Browsing by Subject "early childhood educator belief’s"

The usability of digital games in education has been studied from many perspectives; games are an effective learning method, but using them has also risks. Teachers' beliefs and perceptions on benefits and disadvantages of digital games have been researched in many European countries. Teachers' perceptions of digital games in teaching have been largely positive, but teachers have also been avoiding games in learning, especially in education of young children. The aim of this study was to find out the perceptions of Finnish early childhood education teachers on the benefits and disadvantages of digital games in teaching. The study is a qualitative thus having also quantitative features in data collection and data analysis. The main method of data collection was a questionnaire distributed to ECEC teachers on Internet. The indicator is based on a study by Allop & Jessel (2015), which explored the beliefs and reflections of European teachers on the use of digital games in education. The material consists of answers to a questionnaire distributed to answerers in teacher platforms on Internet (N = 25), who said they had acted as a teacher of early childhood education in the previous year. The results are broadly in line with those of previous researches: Early childhood education teachers generally regard the use of digital games in teaching important, but resources and staff skills easily become an obstacle to their exploitation. Since most teachers saw the importance of digital games but lacked resources to exploit them, it is important to find a solution that would make it easier for teachers to use digital games appropriately in teaching.