Student Teachers as Game Designers: Applying Design Thinking in Educational Tabletop Games Development

Abstract

Educational tabletop games offer significant pedagogical advantages due to their tangible, collaborative nature and minimal technological requirements, positioning them as valuable tools for diverse educational settings. While Design Thinking, a systematic framework encompassing empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing, is recognized for fostering 21st-century competencies and empowering educators, its application to non-digital tabletop game design remains underexplored. This study investigated how student teachers applied the five phases of Design Thinking in developing tabletop games for instructional use. Employing an exploratory qualitative case study, the research discovered six groups of student teachers from a Malaysian public university, gathering data through participant observations, focus group discussions, cultural probes via weekly e-portfolios and document analysis. Findings revealed a systematic and effective adoption across all Design Thinking phases: participants adeptly used Empathize to identify authentic learning challenges, synthesized findings into actionable problem statements during Define, blended pedagogical knowledge with creative game design in Ideate, facilitated rapid iteration in Prototyping, and recursively refined their games through Testing, significantly enhancing both educational effectiveness and playability. This research highlights Design Thinking's flexibility in non-digital educational contexts, offering practical insights for developing game design competencies in future educators and enhancing teacher development programs.