Using Computer Games to Mitigate Disaffected Emotions in the Geography Classroom: Lessons Learned from Small-Scale Research on Teaching Sustainable Spatial Planning with Minecraft

In this chapter, we try to assess the affordances of digital game-based learning (DGBL) for teaching sustainable spatial planning in high school geography education. In particular, it is our aim to study the mitigating influence of the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) game Minecraft on children’s negative emotional engagement with a project-based assignment on sustainable spatial planning. A Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) test was administered to obtain information on the control and treatment groups’ affective state at the start (week 7) and at the end of the intervention (week 15). The results of this pretest–posttest control group study provide new insights about DGBL and engagement in the geography classroom. In the Minecraft group, we witnessed significantly decreased negative affect compared to the control group. Based on these results, we can argue that employing COTS computer games, such as Minecraft, successfully mitigates the development of disaffected emotions during a longer term project based on sustainable spatial planning in a classroom environment.