Behavioral Evaluation of Preference for Game-Based Teaching Procedures

Introduction

In developing countries there is a gap in children´s literacy, creating an urgent demand for pedagogical materials that increase their engagement in reading learning. Games could help this engagement process, allowing the programming of additional rewards for the acquisition of each component of reading (i.e., phase advancement) (Boyle, Connolly, Hainey, & Boyle, 2012; Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010; Turgut & Irgin, 2009). However, it is necessary to evaluate if the educational games maintain their educational function and also add the expected motivational factor (Deen & Schouten, 2011; Hainey et al., 2011). After an extensive review on engagement on video-games, Boyle et al. (2012) indicated how difficult is to determine non-game-based conditions to act as a control condition in motivational research. The aim of this paper is to add game component to an already tested teaching program as a form to evaluate game impact on motivation. Reading teaching programs already tested can be a basis for the evaluation of educational games, since changes in baseline performance in these programs can indicate the motivational influences of the educational games.