Analysis and classification of methods of using game technologies in education (based on the analysis of foreign sources)

Abstract

The variety of game-based forms that have entered educational practice over the past decade has outpaced their theoretical ordering: the terms game technology, gamification, learning game, edutainment and serious game are used interchangeably, whereas the didactic mechanisms behind them differ. The mismatch between the richness of practice and the fragmentation of the conceptual apparatus complicates the design of the learning process and the comparison of empirical data accumulated by different research schools. The aim of the work is to build a classification of methods of using game technologies in education that rests on a single ground and is aligned with the current requirements for learning outcomes. The systematization was carried out using conceptual and structural-functional analysis with a comparison of the national activity tradition and foreign game-based learning frameworks. A two-dimensional typology is proposed in which the methods are separated by their leading didactic function and by the degree of formalization of the game component; gamification, simulation-modelling, immersive-digital and edutainment methods are distinguished, each correlated with a particular group of educational outcomes. It is established that gamification and the learning game occupy opposite poles on the criterion of the autonomy of the game unit rather than forming stages of a single intensity scale. The separation of methods by didactic function shows that the choice of a game tool is predetermined by the type of planned outcome, while terminological synonymy conceals heterogeneous pedagogical constructs that are not reducible to one another.