Video games for the development of critical thinking and dialogue

Abstract

This article takes up the results of the research carried out by the author of other article entitled Video games in the classroom: a proposal associated with the development of critical thinking (2016). Some of the concerns generated in the study are related to the guidelines for developing a proposal for the use of video games in the classroom, associated with the development of critical thinking, in a group of young Venezuelans in school between the ages of 13 and 17. We tried to understand video games as a cultural product in the Venezuelan context, the habits of video game consumption by the subjects studied and their relationship with critical thinking and the development of dialogue processes. The starting point is the analysis of the four dimensions proposed by Lipman (1998) for the study of critical thinking and the sociocultural conception of learning and the theory of Vigotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. From the methodological point of view, the interview was used as a technique for data collection and work was done with an intentional sample, made up of two 14-year-old adolescents, who interacted with video games of different genres. It was observed that dialogue and collaboration in the face of these technologies are spontaneous and necessary behaviors to favor problem solving and decision making; thus, the guidelines proposed by Lipman and Vigotsky are formulations that allow for orienting reflections on the possibilities that media literacy can offer for the development of critical views on the media.