Student teachers are first introduced to Minecraft as a tool. Part of the Social Studies subject curriculum for middle and lower secondary education in Norway (grades 5 to 10) in Minecraft is then implemented in initial teacher education. By leveraging Minecraft’s affordances for building and roleplaying, we aim to create a digital learning environment that supports aspects of generic and domain specific skills practice in combination.
The study is organized as an experimental teaching activity between two educational institutions in Norway (A and B) over a three-week period. Institution A provided educational resources (MA students majoring in general education act as tutors) and institution B (student teachers majoring in Social Studies) will carry out a joint learning activity defined by an assignment created by institution B. The assignment will be grounded in a specific topic in Social Studies such as creating a model of the Norwegian parliament building or and industrialised area in Oslo and to engage in collaborative learning through role-play. Thus, we aim that the students acquire technical skills in using Minecraft in creative mode, detailed knowledge about the building and how the physical structures that reflect the era and society. The role plays were recorded by using a video-capture tool.
A questionnaire informed by our research questions as well as interviews are then conducted with the students.
The student teachers at Institution B then introduce Minecraft to a middle school classroom.