Behavior and Cognition Processing of Educational Tabletop Coding Games

Abstract

Many countries have been actively promoting computational thinking since it was put forward, and visual programming language, robots and educational tabletop games are commonly used in its promotion. To understand the relationship between students’ learning of coding principles in educational tabletop games and players’ cognitive processing at key points in time, students’ behavior while playing the Interstellar Explorer tabletop game was observed by a brainwave EEG (electroencephalography) instrument and video and analyzed with cognitive processing. The results showed that a continuous increase in attention and meditation reflected a low level of knowledge and understanding as well as high-level application, analysis and evaluation of cognitive processing. This study explores the relationship between the state of students playing tabletop games and their behavior during play and then derives the relationship between their behavior and cognitive processing. It is recommended that the design of tabletop games consider how the learning content matches the game mechanics and examine whether cognitive processing is present according to Bloom’s taxonomy. In addition, to enhance players’ cognitive ability, it is recommended that tabletop games provide the ability to use contextual content and multiple strategies.