Thorkild HanghøjAalborg University · Department of Communication and Psychology
Thorkild Hanghøj
Professor
Doing research on games, dialogue, literacies and learning.
About
93
Publications
87,573
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
581
Citations
Introduction
I am a Professor at Aalborg University working with games and learning. My research mainly focuses on two areas: 1) the relationships between gaming and literacies (gamlit.org) and 2) social gaming as a gateway to inclusion. Currently, I am working on a research project concerning esports education for young people at-risk diagnosed with autism.
Additional affiliations
February 2012 - February 2020
Education
August 2004 - December 2009
Publications
Publications (93)
A growing number of young Danes experience a drop in well-being as well as there is an increase in diagnoses such as ADHD and autism. These challenges are often linked with school refusal and an increasing need for special education programmes. Since 2007, selected vulnerable youth (age 16-25) have been offered an alternative to regular youth educa...
There is a growing interest among researchers in using board games for supporting learning in school contexts. Co-op board games is a relatively new and promising type of games, which seems well-suited for improving students’ collaboration skills. In this paper, we explore how two groups of Danish high school students interact when playing two diff...
Thorkild Hanghøj, Kristine Kabel og Signe Hannibal Jensen fremlægger resultater fra en gennemgang af internationale forskningsartikler der beskæftiger sig med brug af digitale spil i relation til literacy- og sprogudvikling i L1-kontekster og L2-kontekster. Forfatterne strukturerer området i forhold til uddannelsesniveau, spilkontekst (skole, uden...
Gruppearbejde er en velkendt arbejdsform i grundskolen, der både har laeringsmaessige muligheder og begraensninger. Det gaelder ikke mindst, når elever skal samarbejde om at udvikle faelles idéer, hvor nogle elever let overtager styringen, mens andre kan have svaert ved at blive hørt. I denne artikel analyserer vi videoobservationer af 5. og 6. kla...
Brainstorming activities are quite common in L1 education. However, limited attention has been paid to the concrete unfolding of students’ idea development as a temporal, multimodal, and collaborative process. In this article, we explore how a group of four upper primary students in Year 5 (age 11–12) design a board game in a teaching unit on young...
Following the fast rise of esports as a global cultural phenomenon, there is an increasing need for understanding the literacies involved in competitive online gaming. Research has claimed that game players can develop multiple literacies by finding, creating and sharing information around games. However, there has been a tendency to overlook the m...
Even though there is a long tradition for letting students play and design board games in the classroom, there exist relatively few studies, which conceptualise how students can learn through designing educational board games. In this paper, I present a theoretical model, which can be used to understand and inform how students work with board game...
There is a long tradition of using board games for educational purposes. Moreover, the growth of the game jam events where participants typically gather at physical locations with an aim of creating new games, has expanded over the last decades. This paper is based on an exploratory study, where we wanted to create a game jam for teachers, student...
This symposium draws upon scholarship from across the globe to explore when, why, and how videogames are and are not being adopted in K-12 classrooms. Systematic reviews complemented by empirical research offer well-rounded perspectives of the possibilities supported and stymied by pedagogical innovations and obstacles. Additionally, theoretical mo...
Following the fast rise of esport as a global cultural phenomenon, there is an increasing need for understanding the literacies involved in competitive online gaming. Research has claimed that game players can develop multiple literacies by finding, creating and sharing information around games. However, there has been a tendency to overlook the mu...
Design-based research (DBR) emphasises the importance of developing and refining design principles when conducting educational design experiments. However, a review of the DBR literature has shown that there is a lack of clarity as to how design principles are described and applied. In this paper, we introduce a model for articulating design princi...
The professional practice of designing digital learning games has existed for more than four decades. Even though considerable work has been done on research and development projects that include learning games (e.g., through Design-Based Research projects), there is relatively limited research on how professional learning game designers work, and...
A fairly large body of research has documented how digital games can be used in L1 education. However, there is still a lack of detailed studies on how literacy teachers go about teaching with games as multimodal texts in the classroom. Revisiting earlier empirical work on the use of the sandbox game Minecraft in primary school, the aim of this pap...
In this comparative systematic review, we analyse how the use of digital games inside and outside school settings might support primary and secondary students’ literacy and language learning in relation to first language (L1) and second language (L2) educational contexts. Our findings indicate widely different patterns from utilising diverse game a...
Spil udgør en væsentlig del af mange børns liv, og giver mulighed for at udvikle venskaber, lære sprog samt blive bedre til at kommunikere og samarbejde. Men hvordan kan man arbejde med spil i undervisningen?
Sæt skolen i spil sætter fokus på brug af computerspil og gamification i dansk og matematik i folkeskolen. Bogen bygger på erfaringer fra fo...
Several studies of game-based learning in classrooms show that the role of dialogue is crucial in order to ensure valuable learning outcomes. This both pertains to dialogue between students and the game, dialogues between students playing games, as well as dialogues between teachers and students in game-based learning contexts. Moreover, the dialog...
Esports is on the rise as a leisure activity and also as a pedagogical activity. In this paper, we explore how Danish teachers within special needs education experience the pedagogical possibilities and challenges related to the educational use of esports activities. More specifically, we interviewed teachers from four different public institutions...
Denne artikel præsenterer projektet Spiljournalist, som undersøger, hvordan elever kan arbejde journalistisk med computerspil som emne og kulturelt fænomen. Vi præsenterer en scenariedidaktisk domænemodel og beskriver, hvordan digital fritidskultur kan blive et aktiv i skolen. Konkret har eleverne skrevet journalistiske tekster i faget dansk, og ud...
The aim of this paper is to present a framework for understanding how teachers experience teaching of game-based design activities with particular emphasis on teacher agency and dialogical positions. Building on earlier work, the paper presents theories for conceptualising teacher agency and dialogic positions when working with game-based design ac...
This paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study on Minecraft as a mathematical tool and learning environment. Even though Minecraft has been used for several years in classrooms around the world, there is a lack of detailed empirical studies of how students learn subject‑related content by working with the game. This study is based...
This paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study on Minecraft as a mathematical tool and learning environment. Even though Minecraft has been used for several years in classrooms around the world, there is a lack of detailed empirical studies of how students learn subject‑related content by working with the game. This study is based...
I denne artikel sætter vi fokus på, hvordan design af og omkring spil kan fungere som afsæt for problemløsning, gode udfordringer og meningsfuldhed for eleverne i undervisningen. På baggrund af empiri fra projektet Game-Based Learning in the 21st Century1 (GBL21) anlægger vi to perspektiver på spildesignprocesserne. Dels et lærerperspektiv, som vi...
The aim of this paper is to present findings from a study which is part of an ongoing Design-Based Research project which explores how students can transform their everyday experiences with and attitudes towards games into game journalism within the context of Danish as a subject. Based on a theoretical framework combining domain theory with Ivanič...
Children all over the world spend an increasing amount of time playing digital games. Within the last decade, researchers have documented how online game play often involves literacy practices that are not necessarily valued or recognized in school contexts. Despite researchers' and practitioners' valuable attempts to integrate videogames or game-b...
It is widely recognized that dialogic relations between teachers and students as well as between students play a key role in order to support and achieve educational aims. At the same time, research on Game-Based Learning often focus on specific game affordances while neglecting the dialogical interaction among the involved actors in specific learn...
Esports is the fastest growing sports industry globally, and esports research is becoming more prevalent. However, there is a lack of research on what 21 st century skills esports players develop. This study examines the experiences of nine young CS:GO players and their coach enrolled in an esports program at a sports college in the greater Copenha...
Der findes et hav af forskellige spil og tilsvarende uhyre mange måder at anvende spil på i undervisningen. I denne artikel vil
jeg give et overblik over feltet ved først at definere de centrale elementer i spil. Dernæst opridser jeg, hvordan man kan lære gennem spil og gennemgår fire didaktiske tilgange til spil. Til sidst vil jeg præsentere en s...
If you want to learn how to become more creative, better at collaboration, or want to develop your critical thinking skills playing games can be a powerful activity. If you want to be even surer, then build a game. This was the conclusion of a review performed by Qian and Clark (2016) on how Game-Based Learning can develop 21st Century Skills. Unde...
A revised version of the paper has been published here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343583766_What's_the_math_in_Minecraft_A_Design-Based_Study_of_Students'_Perspectives_and_Mathematical_Experiences_Across_game_and_School_Domains
This paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study that uses Minecraft as a mathematical tool...
The aim of this paper is to identify emerging design principles when developing, piloting and implementing game-related Design Thinking activities for primary and lower secondary classrooms. The analyses are based on data from the large-scale intervention project GBL21 (Game-Based Learning in the 21st Century), which explores and measures how 1600...
Forskningen i anvendelsen af digitale spil i undervisningen har flere årtier på bagen og vidner om positive resultater med øget motivation og læringsudbytte. Samtidig er der ofte uklarhed om de didaktiske muligheder og begrænsninger, der knytter sig til forskellige måder at anvende digitale spil i undervisningen. I denne oversigtsartikel vil jeg fø...
Der findes et hav af forskellige spil og tilsvarende uhyre mange måder at anvende spil på i undervisningen. I denne artikel vil jeg give et overblik over feltet ved først at definere de centrale elementer i spil. Dernæst opridser jeg, hvordan man kan lære gennem spil og gennemgår fire didaktiske tilgange til spil. Til sidst vil jeg præsentere en sp...
Using games for learning tends to blur boundaries across across in- and out-of-school domains. In this way, it becomes difficult to describe and understand the meaning-making processes involved in game-oriented learning. In this chapter, we present the analytical framework of scenario-based education, which can be used to explore the translation pr...
"Games and Education" explores new designs in and for learning and offer inspiraton to teachers, technologists and researchers interested in changing educational practices.
The first Danish Game-Based Learning course offered by a teachers college enrolled 42 students with a variety of backgrounds and interests in games. We characterize the students who enrolled in the course in terms of gaming literacies and preferences, and gauge the impact of the course in terms of building actionable skill sets. Following Schön (19...
In this chapter, we draw together some of the recent findings from our research; we explicate some of the core dialogic concepts and relate them to digital games; and we try to formulate a set of principles or guidelines for a dialogic pedagogy with digital games, what we term “the GTDT model” (Games as Tools for Dialogic Teaching).
https://connectedlearningsummit.org/cls2018/proceedings/
A game based learning approach may work wonderfully in one school, and then very differently in another, shortly after.
This paper reports how one intervention lead to different outcomes depending on school setting. We combine statistical and qualitative lenses to analyze differential impact based on the social and cultural characteristics of four...
Dette kapitel beskriver, hvordan man kan udvikle elevers skrivepraksisser rundt om “sandkassespillet” Minecraft. Vi beskriver et undervisningsforløb, der er udviklet som en del af demonstrationsskoleprojektet, og som blev anvendt i faget dansk på fire forskellige skoler i 0.-2. klasse. Med afsæt i en scenariedidaktisk domænemodel beskriver vi, hvor...
Can the challenges encountered in cooperative video games encourage classroom inclusion? And can this experience be translated into curriculum engagement? This study describes a 3 week intervention with game-based learning activities in eight lower secondary classrooms (N=190). The intervention combined the use of the coop action role-playing game...
In this paper, we explore how students engage in journalistic writing activities relating to video games and game culture. The paper is based on a pilot study with student texts and interviews relating to the development of the online learning resource spiljournalist.dk, which allow Danish secondary students to publish journalistic articles through...
En kort introduktion til scenariedidaktik (dansk version).
In spite of the growing use of video games in schools, there is only limited research,
which explores in detail what it takes to teach with games. The aim of this paper
is to describe what it means to be a ”game competent teacher”, i.e. how to select,
explore, play, understand, enact, facilitate and assess the use of games in education.
Teachers’ g...
En af skolens centrale udfordringer handler om at gøre undervisningen meningsfuld gennem at skabe forbindelse til elevernes erfaringshorisont og omverdenen. Desværre drukner mange læreres gode intentioner om engagerende undervisning ofte i faste rutiner for lærerstyret undervisning og bogsystemer med færdighedsprægede opgaver. Skriveforskningen vis...
I folkeskolen spiller en 3. klasse Minecraft i dansktimen, mens to 7. klasser forestiller sig, hvordan danmarkshistorien havde set ud, hvis Stauning var gået i krig mod Hitler. På sygeplejeuddannelsen behandler tre studerende den koldsvedende dukke Anne™, samtidig med at deres medstuderende overværer det dramatiske scenarie. Hvad gør de, hvis pulse...
Den didaktiske brug af åbne scenarier i form af f.eks. computerspil, simulationer eller storylines rummer mange muligheder for at relatere undervisningen til domæner uden for skolen. Samtidig kan åbne scenarier vaere udfordrende at anvende for lærere, hvis de ikke har specifik domæneviden om det scenarie, som de underviser med. Derudover spiller læ...
I denne artikel lægger vi op til, at det er interessant for lærere i grundskolen at vide noget om, hvilke semiotiske erfaringer på dansk og engelsk børn får gennem deres spilaktiviteter på sociale medier. Vi giver mere præcist eksempler på, hvordan børn skaber betydning gennem deres deltagelse i uden-for-skolen-literacypraksisser i relation
til Min...
The aim of this paper is to explore how at-risk students can become included in Danish as L1 by writing game-related texts such as game guides, character analysis or fictional stories, where they describe how to play and overcome key game challenges. The empirical data is based on The School at Play project (2015-2017), which involved a series of d...
På trods af den stigende udbredelse af computerspil i skolen findes der kun begrænset forskning, der konkret undersøger, hvad det kræver at bruge spil i undervisningen. Fokus for denne artikel er derfor at beskrive, hvad det vil sige at være en spilkompetent lærer. Det vil sige, hvordan man som lærer skal kunne udvælge, afprøve, spille, forstå, isc...
The aim of this paper is to explore teachers' different pedagogical approaches to teaching the "sandbox" digital game Minecraft as a part of L1 primary education. The empirical data for the paper is based on a series of design interventions with a Minecraft curriculum in three different classes (two 1st grades and one 2nd grade) at three different...
The aim of this paper is to present findings from a pilot study that relates to an ongoing research project on the use of digital games and game-based pedagogies for supporting children in learning difficulties. The research project is entitled "The School at Play: Learning and Inclusion through Games and Game Dynamics" (2015-2017) and has been fun...
In recent decades, several Scandinavian research projects have had an explicit focus on how technology intervenes in L1 (or so-called Mother Tongue Education) practices in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish educational contexts, and how this may impact on understanding of the subject. There is currently no systematic overview of the documented possibili...
What happens when a single-player training game enters a classroom context? The use of training activities in game-based learning (GBL) has often been criticized for letting players perform mechanical operations with no reflection upon the learning experiences involved (e.g. Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2005). Building on earlier studies of game-based teachi...
Various online collaborative writing tools have emerged giving students new opportunities when co-producing texts. The aim of this work-in-progress paper is to present the preliminary hypotheses and findings of an on-going research project at Aalborg University, Denmark, which explores university students' uses of collaborative writing tools like G...
The aim of this paper is to describe the opportunities and challenges involved in designing educational scenarios for teaching with the computer game Minecraft in mother tongue education (MTE). The empirical data presented is based on an on-going research project, funded by the Danish Ministry of Education, which explores the use of a particular ga...
The frames that set the boundaries of play space in pervasive games are ambiguous and thus players need to negotiate what is part of play playing these games. This negotiation demands and develops creativity among players. The main contribution of this paper is to show how pervasive game designers and facilitators (e.g. game masters and/or teachers...
The aim of the article is to present an overview of four different subject-specific
perspectives on the use of ICT and media within the context of Mother Tongue
Education (MTE). In summary, the use of ICT and media can be conceptualised
as technological tools, media, means for socialisation, and literacies. Each of these
perspectives refers to a co...
The paper develops an approach of playing and gaming activities through the perspective of both activities as mood activities (Karoff 2013). The point of departure is that a game – whether it is ludic or paideiac-is a tool with which we, through our practices, achieve different moods. This based on an empirical study of children´s everyday lives, w...
The paper develops an approach of playing and gaming activities through the perspective of both activities as mood activities (Karoff 2013). The point of departure is that a game – whether it is ludic or paideiac-is a tool with which we, through our practices, achieve different moods. This based on an empirical study of children´s everyday lives, w...
This chapter outlines theoretical and empirical perspectives on how Game-Based Teaching can be integrated within the context of formal schooling. Initially, this is done by describing game scenarios as models for possible actions that need to be translated into curricular knowledge practices, pedagogical knowledge practices, and everyday knowledge...
The aim of this paper is to describe how new teacher students develop innovation competence through problembased game design processes by participating in an intro camp. The intro camp was held for 350 new teacher students at a Danish university college in 2011, which were asked to solve the real-life problems of local schools by designing game sol...
The paper develops an approach of playing and gaming activities through the perspective of both activities as mood activities (Karoff 2013). The point of departure is that a game-whether it is ludic or paideiac-is a tool with which we, through our practices, achieve different moods. This based on an empirical study of children´s everyday lives, whe...
I takt med den stigende interesse for brugen af spil på videregående uddannelser er der behov for at udvikle tilsvarende didaktisk tænkning, som kan hjælpe undervisere med at integrere spil i deres undervisning. I denne artikel præsenteres en didaktisk model, der antager at spilbaseret undervisning kan forstås som en relation mellem fire typer af d...
Based upon a series of design interventions with the educational computer game series Global Conflicts at various secondary schools, this article explores how educational gaming can be understood as a complex interplay between four knowledge forms – i.e. students’ everyday knowledge (non-specialised knowledge), the institutionalised knowledge forms...
Games are gradually becoming accepted as a means for teaching at Danish universities.
Despite this development, litt le is known about how to use games in
university teaching, which emphasises the need for developing a didactic frame
for such use. To contribute to the development of a game didactics, two cases are
presented to describe possible app...
In this paper, two case studies are presented of teachers who translate video gaming into educational practice. These cases are situated within a broader framework of intermediality/multimodality and related to debates about (video game) literacy and the position of the teacher in education. The question of what it means to be a game literate teach...
Danskfagets didaktik; Mediepædagogik; Mediedidaktik; Elektroniske tekster; Web 2.0; Generativ poesi
During recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the educational use of learning games - both among game designers, researchers and educators. At the same time, the processes of studying how educational computer games are being enacted in educational settings face several methodological challenges. As an example, it may be quite diffic...
So far, educational game research has tended to neglect the crucial role of the teacher in actually choosing, preparing for, teaching with, and evaluating the use of educational games. In this paper, we argue that in order to understand how teachers facilitate educational games, it is necessary both to consider how different game modalities enable...
This dissertation can be read as an attempt to explore the widespread assumption that games have educational value within the context of formal schooling. More specifically, this study tries to answer a number of questions related to this assumption: Why should games have a place in formal education? How should educational games support teaching an...
In this chapter the authors discuss the problem of balancing theory and artifact production in design research projects. Like other authors in this book, we believe that basic educational research benefits by being framed as a problem oriented research process, where design experiments and theoretical investigations go hand in hand. How this can be...
This paper aims to explore and discuss the discrepancy between educational goals and educational game designs through a theoretical and empirical lens. It is assumed that this discrepancy is a general problem that must be addressed more critically by educational game designers and researchers. The paper is structured in three parts. First, we prese...
The article explores problems and possibilities related to the integration of computer media with game-based learning environments. This is done by introducing the analytical concept “blended gaming”, which describes the learning potentials and unexpected outcomes that follow the mix of game formats and new media genres. The first part of the artic...
Spil kan anvendes på mange måder i undervisningen – hvad enten det drejer sig om at engagere elever i specifikke læringsmål, udvikle kommunikative evner eller skabe faglig refleksion gennem simuleret praksis. På trods af at gymnasielærere har undervist med rollespil og simulationer i mange årtier, så findes der i dag kun begrænset forskning på områ...
Questions
Questions (5)
I am looking for updated research on relations between video game play/esports and young people with autism spectrum disorder. I am both interested in qualitative and quantitative studies. Most of the research seems to be focused on learning games, but I am more interested in the games that young people with ASD choose to play according to their own interests. Hope that anyone can help out!
I am looking for qualitative research methods, which can be used to map children's (10-14 years old) social networks. I am particularly interested in social networks related to gaming, but obviously tools/methods could be adtopted. One example could be simply asking children to draw a map of their network of fellow gamers as a part of an interview. Any examples or ideas will be much appreciated!
I am looking for ideas and especially research, which links educational esports activities with ELA / first language acquisition / L1 teaching - e.g. focusing on curricular aspects of communication, toxic language, game design, critical literacy, game guides (paratexts) etc.
Does anybody know of research, which documents how working with games in schools is able to develop students' writing? Focus could be primary, secondary or upper secondary education. I am both looking for qualitative and quantitative studies!
I'm currently looking into how young esport players experience development of their abilities to communicate and collaborate - e.g when playing Counter-Strike, which is huge phenomenon among Danish boys. However, I haven't been able to find much research on links between esport and 21st century skills. Anybody who can help?
