Digital Games for Environmental Sustainability Education: Implications for Educators

Abstract

Creating awareness about environmental sustainability issues alone is not the goal of Environmental Sustainability Education (ESE). ESE should change environment related attitudes and encourage lifelong pro-environmental behaviors, that is focus on attitudinal learning. However, behavioral changes do not manifest easily because they are curtailed by constraints and negative perceptions. Hence, in ESE a persuasive pedagogical tool is needed. One such effective tool in attitudinal learning is Digital game-based learning (DGBL). DGBL environments provide cognitive knowledge and emotionally engage learners by enabling them to test new behaviors and learn from the immediate consequences they see. This paper explains the insights gathered while conducting three research studies that used DGBL in ESE. All studies found that DGBL was effective in attitudinal learning.