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Game-based learning for ethics: benefits, challenges, and dilemmas
- Source
- Educational Technology Research and Development
- Published
- Last verified
- 6 Aug 2026
- Confidence
- High
- Evidence
- Original document retained
- Reading time
- 1 min
- Country
- International
- Topics
- edtechcurriculumresearch
Executive summary
What happened, and why should leadership care?
Research from Educational Technology Research and Development highlights the potential of game-based learning to enhance ethics instruction, particularly in fields like STEM where ethical decision-making is critical. Traditional teaching methods often lack the engagement necessary for complex ethical concepts. While games offer an experiential approach to ethical literacy, they also present challenges, including the risk of hindering learning or inadvertently promoting unethical behavior. The study underscores the necessity of balancing engaging gameplay with effective ethical learning objectives, especially as analogue games gain traction in ethics education.
Why this matters
Why is this strategically important?
Integrating ethical considerations into educational and professional development frameworks is crucial for fostering responsible decision-making. Game-based learning presents a novel approach to address current deficiencies in ethics education, offering an engaging and experiential platform to develop ethical literacy among future leaders and practitioners.
Key insights
What should be noted from the evidence?
- Ethics is a foundational element for human decision-making and a critical competency across educational disciplines, particularly in STEM.
- Traditional ethics instruction methods often fail to provide sufficient engagement for learners to grasp abstract ethical challenges.
- Game-based learning offers an experiential approach that can support ethical literacy.
- Despite their potential, games may also hinder learning or promote unethical behavior.
- A key challenge in game-based ethics education is balancing engaging gameplay with the meaningful integration of ethics-related objectives.
Evidence and confidence
How far can this assessment be trusted?
High confidence. Named institution, original document retained and analysis corroborated.
Analysis is prepared editorially by Aziz Shuaib Ausi. The original publication remains the authoritative record, and executive judgement remains entirely human.
Source
Where does this originate?
Reported by Educational Technology Research and Development · International. This briefing summarises the publication for executive use; the document itself is not reproduced here.
Read the original publication