Surveying In-Service Teachers' Beliefs about Game-Based Learning and Perceptions of Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge of Games.

Introduction Digital games (hereafter named games) have been gaining tremendous interest as tools for teaching and learning in recent years. The merits of game-based learning (GBL) include supporting effective learning (Connolly, Boyle, MacArthur, Hainey, & Boyle, 2012; Wouters, van Nimwegen, van Oostendorp, & van der Spek, 2013), enhancing higher order thinking (Sanchez & Olivares, 2011; Yang, 2015), increasing problem-solving skills (Akcaoglu & Koehler, 2014; van de Sande, Segers, & Verhoeven, 2015), and promoting engagement (Annetta, Minogue, Holmes, & Cheng, 2009; Hsieh, Lin, & Hou, 2015). Despite the potential of games as tools for teaching and learning, teachers, as indicated by Klopfer, Osterweil, and Salen (2009), could possibly face barriers to adopting games in class. For instance, they might have little experience of integrating games into the classroom, and they might have problems engaging students due to insufficient understanding of the variety of games available. Most importantly, successful models of integrating pedagogy, content, and games into a range of curricular experiences are limited, which may reduce teachers' willingness to utilize games in class. While game-based learning is potentially useful for improving teaching and learning, finding a theoretical framework that helps to probe practitioners' knowledge of teaching with games has become crucial. A potentially helpful framework for evaluating and guiding the integration of technology into classroom teaching and learning is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (Chai, Koh, Tsai, & Tan, 2011). Due to the popularity of technology in education, Mishra and Koehler (2006) extended Shulman's (1986) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) by adding technological knowledge (TK) as an integrated part of pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK). Successful integration of technology into the classroom requires one to focus on the complex interplay of these three forms of knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). While the notion of TPACK has received attention and approval, many researchers (e.g., Hsu, Chai, Liang, & Tsai, 2013; Lee & Tsai, 2010) quickly found that the current TPACK studies tend to treat technology in a general manner. This may mean that the TPACK framework is unable to provide guidelines for teaching with a specific type of technology such as games. Thus, building on Mishra and Koehler's (2006) TPACK, Hsu et al. (2013) proposed a framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Games (TPACK-G). The TPACK-G includes game knowledge (GK), game pedagogical knowledge (GPK), game content knowledge (GCK), and game pedagogical content knowledge (GPCK). GK is knowledge about the general usage of games; GPK is knowledge about using games to implement different teaching methods; GCK is knowledge about subject matter representation with games; and lastly, GPCK is knowledge about using games to implement pedagogical strategies for teaching any subject matter content. Many researchers and educators have indicated that teachers play the dominant role in using games in the formal educational context (Blackwell, Lauricella, Wartella, Robb, & Schomburg, 2013; Celik & Yesilyurt, 2013; Ketelhut & Schifter, 2011). This is due to the fact that teachers' teaching behaviors are influenced by their beliefs, confidence and motivations for teaching. For instance, teachers who believed that technology works best for instruction were found to be able to integrate technology into their teaching practices (Blackwell et al., 2013; Ertmer, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Sadik, Sendurur, & Sendurur, 2012; Kordaki, 2013). Teachers with higher confidence in technology are likely to effectively and significantly succeed in technology-related tasks (Celik & Yesilyurt, 2013; Teo, 2009). Motivated teachers tend to integrate ICT into their classroom teaching as well as displaying continuous usage of technology in class (Sang, Valcke, van Braak, Tondeur, & Zhu, 2011). …