Non-digital educational games to support conceptual change in astronomy education

Research on astronomy education has primarily focused on investigating students' conceptual understanding through the lens of student cognition. However, learning involves more than just acquiring or reorganising ideas. Despite this, there have been very few studies that have examined the learning process through multiple perspectives within a naturalistic environment. Additionally, the lack of validated astronomy game resources aligned with curriculum learning outcomes has hindered the inclusion of Game-Based Learning (GBL) in astronomy education. To address this issue, this paper explores the use of non-digital games as a pedagogical approach to support multidimensional conceptual change in post-primary astronomy education. Two dimensions of learning were examined: affective and cognitive. A mixed-methods quasi-experimental research approach was employed on a cohort of 474 post-primary students, divided into intervention and control groups. The results demonstrate robust evidence of the efficacy of non-digital games in promoting sustained conceptual change for post-primary students. The sociocultural environment created by the games was observed to favour student motivation and prolonged cognitive conceptual change. The GBL pedagogical intervention created multiple opportunities for students to review and refine their knowledge and perception of astronomy.