Behavioral Evaluation of Preference for Game-Based Teaching Procedures

Abstract

Recent research has evaluated the motivational functions of educational games and its potential role for the teaching of reading skills. Educational games must maintain their educational function retaining clear definitions of the teaching objectives and instructional methods. Reading skills can be broken down into more basic behavioral units. Each relation between spoken words and written words can be evaluated and taught separately. This paper evaluated the impact of a game on a reading instructional procedure that has been successfully applied in Brazil. Two matching-to-sample teaching tasks were tested on 15 children in literacy ages. In the condition of standard teaching, only the matching-to-sample tasks were presented. In the game-based condition, the same matching-to-sample tasks were interspaced with game challenges. A behavioral choice procedure indicated the participant´s condition choice. After learning 15 words, the participants responded a computerized version of the Learning Motivational Scale of Basic Education, which identified the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. Results show no motivation and reading scores correlation and validate the choice procedure as reliable predictor of preference.