Digital games pre-schoolers play: parental mediation and examination of educational content
Publication details
| Year: | 2021 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10639-020-10382-2 |
| Issued: | 2021 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 26 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Start Page: | 3293 |
| End Page: | 3326 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Gözüm A.; Kandır A. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Education and Information Technologies |
| Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| Topics: | Social mediation |
| Sample: | In the research, the study group consists of the parents of 109 children who are 60–72 months old and attending the official independent preschool education institution in Kars City Centre in 2017–2018 school year. The conditions “that children continuing early childhood education play digital games” and “having 60-72 months old children” were set out in the study group to obtain the qualitative data of the research. Parents need to meet these two criteria in order to obtain the quantitative data of the study. In this regard, convenience sampling method which is one of the non-random sampling techniques was used for the parents who voluntarily participated in the research. The study group determined by the convenience sampling method consists of 109 volunteer parents with 60–72 months old children who play digital games and continue early childhood education. In quantitative researches where convenience sampling method is used, it is technically not possible to generalize such a population consisting of 60–72 months old children. |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Researchers |
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine mediations of parents who make digital games played by 60–72 months old children accessible, and the contents of the digital games played by children educationally. In this research the convergent parallel mixed research method that include both qualitative and quantitative research methods was used. The study group of the research consists of 109 parents. In the research, two data collection tools as a survey and a questionnaire were used. The data collection tools were developed by the researchers. Qualitative data of the research consist of parents’ opinions and the digital games their children play. Quantitative data were collected with the questionnaire form. As a consequence of combining quantitative and qualitative data and evaluating them as a meaningful whole, it was established that children of parents using a parental mediation consciously play digital games with educational content. Yet, this rate is below 10%. It was determined that 90% of the parents do not use a mediation strategy consciously. In fact, children who are not applied a mediation play digital games with violent and neutral content. According to the findings, it is another significant result that parents using a mediation strategy consciously choose digital games with educational content by taking expert opinions. The results of the research were discussed in consideration of the literature in terms of both parental mediation and educational content of digital games.
Outcome
"the rate of parents who provide conscious guidance to their children about digital games is approximately (n = 10) 9%. These parents consciously take expert opinions and use the viewing and active co-playing mediation strategy to support their children’s development. The rate of parents who do not provide conscious guidance to their children is approximately (n = 99) 91%. Parents who do not provide conscious guidance use the restrictive mediation strategy when they observe any adverse effect of digital games on their children. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that the act of providing conscious guidance is directly related to the education levels of the parents. Parents with a high level of education use active and co-playing mediation strategies. While 18% of the digital games whose content analysis has been conducted in the research are educational, 74% are violent and 8% are neutral digital games that are not educational and do not contain violence. From this point of view, it has been determined that children play mostly violent or entertainment games instead of educational digital games." (Gözüm & Kandır, 2021, p.3320)