Open-Ended Tasks Promote Creativity in Minecraft

Fan Y., Lane H. C., Delialioğlu Ö.

Educational Technology and Society, cilt.25, sa.2, ss.105-116, 2022 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 25 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Dergi Adı: Educational Technology and Society
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), INSPEC, Psycinfo, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.105-116
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Creativity, Minecraft, Problem solving, Educational games, Computer-based learning environments, GAMES, MODEL
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

© 2022. Educational Technology and Society. All Rights Reserved.Due in part to its flexibility and open design, the video game Minecraft has emerged as a popular tool for teaching and learning. Inspired by prior research showing the influence of problem-solving mindsets in physical settings, this study is an effort to understand the extent to which an open-ended task influences subsequent problem-solving behaviors in a virtual environment. Specifically, we investigate creativity and its relationship with task design in Minecraft by comparing a well-defined task group, instructed to follow step-by-step directions, with a group pursuing an open-ended task requiring a higher degree of agency. Creativity is assessed using two conventional approaches: the Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). Judges were trained to evaluate using both methods and achieved sufficient agreement on a subset of the data prior to completing the full data set. Our results suggest that (1) participants who engaged in the open-ended task receive significantly higher CAT scores than those in the well-defined task group, and (2) among variables such as the level of skill/experience, interest in Minecraft, and materials (blocks) used in Minecraft, only game interest level has a significant influence on the CAT score.