Potentials and Limits of Decision-Making Situations in Computer Games for Ethical and Moral Judgement

Abstract

This report presents the concept of my doctoral dissertation which investigates the potential of computer games as media-pedagogical tools in ethics education, particularly their ability to contribute to students’ ethical and moral reasoning and judgement. It explores whether the interactive nature of computer games makes them uniquely suited to transform ethics lessons into a moral laboratory. Given that computer games provide a space for training and practice, this research suggests that they have significant relevance for real-world decision-making processes. The study focuses on comparing various didactic theories on ethical reasoning and analyzing how decision-making situations in games can be utilized as a mode of experiential learning. Employing a design-based research methodology, a game-based teaching sequence is designed, implemented, and analyzed across four iterative loops. The research aims to determine how game-inherent prompts can initiate processes of ethical reasoning and assesses the broader implications of integrating such decision-making scenarios into ethics curricula.