Identifying the barriers to using games and simulations in education: Creating a valid and reliable survey instrument

The purpose of this study was to create a valid and reliable instrument to measure teacher perceived barriers to the adoption of games and simulations in instruction. Previous research, interviews with educators, a focus group, an expert review, and a think aloud protocol were used to design a survey instrument. After finalization, the survey was made available to a group of educators for trial on the Internet. The data from the trial survey was then analyzed.;A portion of the survey required respondents to rate to what degree 32 potential barriers were perceived as an impediment to the adoption of games and simulations into their curriculum. The highest rated barriers included: cost of equipment, lack of time to plan and implement, inability to try before purchase, lack of balance between entertainment and education, lack of available lesson plans/examples, lack of alignment to state standards/standardized testing, inability to customize a game/simulation, and inability to track student progress within the game/simulation. An exploratory factor analysis identified seven factors that accounted for 67% of the variability in the respondents’ rankings. These seven factors were: Issues with Negative Potential Student Outcomes, Technology Issues, Issues Specific to Games and Simulations, Teacher Issues, Issues with Games and Simulations in Education, Incorporation Difficulties, and Student Ability. Interestingly, by using a MANOVA and follow-up ANOVA, several factors were found to have significant interactions with other questions on the survey. For instance, male educators ranked items in the Issues with Negative Potential Student Outcomes category as more of a barrier than female educators. Another gender difference was the ranking of items in the Technology Issues and the Teacher Issues categories; female educators ranked these items as more of a barrier than their male counterparts. Another significant interaction occurred between the Technology Issues category and Respondent Game Play Frequency. Those respondents that did not play games very frequently ranked individual technology barriers higher than those respondents who were more experienced with game playing. Implications of these, and other results, as well as recommendations for further research and for game and simulation implementation for educators and administrators, are discussed.