connections between ideas. It is important in a variety of educational fields, including STEM, because it is part of problem solving and critical thinking. Our approach was two-fold. First, we examined the types of meaningful sensemaking that happens in popular games across several genres. Then, we examined correlations between game preferences and scales that measure different components of sensemaking. Participants (N=286) scores on sensemaking scales were not correlated with FPS, fighting, or racing games, but were positively correlated with role playing and puzzle game preferences. This work begins to examine the potential for informal learning about sensemaking from video games. |
