7 Are Computer Games an Educational Cul-De-Sac?

This paper questions some of the fundamental psychological assumptions that have stimulated the uptake of computer games research by policy makers and the adoption by professional educators of computer games activity. Games playing is discussed in the context of conventional western educational practice and tradition from a professional teaching practitioner’s perspective rather than a researcher’s. The paper calls for an abandonment of the “games ” tag altogether in favour of a more honest appreciation of the role games playing has historically had in successful pedagogy and of those behaviours of effective teaching that ubiquitously move children forward in their intellectual development. Research into computer games and concomitant questions about the psychology of players is clearly a prime magnet for funding these days. An extremely wide range of interested parties either fund, publish or in some way support researchers curious to understand what is actually going on in children’s heads when they engage with a computer or video game. Others seek to define precisely what constitutes a computer game and, by default, understand what drives their vast appeal. This paper doesn’t encompass the breadth of that research but takes issue with several of the most often cited, influential authors whose work has stimulated this burgeonin