Understanding the Impact of a Historical Video Game about Miguel Grau on Substantive Knowledge

Authors

  • Enrique Chiroque Landayeta Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - Perú https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0909-7772

    Magíster en Docencia Superior de la Universidad Ricardo Palma, licenciado en Arte con mención en Diseño Gráfico por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Jefe de Departamento de Arte y Diseño de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Coordinador general del grupo de investigación AVATAR-PUCP. Grupo creado para investigar, desarrollar y difundir tecnologías interactivas, en los campos de los videojuegos, mundos virtuales y realidad aumentada, que potencien los procesos educativos, sociales, culturales y artísticos.
    Correo electrónico: echiroq@pucp.edu.pe

  • Ricardo Navarro Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - Perú https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7069-9780

    Magíster en Cognición, Aprendizaje y Desarrollo por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Ha publicado estudios sobre los efectos de las tecnologías en el aprendizaje y rendimiento académico de los estudiantes universitarios y de Educación Básica Regular. Es investigador del grupo Avatar PUCP donde realiza proyectos de desarrollo e investigación. Actualmente se desempeña como docente en la Facultad de Psicología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú enseñando cursos de investigación, estadística y neurociencias.
    Correo electrónico: ricardo.navarro@pucp.pe

  • Franco Luyo Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú - Perú https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8955-3565

    Licenciado en Psicología por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Especialización en Market Research por la Universidad de California. Experiencia en el ámbito académico y empresarial, en proyectos de investigación y desarrollo de proyectos de tecnología, juegos y educación en el Grupo Avatar PUCP, y proyectos de investigación de mercado en diferentes empresas del país.
    Correo electrónico: franco.luyo@pucp.edu.pe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18800/educacion.202601.A011

Keywords:

Video games, Motivation, History knowledge, Education

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of an educational video game on university students’ substantive historical knowledge, focusing on the life of Miguel Grau. Thirty students were randomly assigned to a control group, which engaged with either a traditional text-based lesson or an experimental group, which played a video game designed to teach the same content. Their engagement, enjoyment and interest were measured after both stimuli. The results revealed significant improvements in substantive historical knowledge for both groups, with no notable differences between them. However, the video game group reported higher levels of enjoyment. Mediation analysis indicated that interest plays a significant role in mediating the relationship between engagement and enjoyment. These findings suggest that educational video games may offer greater enjoyment than instructional methods and can therefore increase motivation in learning environments.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abuhamdeh, S., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2012). The importance of challenge for the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(3), 317-330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211427147

Ainley, M., & Hidi, S. (2014). Interest and enjoyment. In R. Pekrun, & L. Linnenbrink-Garcia (Eds.), International Handbook of Emotions in Education (pp. 205-227). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Alonso-Fernández, C., Martínez-Ortiz, I., Caballero, R., Freire, M., & Fernández-Manjón, B. (2020). Predicting students’ knowledge after playing a serious game based on learning analytics data: A case study. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36(3), 350-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12405

Barca, I. (2011). Narrativas e consciência histórica dos jovens. Enseñanza de las Ciencias Sociales: revista de investigación, (10), 22-28. https://www.raco.cat/index.php/ensenanzacs/article/view/248889

Barton, K. C. (2010). Investigación sobre las ideas de los estudiantes acerca de la historia. Enseñanza de las Ciencias Sociales: revista de investigación, (9), 97-114. https://raco.cat/index.php/ensenanzacs/article/view/191362

Boyle, E. A., Hainey, T., Connolly, T. M., Gray, G., Earp, J., Ott, M., Lim, T., Ninaus, M., Ribeiro, C., & Pereira, J. (2016). An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games. Computers & Education, 94, 178-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.11.003

Burgos-Videla, C., Parada-Ulloa, M., & Martínez-Díaz, J. (2025). Critical thinking in the classroom: the historical method and historical discourse as tools for teaching social studies. Frontiers in Sociology, 10, 1526437. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1526437

Carretero, M., & Montanero, M. (2008). Enseñanza y aprendizaje de la Historia: aspectos cognitivos y culturales. Cultura y Educación, 20(2), 133-142. https://doi.org/10.1174/113564008784490361

Chapman, A. (2016). Digital games as history: How videogames represent the past and offer access to historical practice. Routledge.

Chávez, T. (2006). La enseñanza de la historia del Perú en la educación secundaria durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú: Lima.

Clark, D. B., Tanner-Smith, E. E., & Killingsworth, S. S. (2016). Digital Games, Design, and Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 79-122. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315582065

Clyde, J., Hopkins, H., and Wilkinson, G. (2012). Beyond the “Historical” Simulation: Using Theories of History to Inform Scholarly Game Design. Loading… The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 6(9), 3-16. https://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/105/0

Corbeil, P. (2011). History and Simulation/Gaming: Living with Two Solitudes. Simulation & Gaming, 42(4), 418-422. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878108325440

Evaristo, I. S., Vega, M. V., Navarro, R., & Nakano, T. (2016). Uso de un videojuego educativo como herramienta para aprender historia del Perú. RIED. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 19(2), 35-52. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.19.2.15569

Fan, M., Antle, A. N., & Warren, J. L. (2020). Augmented Reality for Early Language Learning: A Systematic Review of Augmented Reality Application Design, Instructional Strategies, and Evaluation Outcomes. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 58(6), 1059-1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633120927489

Gómez, C., Caridad, B., & Rodríguez, M. (2024). Historical Thinking as a Dynamic Vehicle for Teaching Through Key Competences. In A. Barbas, & A. I. G. Montero (Eds.), CIED – UMinho (pp. 177-189).

Green, C. S., and Bavelier, D. (2012). Learning, Attentional Control, and Action Video Games. Current Biology, 22(6), 197-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.02.012

Hartman, A., Tulloch, R., & Young, H. (2021). Video games as public history: archives, empathy and affinity. Game Studies, 21(4).

Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Publications.

Hiriart, J. (2019). Designing and Using Digital Games as Historical Learning Contexts for Primary School Classrooms. In A. Von Lünen, K. J. Lewis,B. Litherland, & P. Cullum(Eds.), Historia Ludens: The Playing Historian (pp. 37-53). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429345616

Julien, M., Stratton, M., & Clayton, R. (2018). History Is Not Boring: Using Social Media to Bring Labor History Alive. Management Teaching Review, 3(3), 208-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298117717257

Kessner, T. & McArthur Harris, L. (2022). Opportunities to practice historical thinking and reasoning in a made-for-school history-oriented videogame. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4073128

Lee, P., & Ashby, R. (2000). Progression in historical understanding among students ages 7–14. In P. N. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Wineburg (Eds.), Knowing, teaching, and learning history (pp. 199–222). NYU Press.

Li, N. (2025). The specter of the virtual: historical video games as complex public history. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. Advance article.

Lin, K. C., Wei, Y. C., and Hung, J. C. (2012). The Effects of Online Interactive Games on High School Students’ Achievement and Motivation in History Learning. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 10(4), 96-105. https://doi.org/10.4018%2Fjdet.2012100108

McCall, J. (2016). Teaching History with Digital Historical Games: An Introduction to the Field and Best Practices. Simulation & Gaming, 47(4), 517-542. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878116646693

Ministerio de Educación del Perú. (2016). Currículo Nacional de la Educación Básica. MINEDU. https://www.minedu.gob.pe/curriculo/pdf/curriculo-nacional-de-la-educacion-basica.pdf

Molinari, L., & Mameli, C. (2018). Basic psychological needs and school engagement: A focus on justice and agency. Social Psychology of Education, 21(1), 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-017-9410-1

Molins-Ruano, P., Sevilla, C., Santini, S., Haya, P. A., Rodríguez, P., & Sacha, G. M. (2014). Designing videogames to improve students’ motivation. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 571-579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.06.013

Muller, F. H., and Louw, J. (2004). Learning environment, motivation and interest: Perspectives on self-determination theory. South African journal of psychology, 34(2), 169-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630403400201

Ojha, S. S. (2016). Using Sources in History Teaching. MIER Journal of Educational Studies Trends and Practices, 6(1), 54-67. https://doi.org/10.52634/mier/2016/v6/i1/1454

Prensky, M. (2003). Digital game-based learning. Computers in Entertainment, 1, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1145/950566.950596

Seixas, P., and Morton, T. (2013). The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts. Nelson Education.

Sharp, L. (2012). Stealth learning: Unexpected Learning Opportunities Through Games. Journal of Instructional Research, 1, 42-48. https://doi.org/10.9743/JIR.2013.6

Subhash, S., and Cudney, E. A. (2018). Gamified learning in higher education: A systematic review of the literature. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 192-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.028

Taylor, T. (2003). Historical simulations and the future of the historical narrative. Journal of the Association for History and Computing, 6(2). http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3310410.0006.203

Uricchio, W. (2005). Simulation, history, and computer games. In J. Raessens & J. Goldstein (Eds.), Handbook of computer game studies (pp. 327–338). MIT Press.

Van Drie, J., & Van Boxtel, C. (2008). Historical Reasoning: Towards a Framework for Analyzing Students’ Reasoning about History. Educational Psychology Review, 20(2), 165–190.

VanSledright, B., & Limón, M. (2006). Learning and Teaching Social Studies: A Review of Cognitive Research in History and Geography. In P. A. Alexander, & P. H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology (pp. 545-570). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203874790

Wang, Y. H. (2020). Exploring the Effects of Designing a Role-Playing Game with Single and Peer Mode for Campus Learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(3), 1275-1299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09726-8

Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts: Charting the future of teaching the past. Temple University Press.

Wright, E. (2022). History, historians, digital games. History & Theory, 61(S1).

Yu, Z. (2018). Differences in serious game-aided and traditional English vocabulary acquisition. Computers & Education, 127, 214-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.07.014

Yu, Z., Gao, M., & Wang, L. (2020). The Effect of Educational Games on Learning Outcomes, Student Motivation, Engagement and Satisfaction. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 59(3), 522-546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633120969214

Zirawaga, V. S., Olusanya, A. I., & Maduku, T. (2017). Gaming in education: Using games as a support tool to teach history. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(15), 55-64. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1143830

Downloads

Published

2026-03-26

How to Cite

Chiroque Landayeta, E., Navarro, R., & Luyo, F. (2026). Understanding the Impact of a Historical Video Game about Miguel Grau on Substantive Knowledge. Educacion, 35(68), 250–269. https://doi.org/10.18800/educacion.202601.A011

Issue

Section

Artículos