Adopting a Role-Model, Game-Based Pedagogical Approach to Gender Equality in STEAM: The FemSTEAM Mysteries Digital Game

Serious Games In Steam Education

Learning games are digital games that aim at supporting specific learning goals (Klopfer, Osterweil, & Salen, 2009). They differ from entertainment games because, although the latter can be utilized in the classroom and can support knowledge learning, let alone the development of a wide range of skills (Boyle et al., 2016; Prensky, 2005), their primary purpose is entertainment. “Serious games” is another term that is used to characterize lerning games, although there are diverse views about its exact meaning (Blumberg, Almonte, Antony, & Hashimoto, 2013). The term may refer to games which are designed to be used for educational and training purposes but differ from “drill and practice” edutainment games whose purpose is also educational, because serious games engage students more actively and support higher levels of learning than knowledge acquisition through repetition (Ke, 2016). According to a broader definition of serious games however, the category includes even commercial off-the-shelf games such as World of Warcraft or SimCity (Blumberg et al., 2013) that may also teach players knowledge and skills and can be integrated in classroom learning (Van Eck, 2009). “Game-based learning” is a term that refers to the use of a fully-fledged serious game in the learning process, not to be confused with the term “gamified learning”, which involves augmenting the learning process by adding game elements (Sailer & Hommer, 2020).