Investigating the Determinants of Preservice Teachers' Intentions to Accept Commercial Video Games for Teaching-Learning

Abstract

Particularly, in sub-Saharan Africa, where game-based learning is still in its nascent stages, it is important to understand the factors that shape preservice teachers’ intentions to adopt commercial video games in their teaching-learning practice. A proposed model was tested against online survey data collected from 298 preservice teachers from four colleges of education in the northern region of Ghana, using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that while Preference had a positive but insignificant effect on Intention, Experience and Learning Opportunity demonstrated strong, positive, and significant effects, consistent with existing findings in the acceptance of game-based learning. Subjective Norm, aligned with the Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour also showed a strong, positive, and significant effect on Intention, whereas Gender had no significant effect on Experience conflicting findings from the study of parents’ acceptance of video games. The final model with Experience, Learning Opportunity, and Subjective Norms explained 44.5% of the variance in intention to use COTS games. The study implies that to foster successful adoption: (1) there is the need for hands-on workshops and practical sessions, allowing for experimenting with COTS games, (2) the educational benefits of COTS games should be emphasized among preservice teachers, and (3) there should be environments that support peer-mentoring and collaborative learning about COTS games.