Constance Harris

A case study of the in-class use of a video game for teaching high school history

This study examines the case of a sophomore high school history class where Making History, a video game designed with educational purposes in mind, is used in the classroom to teach about World War II. Data was gathered using observation, focus group and individual interviews, and document analysis. The high school was a rural school located in a small town in the Midwestern United States. The teacher had been teaching with the game for several years and spent one school week teaching World War II, with students playing the game in class for three days of that week. The purpose of this study was to understand teacher and student experiences with and perspectives on the in-class use of an educational video game. Results showed that the use of the video game resulted in a shift from a traditional teacher-centered learning environment to a student-centered environment where the students were much more active and engaged. Also, the teacher had evolved implementation strategies based on his past experiences using the game to maximize the focus on learning.

Examining the relationship between resistance to change and undergraduate engineering students’ environmental knowledge and attitudes

Engineering professional associations identified environmental sustainability as a key responsibility of the educated engineer. Data from national surveys of the general public demonstrate low environmental knowledge levels and a high level of resistance when it comes to environmental behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between first-year engineering students’ environmental knowledge and attitudes and resistance to change (RtC). The authors administered instruments measuring RtC and environmental knowledge and attitudes to three groups (n = 3169) of first-year engineering students in the fall semesters of 2008–2010. Students showed the highest mean scores on the Cognitive Rigidity subscale of RtC. Overall, weak, negative correlations were found between most RtC subscales and environmental knowledge/attitudes, meaning that students with higher RtC score lower overall on environmental knowledge and consider sustainable development less important. Findings can aid researchers and curriculum designers in understanding students’ knowledge levels and the relationship between RtC factors and knowledge/attitudes.