Motivating Learning Via Computer Games

"The over-riding reason for interest in this field is that computer games seem to motivate young people in a way that formal education doesn't." (Facer 2003)

For this posting, I am looking at an article by Whitton (2007) in which she explores motivation and computer games. Whitton challenges the assumption that because players are motivated to play games, that they would be motivated to learn by playing games.

Whitton conducted an experiment to analyse a population of university-level students and their perceptions of game playing and game playing for learning. Surprisingly, the survey showed little evidence for promoting game playing because of its motivational affects.

It is interesting that 65.5% of students surveyed said games would be motivating for learning and 28% were neutral. It could be argued then, that 93.5% of students would not be put off by using games for learning. This seems to counter the author's claim that there is "little evidence for the motivational rationale" (Whitton 2007).

Whitton used third-year undergraduate and Masters-level computing students. As this group is predominantly male and young, Whitton argues that this group should be extremely "pro-gaming" and hence the 65.5% figure would be lower for other groups. As I come from a computing background, I would suggest that most computing types are often too tired from working on computers all day to be major gamers. Programming is the ultimate game - interactive, challenging, rewarding, frustrating - why bother with a simple shooting game? I think the same survey with different populations (including secondary students) would be interesting.

Whitton (2007) does make the good point "If games are experiential, active, problem-based and collaborative then they have the potential to be effective environments for learning, not specifically because they are games but because they exhibit the characteristics of constructivist learning environments."

In summary, use games for learning (if appropriate) but not simply because you hope to motivate learning by using a game.


Facer, K. (2003) Computer games and Learning. FutureLab.

Whitton, N. (2007) Motivation and computer game based learning. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007