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. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Several conceptual and empirical works have synthesized diverse educational benefits of teaching with digital games and digital game-based learning. Teaching with digital games poses several infrastructural and technological challenges for teachers. Whether teaching with digital games becomes a common practice is related to the intention of teachers who act as gatekeepers for effective educational approaches. What this paper adds Insights into relations between intentions to teach with digital games and personal characteristics among pre-service teachers as future gatekeepers. The intentions of pre-service teachers to teach with digital games show particularly strong relations to a small set of personal characteristics. The relations between the intentions of pre-service teachers and their personal characteristics may vary between educational contexts. Implications for practice and policy The usefulness and curriculum relatedness of digital games in different educational contexts should be made clear to pre-service teachers. Teacher education could better prepare pre-service teachers for their future role as gatekeepers by providing key experiences and competences regarding teaching and learning with digital games. Policy makers could support teaching with digital games by advancing digital game-based learning in teacher education and by reducing known barriers related to teaching with digital games.