Teacher candidates' intention to teach 21st century skills with digital games: A survey research

Integrating digital games into educational contexts has become a growing area of research and practice. Digital technologies — including digital games — play a critical role in supporting the development of these skills. Interactive environments foster critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and adaptability by engaging learners in meaningful, complex tasks. Moreover, digital platforms can facilitate self-directed learning, allowing learners to choose, plan, and reflect on their educational journeys. This study adopts a survey research design to explore teacher candidates’ intentions on using digital games for teaching 21st-century skills via demographic and motivational variables, including preferences and engagement. Findings suggest that gender and academic department have a significant influence on students' digital game-playing behaviors. Overall, the data highlight that intrinsic motivations, such as personal enjoyment, emotional regulation, and leisure, were more prevalent than extrinsic or social motives. In conclusion, the findings indicate that playing digital games is associated with higher levels of creativity, critical thinking, research skills, and technological proficiency among pre-service teachers. However, no significant differences were observed in communication and digital citizenship skills. These results suggest that digital games could be strategically integrated into teacher education programs to support the development of specific critical 21st-century skills.