Having technology in the classroom is one thing, but allowing students to create a game that requires coding skills can also be beneficial in other developmental areas, according to a foundry10 study.

The foundry10 organization looks to change the way children learn. A recent study was conducted on middle school students who began the process of learning to code and create games. The study shows quite a different perception that students have about a career in game development.

“We gathered surveys from 107 game design and development professionals and 300 middle school students, before and after a game development class, about the value of teaching game development in a middle school class,” said the foundry10 team, in an article by Lisa Castaneda and Manrita Sidhu for The Journal. “Then we compared the responses of the 7th- and 8th-graders with what the game developers said they felt would be important about making games.”

In creating games or anything at all, creativity is a major key. With game development and creation, the students are allowed to explore another important skill for the future by developing their own creativity.

“Game development is an excellent opportunity for students to express themselves creatively,” said the article. “It seems that emphasizing the importance of the more creative and artistic elements might serve to enhance students' overall experience and understanding of what it means to make games.”

Along with creative skills, the developers working with the students also found that perseverance is another important aspect that students can pull from their experience. Trial and error is not always the easiest skill to teach but as students are able to “learn how to fail” while coming up with solutions to their failures.

“Another way to conceptualize this is that students learn to ‘fail’ over and over and how to rebound from each situation,” according to THE Journal. “That grit and determination, the willingness to keep working in order to make the game ‘work,’ is all part of the constructivist mindset that game development entails.”

With so many positive takeaways for middle school students, foundry10 shared their new outlook on the perception of gaming in the classroom, with a concentration of gaming development tying into students development of important learning skills.

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Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor