Games and Gamification as Transformative Pedagogy in the Archaeology and Art History Classroom

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Outreach and Education: Bringing it Home to the Public (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Gamification, a “complex and controversial concept” (Tulloch 2014: 317), is commonly considered an effective tool for student engagement in the archaeology classroom, by providing elements of gameplay: rules, rewards, punishments, competition, and narrative. However, games and gamification have a role to play beyond simple engagement, and can create elements of transformative pedagogy, which “empowers students to examine critically their beliefs, values, assumptions, prior knowledge and critical discourse with the goal of developing a reflective knowledge base, a value for multiple perspectives” (Okpukodu 2009: 47). In this paper, we will examine the nature of games and gamification; pitfalls encountered in employing gamification in the classroom and how to address them; how properly structured use of games and gamification can contribute to reflective and transformative pedagogies; and, finally, we will conclude with case studies – analog and digital - on the use of games and gamification in our own classrooms.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Outreach and Education: Bringing it Home to the Public (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology