Laura Scholes

Gaming well: links between videogames and flourishing mental health

This paper is a review of the state of play of research linking videogaming and flourishing, and explores the role of videogames and technology to improve mental health and well-being. Its purpose is to develop understandings about the positive intersection of gaming and well-being, to document evidence regarding links between videogames and positive mental health, and to provide guidelines for use by other researchers as they design and use tools and games to improve mental health and well-being. Using Hupperts (Huppert and So, 2013) proposition that to flourish is more than the absence of mental disorder but rather a combination of feeling good and functioning effectively, resulting in high levels of mental well-being, and Seligmans (Seligman, 2011) PERMA theory of well-being, the paper identifies strengths in existing games that generate positive affect, positive functioning, and positive social functioning, contributing to, and supporting mental health and well-being.

Serious games for learning: games-based child sexual abuse prevention in schools

In spite of research demonstrating conceptual weakness in many child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programmes and outdated modes of delivery, students continue to participate in a diversity of initiatives. Referring to the development of a games-based approach to CSA prevention in Australia, this paper examines empirically based attributes of effective CSA prevention programmes for schools including contemporary pedagogies for learning. The paper draws on findings to inform the conceptual development phase of Orbit, an online, free and equal-access, games-based educational approach to CSA prevention for children aged 8–10 years. First, the paper provides a review of CSA prevention in schools and games-based approaches to key learnings in prevention. Second, an overview of Orbit (the Feeling Safe sexual abuse prevention project) is provided. Finally, implications for the development of games-based prevention programmes are offered and an argument is made for the advancement of games-based prevention resources.

Clandestine Readers: boys and girls going ‘undercover’ in school spaces

Exploring the diverse nature of students’ interpretations of their reading experiences, this study moves beyond broad generalizations about boys and girls to consider complexities inherent in the social processes that influence students’ engagement in reading. While the study aimed to develop understandings about the ways notions of masculinity are constructed among different groups of boys and the influence of these differences on educational experiences such as reading, the masculine descriptions of some girls’ behaviour, or ‘masculine girls’, was an unexpected finding. Also considered is the unexpected finding that for some boys and girls there were tensions associated with anti-reading peer group cultures. In this paper one particular group of students identified as the Clandestine Readers are discussed. This group of boys and girls personally enjoyed reading although they felt compelled to conceal their endeavours; hence the clandestine factor in the title. The social processes that influenced boys’ and girls’ engagement with reading are highlighted.

Working-class boys’ relationships with reading: contextual systems that support working-class boys’ engagement with, and enjoyment of, reading

ABSTRACT Drawing on interviews with 15 boys attending schools in low socioeconomic communities in Australia, this paper examines the multiplicity of contextual influences on boys’ everyday reading experiences. Implementing an ecological metaphor, boys’ narratives about (i) their attitudes towards reading at school (microsystem); (ii) parental beliefs about reading (mesosystem); (iii) masculinities within low socioeconomic communities (exosystem), and; (iv) reading as socially valued knowledge (macrosystem) are explored. The paper illustrates the textured nature of immediate and broader influences on boys’ engagement with, and positioning of, reading. In particular, the paper challenges dominant discourses about working-class boys’ reading practices, contributing to research into literacy in-situ to make visible the immediate and broader contextual systems that influence the ways working-class boys engage with, and enjoy, reading.

Epistemic Climates for Active Citizenship: Dialogically Organised Classrooms and Children’s Internal Dialogue

While the significance of children’s early learning experiences is recognised internationally, less is known about early learning for moral values and active citizenship. There is evidence to suggest that prejudicial behaviours can emerge in early childhood, yet there is little research to inform how to promote social inclusion and reduce exclusionary behaviours in young children. One promising line of research involves considering children’s reasoning about moral values for active citizenship. This chapter explores values education and children’s learning of moral values through the theoretical lens of epistemic beliefs. We argue that a focus on children’s beliefs about knowing and knowledge in the context of learning about moral values is best addressed in dialogically organised early years classrooms.

Promoting social inclusion in the early years of elementary school: a focus on children’s epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning

ABSTRACT As classrooms continue to diversify, there is an increasing need to understand children’s inclusive behaviours and moral reasoning. Research shows that epistemic beliefs (beliefs about knowing and knowledge) can influence reasoning for adults, but we know little about this relationship in younger children or how classroom contexts relate to epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning. Thirty-one elementary school children (mean age 6.5 years) participated in epistemic beliefs and moral reasoning tasks in the first year of a three-year longitudinal study. Findings showed that while children described objectivist epistemic beliefs (right/wrong answers) about social inclusion, their justifications revealed an unexpected, more complex set of epistemic beliefs. Implications for moral pedagogies are discussed.