Increasing interest has been shown in using video games as an educational resource due to their pedagogical possibilities and their current expansion as an entertainment activity. However, their use in schools is still far from mainstream practice, which could be because of the barriers such as the price of video games, schools’ technological infrastructures and teachers’ attitudes. This article focuses on pre-service primary school teachers’ attitudes (future primary school teachers currently studying at university) towards collaborative learning with video games, which employs video games in collaborative learning activities. Because playing video games is a common form of entertainment for higher education students, we investigate whether pre-service teachers’ attitudes are influenced by their experience of playing video games (taking into account the number of years they have played video games), the frequency at which they play video games and their gender. This study takes a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert attitude scale. The results indicate that pre-service primary teachers have a positive attitude towards collaborative learning with video games. Furthermore, students who have played video games for more years, who play more frequently and the male students have more positive attitudes to using video games in collaborative learning activities. Overall, pre-service teachers have positive attitudes towards collaborative learning with video games, which could affect the use of these resources in educational practices. As the main characters in the educational process, both teachers and children need to be comfortable with new practices to achieve the objective of the educational system, which is the complete formation of children.

Students’ motivation is a fundamental factor in the educational process, and can be facilitated through new methodologies and technologies, including gamification, video games, collaborative learning, or, in particular, the methodology called “collaborative learning with video games” (which is presented and can be understood as the implementation of educational activities in which students have to work together to achieve a goal, and the main resource of the activity is a video game). However, if teachers themselves are not motivated, or if they lack a positive attitude towards implementing these new methodologies, it will be difficult for students to feel motivated when approaching said resources. Therefore, it is important to know what teachers’ attitudes towards them are. The aim of this research is the creation of an attitudes scale towards collaborative learning with video games, aimed at in-service primary school teachers. Different methodological steps were followed that made its construction possible, such as the analysis of items and the verification of their reliability, resulting in a rigorous attitudes scale of 33 items, with a reliability of α = 0.947. This implies that the measurement instrument is validated and allows one to know the attitudes of in-service primary school teachers towards a new methodology related to the implementation of video games in education.

¿SE SIENTEN PREPARADOS LOS GRADUADOS EN MAESTRO DE PRIMARIA PARA AFRONTAR LA PROFESIÓN DOCENTE?

Los videojuegos no son solamente una forma de entretenimiento, sino también pueden ser utilizados como recurso educativo para el aprendizaje. En este sentido, el objetivo de este artículo es llevar a cabo una revisión sistemática sobre experiencias e investigaciones del uso de videojuegos en la etapa de Educación Primaria (es decir, con alumnado de 6 a 12 años), pero, de manera particular, experiencias con un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo, y también con una evaluación pre y post del aprendizaje que muestre si los alumnos consiguieron ganancias de aprendizaje. Para conseguir dicho objetivo, el artículo está dividido en cinco secciones que muestran los principales aspectos relacionados con este tema: videojuegos en educación, aprendizaje colaborativo, la metodología para la revisión sistemática, resultados y conclusiones. Como resultado, 8 estudios cumplían los criterios de inclusión y fueron seleccionados para el análisis. En este sentido, mostramos que los videojuegos pueden ser utilizados bajo un enfoque de aprendizaje-trabajo colaborativo, en contraste a la idea extendida de que los videojuegos generan personas aisladas, sobre todo en el caso de los menores, y además, en general, los alumnos consiguen mejoras en su aprendizaje. En conclusión, los videojuegos pueden ser un buen recurso para el proceso de aprendizaje y, por ejemplo, pueden ser utilizados dentro de un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo pero es necesaria más información sobre esto debido a los límites que mostramos al final del artículo, como, por ejemplo, la necesidad de más estudios con evaluación pre y post de los logros de aprendizaje y que usen grupos de control y experimental.