Cognitive and affective effects of learning History by playing a mobile game

In this paper, we report on research into a mobile game about medieval Amsterdam. The objectives of the paper are to generate insights into how mobile game-based learning in secondary education affects pupils’ knowledge of medieval Amsterdam, their motivation for History and for the subject of Middle Ages, and their attitude towards collaborative learning. We investigated the effects of a game called Frequency 1550. Frequency 1550 is a mobile city game developed by the Waag Society in which pupils playfully acquire historical knowledge about the medieval city of Amsterdam.
A quasi-experimental design is followed in which data have been gathered on the process of gaming and learning of 458 pupils from twenty classes of five schools. Qualitative and quantitative data have been gathered. In this paper the focus will be on the quantitative data. Pupils of ten classes played the mobile history game, whereas the other pupils followed regular project-based lesson series (control condition) especially designed for this project in strong co-operation with five History teachers from the participating schools. The results show that, on average, pupils of the game received higher scores on the knowledge test on facts about medieval Amsterdam than pupils who followed regular project-based lessons. No significant differences were found between the groups regarding narrative knowledge, motivation for History and for the subject of Middle Ages, and attitude towards collaborative learning.