Los videojuegos en la Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentalesuna aproximación a través de los docentes en formación inicial y en ejercicio

Abstract

Video games are one of the most common forms of entertainment in actuality. Children, youth and adults occupy part of their leisure time playing with them through their different technological platform (game consoles, computers, mobile phones, tablets,...) and even in the social and Web pages (Martin del Pozo, 2013). The presence of them getting increasingly in our society of new technologies and media have earned the name of "digital society" (Castells, 2006; Kruger, 2006). At the same time, in recent years, there has been a phenomenon known as "Technology, Knowledge and Learning", which supposed a new concept of the use and way of thinking on the web and that a professional education cannot stop to think and wonder about the use in the classroom.''In relation to this social reality, which moves students, we want to use these skills and abilities to develop other habits related to teaching: communication, entertainment, motivation... "(Lorca-Marin etal, 2014). The creation of the European Higher Education Are, carries various and profound changes (Lorca-Marin et al., 2010). With them, progress has been made in the design of competencies and promoted methodological changes (Cano, 2008). Changes should affect not only the resources but the methodological model to use. However, we believe it has not been adequately planned an evaluation system for this change. The inclusion in these must be made from the knowledge and offering them as many resources are needed by our students and teachers. (Lorca-Marin et al., 2012). In this connection, and in relation to the students' training to become teachers, we felt the need to know from where we started and where we should go, for the change proposed to be real and effective. In relation to skills, to Cano (2008) the reasons that justify new designs can be included in three main ideas: "...Be able to look for relevant information at every moment, select it, process it, treat it, interpret it and appropriate it for create the necessary knowledge that allows us to resolve situations arise"{p.2 ) "...Knowledge is becoming more complex, obeying a postmodern logic more difficult to articulate because we compare complexity and complication. Mobilization of knowledge and its relevant combination to reply to situations in different contexts"{p.3) "Is getting increasingly the necessary a comprehensive training that enables people to face an uncertain society (society network and primacy ICT, but with a risk of digital divide; a global society but with a strong increase of totalitarianism and fundamentalism; welfare society but with an increased risk of compulsive consumerism, etc.). "{p.3) Therefore, work for competencies is focused on addressing the group of knowledge, skills and attitudes from an interdisciplinary point of view and that from a traditional view of the formal system; they had not been taken into account. This view has undoubted educational implications, considering that attention it focuses on teaching rather than learning and the active role by some of the students to build their knowledge. This forces us to a cultural change that revise the way we understand our teaching function, passing from content transmitters to facilitators of growth opportunities, think about both the "what " we want students learn , and the "how" we think they can learn , reduce classroom sessions dedicated to conceptual knowledge to seek ways of appropriation of it from self-employment (Cano, 2008). Therefore, the starting point of the design is not only the content to transmit, but also, and fundamentally the forms of organization of the joint activity is intended that learners and teachers develop, delimit in a collaborative nature methodology. Slavin (1990) defines collaborative learning as the set of instructional strategies in which students work in small groups of learning activities and evaluated as group productivity, becoming the students (passive recipients of information provided by an expert) in active subjects inside the collective reconstruction of knowledge (Fernandez, 2005). On the other hand, while video games "invade" the world of youth, trainers seem to follow outside of the new technologies and their use to improve and motivate the students' learning (Etxeberria, 2012). Formal education progress very slowly and educational software created to be used as a resource in the classroom has followed more the pattern of the textbook that the video game. They have focused more on the content, transmitted linearly and unimaginative. In this line, Knewton (2011) reveals how educational models Traditional collapse worldwide and the solution is to generate education processes more focused on innovation and creativity than in transmitting information and support in the memory as a main cognitive resource. In this sense, there are numerous researches about components of the didactics of the science (Porlan and Martin Rivero, 1997, 1998; Caicedo, 1999; Hernandez, 2000; Kaufman and Fumagalli, 2000) encourage the need to investigate not only the aspect surrounding learner (motivation, interests, expectations and values), but also those related to the teacher as conceptual models and epistemological on how to conceive science, how is taught and how they believe is learnt, and about the resources available to them. Any teaching and learning process where the videogame is the resource in which the contents are sustained, any assessment process of the videogame as resource, and any development initiative and development of a videogame with an educational purpose, know what are the attitudes and conceptions of the video game of the different agents involved. This wide range of work, knows in a detailed way the videogame and its applicability in teaching, from different perspective. We can deal with it from the resource, that is to say, analyze the videogame as didactic material, as a resource designed, developed and distributed with a purely educational purpose (such as "Learn with Pipo"). It can also be used as a teaching resource that videogame that originally was not designed with an educational purpose but can be used in the classroom for this purpose, as can be Age of Empires (Cuenca, 2011). Also another focus of analysis may be from the perspective of the learner, for example, when it is enriched with it use, benefits that involves the use of the videogame, adaptability of the student to the game, etc. Or finally also it is addressed from the perspective of the teacher. In this sense, since the latter approach is where it fits our research, teaching relationship with technology in general and the use of the videogame in particular. This focus and interest is part of a line of work that our research group has been working for years: the initial teacher training. Therefore, we will try to approach the vision that from the point of view of teachers has the videogames. Under this approach is born at the University of Huelva, researching project in university teaching, Application of Videogames in the Initial Teacher Training (PIE1315028) awarded in the biennium 2013-2015. Empirical analysis shows that for be used in classes, teachers choose to do it according to the explicit connection they have with curricular contents (Gros and Garrido, 2008; F9 Group, 2008) as well as the experiential reading each teacher does to the potential use of video games (Garrido, 2013). Therefore, the knowledge about the resource that a teacher has, proportionately affects the use made of it in the classroom. The generalization in the use of the resource in different contexts is determined for the skill possessing in that particular resource. In this regard, objectives of this research go to try to clarify: What characteristics and personal tastes have teachers in initial training and exercise on the use of video games? Uses, tastes and reasons those who come to the games, can show the didactic use they can play. Facing the possible implementation of teaching and learning in a given context, it is necessary to know what the conceptions of teachers are. In this regard and in the area where is enrolled this work, it is necessary to know what the ideas are on the use of video games in the science classroom. Especially when we focus on an area such as the Experimental Sciences, where the different contents to work have their own and specific characteristics. What conceptions have teachers in initial training and exercise on the educational use of video games in the science classroom? With it will approach the conceptions that these have on the usefulness of video games in science classrooms and on what are for teachers, content, skills and competences in general that from the Experimental Sciences area are likely to be enhanced through videogames. Finally and as an approach to understand and carry out possible future actions, we intend to investigate what, in view of teachers found in practice, good practices: What is the use practicing teacher's make of video games in teaching in Experimental Sciences? We expect to determine how to plan an activity in the science classroom, at what point of the teaching and learning experiences, which the teacher understands exercise are good practices and barriers that can make the use of this resource fail. For this, the work is presented in three main blocks. First of them, the theoretical framework, which establishes the basic pillars where the research in. In the second part it unfolds the same methodology and the third part is presented the analytical framework. In the first block (Block I), in a first level, it is proposed the current view of teachers in science since its foundation in initial training, to the model that should be implemented in the classroom and individualization in the use of the TACs. These are being studied on a second level, because is treated from the point of view of the legal framework governing the current Spanish educational system, the treatment given to such a resources. In the last part of the first block, we approach to the videogames since his playful side, to its educational aspects in the classroom of experimental sciences. From this conceptual review and given the complexity of this type of research, a series of questions will be set up that we would try to respond throughout the investigation: Does the personal characteristics influence about video games in the use thereof as teaching tool in the classroom science?, What conceptions have teachers on the use of video games?, What experience do teachers have in the use of video games as a teaching tool in the classroom Science?, what use of videogames have been made in the science classroom ?, What obstacles do they find?, etc. These and other issues will be cause for treatment throughout the investigation. The second block (Block II) is formed for the methodological framework, based regarding the paradigm in which we positioned procedure and methodology of research in specific teaching. In this second block (see Table 1) and after establishing this framework, problems and approaches of objectives of our investigation are set up. Then a chapter develops a questionnaire that has been developed to achieve our goals. In this section the focus is on finding the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire, both validity and reliability criteria that will bring us a reasonable assurance on the qualities of the instrument. Finally, in a third block (Block III), on the analytical framework is performed a systematic analysis of the responses of various groups informants differentiated by factors of interest, namely: gender, degree in initial training, exercising, etc. This will seek to response to the issues raised from the targets. The results of the various approaches have been discussed in a final section. Conclusions, limitations arise and future research will be brought up.