Teaching with Digital Games: How Intentions to Adopt Digital Game-Based Learning Are Related to Personal Characteristics of Pre-Service Teachers

Despite many known educational benefits of digital game-based learning, teaching with digital games is not yet a common practice in formal education. The role that digital game-based learning might play in future school teaching can be explored by examining the behavioral intentions of pre-service teachers as the ultimate gatekeepers. In this survey study, 402 pre-service teachers from German-speaking universities had participated. Multiple regression analyses were applied to examine the role of pre-service teachers' personal characteristics in their intention to integrate digital games into two educational contexts. For both educational contexts, we identified perceived usefulness and curriculum relatedness of digital games as key factors in pre-service teachers' intention to teach with digital games. We also found differences in explained variance and relevant personal characteristics between educational contexts. Overall, we discuss how teaching with digital games could become a common practice if particular characteristics of pre-service teachers are already addressed in teacher education.