Production of educational games in the contexto of professional master’s program in professional and technological education (ProfEPT)

Abstract

This study investigated dissertations related to educational games developed by students of the Professional Master's Program in Professional and Technological Education (ProfEPT). Our initial motivation stems from the perception of a scarcity of works exploring this integration within the program. Employing a state-of-the-art methodology, we conducted a descriptive and content analysis, exploring records available in the ProfEPT digital repository. The study comprised three stages: data mining of 2,142 products and dissertations from 2017 (the program's inception) to 2023; organization into a spreadsheet; and data analysis, incorporating keywords in the search and abstract review. The research revealed that only 2.52% of the dissertations addressed the theme of games in education. Regarding the nature of the developed products, the majority consisted of board games (54.72%), followed by didactic sequences (18.87%) and manuals (11.32%). The most prolific knowledge areas in the creation of educational games were Languages (16.2%), Teacher Education (13.9%), and fields related to Health (13.9%). We concluded that there is a notable shortage of specific research related to teaching through educational games in ProfEPT, highlighting the need for additional investigations in this field. These results provide valuable insights into the evolution of research and the presence of educational games in various knowledge areas, encouraging future research on the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating games into the pedagogical context.