Exploring the gender differences of student teachers when using an educational game to learn programming concepts

The gender differences have long been an issue in computer games, but there is very little empirical research on the behavior and performance of females and males when playing computer games. This chapter discusses an exploratory study that aimed to examine the gender differences between female and male student teachers who played an educational game to learn programming concepts. This study we adopted a self-made educational game called “Game”. Fifteen males and eighteen females finished playing a level of the Game. Female participants spent more time in the Game but their scores were lower. Female and male students also employed different strategies when playing the Game. The findings call for larger and longer research studies and perhaps a re-design of the Game to make it more appealing to females, in order to have a thorough examination on the gender differences when using an educational game to learn. Copyright © 2011, IGI Global.