Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case: A Taxonomy of Uses for a Historical Inquiry Game in 4th Grade Classrooms in Wisconsin.

Peter Wardrip, David Gagnon, Jim Mathews and Jennifer Scianna

Abstract

In this paper, we study the various ways 3rd-5th grade educators utilized Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case, a historical inquiry game, in their classroom instruction. The 15 educators involved in the study were all teachers in the United States who took part in the "Doing History Fellowship" program, a professional development opportunity offered by the authors, designed to increase their understanding of historical inquiry instruction and game-based learning. As part of the program, the educators planned and implemented the game within their own classroom context and reported. Through their reports, surveys and semi-structured interviews we discovered the educators were motivated by five distinct instructional purposes, which influenced how the game was integrated into their curriculum. In this paper, we name and describe these five purposes. These findings can be useful insights into how educators think about games and how corresponding professional development activities may be designed in the future.