La creatività. Percorsi d`invenzione

La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
Videogame making and its potential
for education and creativity
Ximena López
[email protected]
Università RomaTre
La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
Background

Two main approaches to study videogames in education
 How playing video games helps learning
 How making video games supports knowledge and skills
Process of video game development exhibits characteristics that
have been described by the literature as creativity promoters (Amabile,
1996; Isaksen, Lauer and Ekvall,1999).

TASK
 Challenging
 Complex
 Ill-defined
 Circular and iterative
CONTEXT
Diversity and challenge
Commitment to work
Trust and confidence
Idea support
La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
Objective
Explore in what way videogame development creates a learning environment that
promotes the emergency and development of creativity in students participating in a
training program.
Hypothesis
H1: Students participating to a videogame development activity perceive, in their learning
context, the characteristics associated to typical creative environments.
H2: Students participating to a game development training program perceive that the task
of developing videogames has the characteristics associated to typical creativity-fostering
tasks.
H3: Students’ perception of being involved in a creative task and in a creative
environment is proportional to their perception of the development of their creativity.
La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
Method

Participants
 10 students of two training programs, all male, age mean=27
 Very different backgrounds and initial skills

Self-administered questionnaire, Likert scale items
 24 items: evaluation of students’ perception of task and environmental characteristics.
 3 items: perception of creativity improvement thanks to the training program.
Results
Highly Perceived (13/24)

Commitment to work
 Motivating work climate
 Idea support
 Trust in others' work
 Opportunities for initiative

Value of different skills and
interests
 Reward to new ideas
 Encouragement for autonomy

Circular and iterative
process
 Complex and challenging
 All team members need
creativity
La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
Results
Poorly Perceived (3/24)
 Adequate
responsibility load
 Possibility of assuming risks
 Adequate work load
Positive correlation between students’ perception of creative contextual
characteristics and their evaluation of the course’s impact on their creativity
(Spearman’s r=0.604, p=0.04).


No significant correlation between students’ perception of tasks
characteristics and their evaluation of the course’s impact on their creativity.
La creatività. Percorsi d’invenzione
20-22 settembre 2007
THANK YOU
Ximena López
[email protected]