Game teachers’ creativity - A Learner-Centred Game-Design Approach - Impacts on teachers’ creativity

Oct 15, 2026

This study presents an innovative learner-centred pedagogical approach in which teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices. Through co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers developed and implemented Game-Based Learning (GBL) scenarios tailored to their teaching contexts and student profiles, producing 13 scenarios in total. The paper analyzes how this approach impacts teachers’ creativity across the GBL design process, the GBL scenarios, and the teaching and learning processes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

I. Creativity on the stage

II. Creativity in education

a. Teaching creativity

Game teachers’creativity A Learner-Centred Game-Design Approach: Impacts on teachers’ creativity Frédérique Frossard [frederique.frossard@ub.edu](frederique.frossard@ub.edu) Mario Barajas [mbarajas@ub.edu](mbarajas@ub.edu) Anna Trifonova [trifonova@ub.edu](trifonova@ub.edu) Departament de Didàctica i Organització Educativa Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Abstract This study presents an innovative pedagogical approach where teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices . Within co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers have developed their own Game-Based Learning (GBL) scenarios, especially tailored to their teaching contexts and students profiles . In total, teachers developed 13 GBL scenarios and put them into practice in teaching contexts . The present paper analyses the impacts of this learner-centred game design approach on teachers’creativity from three different points of view: the GBL design process, the GBL scenario, and the teaching processes at stake . Keywords Creativity, Game-Based Learning, Game-design F. Frossard, M.Barajas and A.Trifonova Digital Education Review – Number 21, June 2012-[http://greav.ub.edu/der/](http://greav.ub.edu/der/ 13)[ 13](http://greav.ub.edu/der/ 13) I. Creativity on the stage Due to several broad transformations in major industrial economies, the twenty-first century requires schools to foster creativity (Sawyer, 2011) . Indeed, the function of education is currently being re-conceptualized as building human capital by equipping youngsters with capacities for creativity and innovation (NACCCE, 1999) . Nevertheless, creativity still does not seem to play a central role in the curriculum and learning objectives that teachers are asked to follow in European countries (Ferrari et al., 2009) . There seems to be a consensus view within research in education, that creativity is amenable to teaching (Amabile, 1996, Kaufman & Beghetto, 2009, Lin, 2011) . For students to learn how to become creative, teachers need to be creative themselves and to provide learners with an ethos and a culture that values creativity (Craft, 2005) . According to the National Advisory on Creative and Cultural Education, teaching creatively refers to teachers using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting, exciting and effective (NACCCE, 1999) . Game-based Learning (GBL) seems to fulfill these requirements. Indeed, games provide challenging experiences that promote the intrinsic satisfaction of the learners and offer opportunities for authentic learning (Gee, 2007; Mims, 2003) . In the context of the ProActive 1 project - Fostering Teachers’Creativity through Game-Based Learning, this study presents an innovative pedagogical approach where teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices . Within co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers have developed their own GBL scenarios, especially tailored to their teaching contexts and students profiles . GBL scenarios include educational videogames created by teachers embedded in comprehensive units that consider their context of use in the classroom . To do so, they have used two game editors: 2, an open-source software for creating adaptable 2D point-and-click adventure games for educational applications; and EUTOPIA3, a tool for designing multiplayer educational scenarios in a 3D environment. In total, teachers developed 13 GBL scenarios and put them into practice in teaching contexts . This paper analyses the impacts of this learner-centred game design approach on teachers’creativity at three different stages: the GBL design process, the GBL scenario, and the teaching and learning processes . II. Creativity in education In the past creativity was seen by literature as the preserve of a gifted few, rather than of the many, and it was mainly associated with the domain of arts (

FAQs

What is the main pedagogical approach examined in the study?

Teachers are trained to become game designers and to engage in creative teaching practices through learner-centred game design and co-design workshops.

How many teachers and GBL scenarios were developed and implemented?

Twenty-one Spanish primary and secondary school teachers developed their own GBL scenarios, and in total 13 scenarios were created and put into practice.

At which stages does the paper analyze impacts on teachers’ creativity?

The impacts are analyzed across three stages: the GBL design process, the GBL scenario, and the teaching and learning processes involved.

Oct 15, 2026

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