Digital Gaming for Cross-Cultural Learning: Development of a Social Constructivist Game-Based Learning Model at a South African University

Although game-based learning has gained significant attention in higher education globally, it is difficult to harness its engagement and interactions to improve student success. This paper argues that the use of digital games has the potential to interrupt social practices and increase engagement and interaction, thereby fostering meaningful learning. Using a mixed-method design, a digital game was used in a sport studies programme, involving 106 participants, over a two-year period. Data were collected through surveys, focus group discussions, and reflective blog posts. Structuration theory is considered as the theoretical lens, as it purports that recursive social activities of humans are continually recreated by human agents. The paper concludes that when participants engaged in a cross-cultural game-based learning environment, the social practices acquired through their academic career were interrupted, reshaped, and reproduced into new practices. A social constructivist game-based learning model to foster interaction within multi-cultural higher education classrooms is offered.