New Perspectives in Science Education

This contribution is focused on testing new non-traditional methods for data collection. The standard way for knowing something about emotional responses during the teaching/learning process has been asking for filling in a questionnaire, although many other methods are possible [1]. The need for knowing and managing the emotional students’ emotional response is also a hot spot in the international research agenda [2]. In addition, the appearance of new active-based methodologies in science teaching, such as gamification, is also an educational claim [3]. The objective of the current contribution is to merge gamification and emotional response data collection within university students that are submitted to science teaching. For this end, in the current research, we have tested the utility of a well-known board game (DIXIT©) which consist on a narrative experience for describing allegorical images, randomly linked to science and science education concepts. We have developed an ad hoc version of the DIXIT© game and we have tested it for collecting emotional expressions related to concepts such as Specific Heat, State Change, Science Teacher or Temperature. The experience took place with primary teacher trainees (one male and four females). The results are promising since the students exhibited more affective expressions once inside the game dynamic (rather than  sking them directly). Some of the results presented a strong tendency because students felt more confortable talking about emotions when a general educative concept was described (such as Primary Student or Traditional Educational Paradigm), whereas specific science concepts (such as Energy or Heat Transfer) made more negative emotional expressions to arise. The analysis of the experience recommends to keep on enhancing this method in order to expand the sample and to refine the science concepts selection.

Keywords: Affective Domain; Gamification; Non-traditional data collection methods; Qualitative Research Method;