According to the preliminary finding of a study conducted by Santa Clara University, Global Conflicts Sweatshops is changing the way students perceive child labour in Asia. The goal of the study is to investigate the effects of cooperative learning using a global civic education game (GC: Sweatshops) on in game-learning and transferable learning. The research also examines other variables that might influence learning, such as flow, empathy (with the characters in the game), quality of cooperative learning, and ethical approach used by the player. The study distinguished between “dogmatics” (people who hold their own values and beliefs as universally true) and “critical ethics” (people who negotiate between their own values and the values of other cultures and people).

Here are some of the preliminary key findings:

- Students were satisfied with the game as a learning material. On a scale of 1 (Very unsatisfied) to 4 (Very satisfied), the average response was 3.14.
- Students found the game easy to use (average rating of 4.33 out of 5, with 5 being “very easy”).
- Students said they learn something about child labour and argumentation from the game (average rating 3.85 out of 5, with 5 being “very much”).
- Students can learn equally well by playing Sweatshops individually or in pairs that cooperate well.
- Female students and those who are not already fans of games seem to be able to learn as much from this game as males and avid gamers.

And perhaps, the most interesting finding:

“Dogmatic students grew significantly less dogmatic about the child labour issue after playing Sweatshops. By confronting students with the complexity of the child labour issue from the perspective of Bangladeshis, the game successfully encouraged students to see the nuances of this issue. The nature of this game forced users to question their strong beliefs and find a compromise with the views of Bangladeshis on child labour”.

When developing a Global Conflicts title, our aim is to represent a subject from different angles and the different perspectives, so the students can get a more coherent and nuanced picture of the political, religious, historical and cultural reasons behind the conflict. The preliminary finding of this study verifies that the Global Conflicts game series is living up to its potential as games for social change and proves that games have the ability to create a broader understanding of social issues today.

Read more about Global Conflicts: Sweatshops here