Thinking: A Study of Videogames in High School History Classes

This paper answers the question, how do three History teachers implement videogames in the classroom in order to engage students in critical thinking? My essay incorporates a large amount of research that shows the unique benefits of using games as pedagogical tools. I focus on the textual and interactive properties of narratively driven games, and how they differ from more traditional educational resources. The study involved interviews with three different high school history teachers who implement games in different ways to teach historical material. With the information gathered in my Literature Review and interviews, I explain that games engage students in critical thinking through the agency, simulation, and literacy that they provide. I argue that though other resources can provide these opportunities for students, none offer these different techniques in quite the way that good videogames do. My essay incorporates philosophical and literary considerations as a means to answering my research question. I also use these critical lenses to respond to certain criticisms regarding the videogame genre