SGS Feature: 'Do Gamers Score Better in School?'

In this feature written for Gamasutra sister site Serious Games Source, which deals with games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses, school teacher David McDivitt of Oak Hill High School in Converse, Indiana conducts a in-class case study to answer the question: "'Do Gamers Score Better in School?" Using WWII History as the subject, he explains the setup for his study: "My testing protocol involved 110 students across five classes. Three classes (65 students) played and two classes (45 students) did not. All the students were covering the same material, in this case the period of Western Europe just prior to World War II. My educational objectives are to teach kids about the causes of WWII and to understand the key events and political maneuvers that set stage for global conflict. The non-game classes were my control group. They addressed the material the same way we always do: with textbooks, lectures, reading assignments and in-class discussion. The game groups replaced their text books with the video game. For an entire week the gamers did not once open their textbooks. We of course also held in-class discussions, a piece of the teaching equation that, as I alluded to earlier, became much more pronounced while using the video game." You can read the full Serious Games Source feature on the subject, including the results of the case study (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).