Running Head: THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

The Evaluation of Minecraft for Children in the Age Group of 5-7 year olds
And children with Downs syndrome
Vilma Sampson
University of West Georgia

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

The Evaluation of Minecraft for Children in the Age Group of 5-7 year olds
And children with Downs syndrome

Introduction
As educators, students, parents, and the community rely on us to guide the young
generation to a more promising future. We create the foundation of learning by our decisions
and methods of teaching, and we influence where our future will take us throughout our students
abilities to perform. This foundation is built upon our students learning abilities and it is
reflected upon our students ability to perform. Therefore, identifying and introducing the
appropriate learning tools as resources that fit the abilities and challenges of our diverse students
population is imperative to our students development and for our future. This paper focused on
the evaluation of Minecraft as a learning tool for children in the age group of 5-7 and subgroup
children in that same age group with Downs syndrome.
What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is an open-ended sandbox game that allows players to construct, interact, and
collaborate among each other. It allows players to use the resources that are found on their
environment to build a 3D virtual world (Mojang, 2014). The game has two different modes.
The creative mode is for those players who are interested in building and using their imagination.

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

Players using this mode are able to build using the resources available in their environment
without the fear of unwanted guest. Within this mode, players can also play with other players to
join forces and built a world of their own. The other mode is the survival mode. This mode is for
those players who are looking for adventure. Players in this mode are building out of necessity
to survive and protect themselves from the monsters that are release at night and their goal is to
eat them.

Creative

Survival

Developmental Characteristics of Age group 5-7

According to Jean Piagets stages of cognitive development, my target audience stage
falls within the preoperational period. During this stage, children are able to relate words to
persons or things and are thinking using symbols. For example, my 5 year old son sees the letter
R, and says that the letter is the second letter of his name, Bryan. At this stage, children also have
a sense of problem solving skills; however, their results must benefit their needs only, in which
can be a weakness. Children are egocentric; they do not take others perspective into
consideration for any type of reasoning. Their strength includes the ability to think creatively
which allow them to pretend play.
According to Ericksons stages of psychosocial development, my target audience is
dealing with initiative versus guilt. During this stage children are expending their social
interactions by attending the real world big kids school. Children in this stage tend to make up
games with their friends or people around them. If children are encouraged by adults around

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

them, they feel a sense of initiative. However, if they are not encouraged to become selfinitiative or are too controlling, they feel a sense of guilt (Alexander, 2013). By encouraging
children to take self-initiative, allowing them to create their own make believe game, and
engaging in their games, educators and parents are helping childrens psychosocial development.
According to Kohlbergs theory of moral reasoning, my target audience falls within the
preconventional morality. During this level, children are considered to be egocentric in which
they are only concern about their needs. Children in this stage will behave according to the
action of receiving. Most children at this age think before reacting to a situation in terms of
whether or not they will get rewarded or punished for performing an act. My son, for instance,
tells me that he is behaving well at pre-k during the week because on Friday he will get a
treasure from the treasure box. It is clear that my sons judgment of what is considered a good
behavior is solely a result to satisfy his need of receiving a treasure. They are undergoing an
extremely development change and are becoming more independent.
The subgroup that I have included in my study is children of age 5-7 years old with
Downs syndrome. Children with Downs syndrome encounter unique challenges and
difficulties in their developmental stages. Their cognitive development includes short attention
span, poor judgment, and delayed in language and speech development (NIH, 2014). Due to their
delay in speech, their social skill is slower than other children in their same age group. When
children have limited speech and language skills, their behaviors may be reflected due to their
frustration of communication. However, their strength includes good social skill development,
learning with visual representations, and word reading. Their weakness includes motor
development, grammar and speech clarity, and number skills (DSE, 2014).
Examination of Minecraft

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

An infinite possibility of creativity in which children can become self-initiative by

creating their house or community and in which they can work collaboratively and develop their
social skills, is what minecraft is all about. However, Minecraft can also be challenging to
parents when it come to the amount of time they should or should not allow their children to
interact with this creative, positive, energetic learning experience. Parents have reported to have
a love-hate relationship with minecraft due to the obsession children developed by playing this
never ending game. According to Common Sense Media, Minecraft is rated to have 4 stars in
quality use with 527 parents rating it. The most popular review includes being careful on
allowing children on a public server, control the amount of time they spend on the game, control
the mode that they are playing with. The negative review includes that children become
extremely addictive with this game, find ways to be violent, find ways to bully other kids, and
the exposure of the online community where they can communicate with anyone (Common
Sense Media, 2014). On the other hand, MinecraftEdu was created by educators to support a fun
and creative learning environment using digital gaming in the classroom (MinecraftEdu, 2014).
Within MinecraftEdu, educators in every subject areas from STEM to Language, History, to Art
share ideas that has impacted learning in their classroom. There rating is positive and encourage
other educator to join MinecraftEdu to use gaming for learning.
Evaluate and Conclusion
Based on my research, allowing children in the age group of 5-7 to interact with
Minecraft will aid them with their cognitive, social, and emotional development. Cognitively,
playing this game allow children to foster creative thinking and problem solving. They can create
a community and play among their friends, which is consisted to the imaginative play. The game
allows them to take self-initiative which as a result will create a sense of initiative and not guilt

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

as stated on Ericksons stages of psychosocial development. Additionally, Minecraft allows

students to build their social skills. Children are interacting among each other to create and work
collaboratively. They come up with plans to create something awesome.
For children with Downs syndrome, Minecraft can also be used to assist with their
development stages. With the supervision and engagement of the parents or educators, children
can play on the creative mode in which focuses on building and using their creativity. Because
children with Downs syndrome learn at a slower rate than other children, by modifying the
games that includes signs and activity can greatly benefits their development. Parents, educators
and children can include game sign that classify the name of each item. They can use this to
practice reading and mathematical skills. They can create farms and include the animals that are
in a farm. They can create a home and include the essential needs of a house. It is vital that
parents and educators have a strong sense of what they want to teach. Also, parents and
educators need to have a good idea of how they will allow children with Downs syndrome to
interact, create, and learn from Minecraft.
Like any other activities, it is important to set boundaries on the amount of time allowed
to play. With the right set of skills and a full understanding of children developmental stages,
educators can use Minecraft to cultivate an environment of learning and fun. After interacting
with Minecraft along with my 5 year old son and my 7 year old nephew and based on my
research, I can conclude that Minecraft is an appropriate learning tools for children of age 5-7
year olds and children with Downs syndrome.

THE EVALUATION OF MINECRAFT AS A LEARNING TOOL

References

Alexander, P. A. (2006). Psychology in learning & instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
MinecraftEdu. (2014) Bring Minecraft to classroom. Retrieved from http://minecraftedu.com/
Mojang. (2014). Minecraft. Retrieved from https://minecraft.net/
NIH. (2014). What are common symptoms of Down syndrome? Retrieved from
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/down/conditioninfo/Pages/symptoms.aspx
DSE. (2014). Down syndrome education online. Retrieved from http://www.downsyndrome.org/information/social/overview/
Common Sense Media. (2014) We rate, educate, and advocate for kids, families, and school.
Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/minecraft/userreviews/adult