447 Summary I conducted, therefore runs as follows: What are the main elements of a digital game for historical literature teaching that motivates students and teaches them to reason about literature? Research method Designing a new didactic method that has not been applied before in historical literature education requires multiple phases of development and evaluation. Educational design research makes it possible to separately evaluate and adjust parts of the method to be developed. It was exactly for this reason that educational design research emerged in the 1990s as an alternative to traditional approaches in educational research. Its practical perspective increases its chance of usability compared to traditional research approaches. When conducting educational design research, the researcher is on the one hand a designer, and on the other hand contributes to increasing the existing knowledge base in a specific field. Extensive preliminary research is essential for both the design phase and theory development. This preliminary research ensures that it is possible to thoroughly analyse problems and determine design elements based on existing theories. Preliminary studies also contribute to the evaluation of the design because research results can be related to previously discussed theories. In my research I conducted five preliminary studies to determine the design principles for the game. First, a literature study on educational games resulted in a list of game elements useful for historical literature teaching. Second, a survey of current didactic approaches in historical literature teaching provided principles to determine the game content. The main principle was that the method should combine a textoriented, historical, context-oriented, and reader-oriented approach. In a third study, I interviewed teachers of Dutch in secondary education to find out whether a combination method fits in with their educational practice. Based on this study, I concluded that applying the combination method in the design was justified. Based on these principles, a model was developed allowing students to reason and gain insights about historical literary texts and their historical as well as societal emplacement, and to reflect on themselves as readers of historical literature. Last, a study of the selected novel was carried out to provide the necessary information for the game’s assignments. The novel chosen was De Donkere Kamer van Damokles (1958) by the Dutch author W. F. Hermans (translated in English by I. Rilke as The dark room of Damocles). Based on the preliminary studies, the design elements for the digital game were determined and applied first in a prototype of the game. This prototype was developed and evaluated in several phases. In each phase, I analysed the students’ reasoning results
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