Peace Games

Creativity stands at the core of this project as it is considered both as a way to acquire civic and social key competences, and as a competence to acquire and develop in itself via the use and the development of “self-made” games oriented toward Peace Education. Co-founded by the Erasmus+ Programme,

Peace Games aims at diffusing these competences in learners and at helping teachers to make good educational use of games. This is organised through the identification, assessment and support to the use of relevant games (online or in face-to-face) oriented to civic competences, intercultural communication and conflict transformation already existing and provide guidelines and advices for the development of new “self-made” games relevant for particular contexts.

Source Peace Games website

On the 6 and 7th of December 2021 17 members from the Peace Games project met online (instead on-site, in Graz, Austria) to discuss the classification of 55 selected games that support learning and development of peace competences. The Peace Games project aims to contribute to the development of citizenship, democratic and social competences by using the full potential of creativity through game-based learning in formal and informal learning.

Peace Games Catalogue Download.

Based on the game catalog, the games were tested in the various partner countries in different contexts for their practical use in the classroom or in other settings.

In an extensive piloting, the selected games were tested for their suitability for use in different types of schools, school levels and teaching settings as well as in extracurricular learning environments. It was important here that the available resources and constraints were considered according to the possibilities of the participating school or educational institution. Because those factors have a great influence on a positive experience with game-based learning.

Feedback from all participants clearly shows that game-based learning is effective in terms of for the sensitization for and the acquisition of peace competencies as well as the strengthening of democratic values. Game-based learning is not limited to a certain type of school or age cohort, but can also be used in all school levels and types, as well as in heterogeneous groups.

The results from the piloting phases form the basis for the Teachers Guide created in the project. This guide is intended to help and accompany teachers in integrating games into their lessons. The guide shows how analog and digital games can be used as tools in education to improve democratic culture and peace-related competencies. In addition to specific examples from piloting, potential learning paths are also suggested.

Link to the Teachers Guide-Document

Another result from the project is the "Roadmap for New Peace Games Development". The roadmap includes practical instructions as well as printable cards that support the creative process of game design and help prioritize the acquisition of peace-related skills. The Roadmap proposes different approaches and aims to inspire game developers and teachers to make an important contribution to peace education through the creation of new games or the adaptation of existing games.

Link to the Roadmap-Document

Read here more about the project http://eiplab.eu/peace-games.

Project partners

• Forum of European Regions for Research, Education and Training (France)
• International Institute for Humanitarian Law (Italy)
• Liceo Statale « G.D.Cassini » (Italy)
• Ministry for Education and Employment (Malta)
• Asociación cultural Da2 Trucados (Spain)
• Universita Degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy)
• FH JOANNEUM (Austria)
• Evangelische Schule Neuruppin (Germany)
• Université Côte d’Azur (France)

Peace Games objectives

1) To explore, analyse and classify the available supply of peace-oriented games on the basis of their relevance to the most pertinent competence frameworks that are actually developed and tested internationally;

2) To identify, through a substantial mapping exercise based on the competence frameworks, existing gaps and engage the game developers community in the creation of new games addressing the identified gaps, also using existing sets of peace exercises that have not yet taken a game configuration;

3) To develop an online hub able to provide information, advice and support to education institutions and educators who are interested to use the potential of games to achieve learning outcomes in these competence areas and engage “indie game development communities” in the creation of new games;

4) To test and validate the use of the online hub and available games in ten pilot schools in five countries and, on a voluntary base, in other local communities and civil society organisations engaged in citizenship education;

5) To develop and validate a Guide on “How to use, adopt and adapt game-based learning in traditional education settings”;

6) To provide guidance and a collaborative context to individual learners who are already engaged in online and offline games and might discover the interest and life-relevance of peace-oriented games;

7) To draw lessons from the review and the online hub activities in order to feed the present education policy debate on citizenship and peace education.

Publications

Pivec M., Kronberger A., Lagger U.: Roadmap for New Peace Games Development. EDULEARN23 Proceedings, Palma, Spain - pages 4501-4505. 

Pivec M., Kronberger A., Lagger U.: Designing Games for Impact. Perspectives of Art and Design in Education. ESAD Erasmus+ international week 2023, Porto, Portugal – pages 96 - 100 

Pivec M., Lagger U., Kronberger A.: Peace Games: Der Einsatz von Spielen zur Förderung der Friedenserziehung und Stärkung demokratischer Werte. FH Forschungsforum 2023 an der FH St. Pölten, Austria, 19. und 20. April, 2023. 

Pivec M., Lagger U., Kronberger A.: Peace Games: Games as Promoters of Democratic culture and Peace Related Competences. INTED2023 Proceedings, Valencia, Spain - pages 2969-2976.