Game studies and game-based approaches in the educational context

Abstract

In this article, we start from a disturbance that emerges in the context of the authors' research when developing different pedagogical practices based on the thinking of games that, often, cause polyphony of meanings. Thus, we seek to identify the aspects that differentiate approaches based on game studies, characterized here as the appropriation of games as artifacts present in the daily lives of human beings, through gamification and game-based learning. These are practices that originate from the characteristics of games, highlighted by Huizinga (2019), and that are currently configured in different contexts, involving both games as a final product and their elements and mechanics. In the area of education, we show that both are present, becoming popular in recent years as a form of student engagement. We believe, however, that gamification and game-based learning enhance learning and skill development as they promote interaction, immersion and representation. Through a bibliographical review, we created an inventory of authors who deal with games and problematize these approaches from a systemic view, in educational contexts. As a result of our analyses, we identified that its potential is not just limited to engagement, as it generates new configurations of space and expands the forms of interaction, participation and expression of students and teachers in the construction of knowledge.