Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa
| dc.contributor.advisor | Ng'ambi, Dick | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Titus, Simone | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-01-26T13:58:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-01-26T13:58:05Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | Until the advent of democracy in 1994, apartheid education in South Africa was segregated along the lines of race and ethnicity, consequently disadvantaging historically Black universities. The implications of an undemocratic system meant that the educational experiences of students from historically disadvantaged education systems might be compromised. The impetus for this study arose from observations that students in a sport studies classroom were not engaging with one another, as they were organising themselves with peers from the same cultural group in classroom. While literature asserts that student engagement is linked to student success, explicit views of cross-cultural engagement fall short in the South African context. This study avers that traces of historically segregated cultures and sub-cultures are evident in a diverse institutional space. As diverse groups of students enter the classroom, it has been observed that they tend to gravitate toward peers from the same cultural groups. While a diverse classroom should create a culturally rich environment for knowledge building, through collaboration and engagement with peers, the diversification in the classroom hindered engagement and interaction, as well as knowledge sharing and cross-cultural student engagement. Knowledge, therefore, is generated and shared in cultural clusters, instead of across cultural clusters. The aim of this study is to develop a social-constructivist game-based learning model, by critically exploring the production and reproduction of cross-cultural interactions, using emerging technologies in sport studies. Game-based learning is regarded as a promising vehicle to facilitate students' active participation and engaged learning. This study, therefore, focused on digital games, wikis and blogs, as tools to transform social practices that impede cross-cultural engagement. Since sport is seen as a vehicle for social change, it may create a space where cross-cultural interactions can take place, thereby promoting social change and cohesion in a sport studies classroom. This study employed a sequential exploratory mixed method approach. The research approach involved the design and development of a digital game, which was then tested during the pilot phase of the project. After verification of the tool by the pilot study participants, data were collected from two cohorts of a sport studies discipline, across two phases of this study. This meant that the digital game functioned optimally without any malfunction. This involved 106 participants from a total population of 171 students. Phase One comprised a digital game-based intervention only. Phase Two comprised a game-based learning intervention, an authentic wiki task and a reflective blog. In order to determine the effect of the intervention on cross-cultural engagement, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data consisted of validated pre- and post-test questionnaires. Quantitative data was analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics on SPSS v20. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted on the data. Qualitative data comprised five focus group discussions and 58 reflective blog entries. Qualitative data were captured, coded and analysed using Atlas TI. The findings of the quantitative data reveal that there are distinct group preferences, which are linked to historical legacies of segregation, including socio-geographic containment. Crosscultural interactions are informed by mental traces, based on prior experiences, hindered by alliances. In addition, interaction preferences are linked to cross-cultural engagement. Structures that informed students' understanding of interactions were produced and reproduced as cross-cultural interaction was elevated because of group interaction. This study found that students drew on material resources, such as digital games, wikis and blogs to make sense of their interactions, which resulted in the reproduction and modification of rules (modalities), in order to recursively reproduce their social actions. This study concludes that games, alone, do not facilitate cross-cultural engagement, but need to be augmented with other technology tools, in order to produce and reproduce social practices of cross-cultural engagement in the classroom. This study also offers a theoretical contribution, in the form of a social-constructivist game-based learning model, to address cross-cultural interactions in the classroom. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Titus, S. (2016). <i>Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,School of Education. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23457 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Titus, Simone. <i>"Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,School of Education, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23457 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Titus, S. 2016. Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa. University of Cape Town. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Titus, Simone AB - Until the advent of democracy in 1994, apartheid education in South Africa was segregated along the lines of race and ethnicity, consequently disadvantaging historically Black universities. The implications of an undemocratic system meant that the educational experiences of students from historically disadvantaged education systems might be compromised. The impetus for this study arose from observations that students in a sport studies classroom were not engaging with one another, as they were organising themselves with peers from the same cultural group in classroom. While literature asserts that student engagement is linked to student success, explicit views of cross-cultural engagement fall short in the South African context. This study avers that traces of historically segregated cultures and sub-cultures are evident in a diverse institutional space. As diverse groups of students enter the classroom, it has been observed that they tend to gravitate toward peers from the same cultural groups. While a diverse classroom should create a culturally rich environment for knowledge building, through collaboration and engagement with peers, the diversification in the classroom hindered engagement and interaction, as well as knowledge sharing and cross-cultural student engagement. Knowledge, therefore, is generated and shared in cultural clusters, instead of across cultural clusters. The aim of this study is to develop a social-constructivist game-based learning model, by critically exploring the production and reproduction of cross-cultural interactions, using emerging technologies in sport studies. Game-based learning is regarded as a promising vehicle to facilitate students' active participation and engaged learning. This study, therefore, focused on digital games, wikis and blogs, as tools to transform social practices that impede cross-cultural engagement. Since sport is seen as a vehicle for social change, it may create a space where cross-cultural interactions can take place, thereby promoting social change and cohesion in a sport studies classroom. This study employed a sequential exploratory mixed method approach. The research approach involved the design and development of a digital game, which was then tested during the pilot phase of the project. After verification of the tool by the pilot study participants, data were collected from two cohorts of a sport studies discipline, across two phases of this study. This meant that the digital game functioned optimally without any malfunction. This involved 106 participants from a total population of 171 students. Phase One comprised a digital game-based intervention only. Phase Two comprised a game-based learning intervention, an authentic wiki task and a reflective blog. In order to determine the effect of the intervention on cross-cultural engagement, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data consisted of validated pre- and post-test questionnaires. Quantitative data was analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics on SPSS v20. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted on the data. Qualitative data comprised five focus group discussions and 58 reflective blog entries. Qualitative data were captured, coded and analysed using Atlas TI. The findings of the quantitative data reveal that there are distinct group preferences, which are linked to historical legacies of segregation, including socio-geographic containment. Crosscultural interactions are informed by mental traces, based on prior experiences, hindered by alliances. In addition, interaction preferences are linked to cross-cultural engagement. Structures that informed students' understanding of interactions were produced and reproduced as cross-cultural interaction was elevated because of group interaction. This study found that students drew on material resources, such as digital games, wikis and blogs to make sense of their interactions, which resulted in the reproduction and modification of rules (modalities), in order to recursively reproduce their social actions. This study concludes that games, alone, do not facilitate cross-cultural engagement, but need to be augmented with other technology tools, in order to produce and reproduce social practices of cross-cultural engagement in the classroom. This study also offers a theoretical contribution, in the form of a social-constructivist game-based learning model, to address cross-cultural interactions in the classroom. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 T1 - Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa TI - Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23457 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23457 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Titus S. Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,School of Education, 2016 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23457 | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.department | School of Education | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.subject.other | Education | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Towards a social constructivist game-based learning model: a case of using digital games in sports studies in South Africa | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Doctoral Thesis | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | Doctoral | |
| dc.type.qualificationname | PhD | en_ZA |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image | |
| uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
| uct.type.resource | Thesis | en_ZA |
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