Learning about Sustainable Mobility in Primary Schools from a Playful Perspective: A Focus Group Approach

Abstract

Nowadays, educational activities need to be oriented towards sustainable mobility as a tool to guarantee a better future for younger generations. Two focus groups (FGs) of children aged 10–12 years were formed, for the design, development, and evaluation of educational tools for gamification techniques on the subject of sustainable mobility. The study involved a group of children from three classes in the fifth-year of primary education at a school in the City of Burgos (Spain). The first focus group revealed the cognitive perceptions of the children toward sustainable mobility and their cognitive understanding of its need. The information was used in the design of learning activities of gamification techniques. The children in the second focus group, after the educational experience, were evaluated with regard to the knowledge they had acquired on the topic and changes in their attitudes. The basic knowledge of children before their participation in the research was limited to the environmental aspects of sustainable mobility, as we observed in the first focus group. Through the use of the gamification tools, the children acquired new concepts that clarified the importance of social and economic components linked to sustainable mobility, and they started to develop an awareness of how to play an active role in changing their behavior.