Digital game-based education for Syrian refugee children: Project Hope

Selcuk Sirin; Jan L. Plass; Bruce D. Homer; Sinem Vatanartiran; Tzuchi Tsai

doi:10.1080/17450128.2017.1412551

Digital game-based education for Syrian refugee children: Project Hope

Selcuk Sirin, Jan L. Plass, Bruce D. Homer, Sinem Vatanartiran, Tzuchi Tsai

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Turkey is the top refugee-hosting country in the world, with more than three million registered Syrian refugees. An international research team was the first to document the educational and mental health needs of Syrian refugee children, finding that an overwhelming majority are not enrolled in school in Turkey, partly as a result of language barriers, and that about half suffer from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. The present study was designed as an innovative intervention using an online, game-based learning intervention for refugee children, named Project Hope. Data gathered from a controlled field experiment show significant improvements in Turkish language acquisition, coding, executive functioning and overall sense of hopefulness. Implications for policy, practice and research are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	7-18
Number of pages	12
Journal	Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2017.1412551
State	Published - Jan 2 2018

Keywords

Digital games
Executive functions
Game-based curriculum
Mental health
Refugee children
Syrian Refugees

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health(social science)
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Sociology and Political Science

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10.1080/17450128.2017.1412551

Cite this

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title = "Digital game-based education for Syrian refugee children: Project Hope",

abstract = "Turkey is the top refugee-hosting country in the world, with more than three million registered Syrian refugees. An international research team was the first to document the educational and mental health needs of Syrian refugee children, finding that an overwhelming majority are not enrolled in school in Turkey, partly as a result of language barriers, and that about half suffer from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. The present study was designed as an innovative intervention using an online, game-based learning intervention for refugee children, named Project Hope. Data gathered from a controlled field experiment show significant improvements in Turkish language acquisition, coding, executive functioning and overall sense of hopefulness. Implications for policy, practice and research are discussed.",

keywords = "Digital games, Executive functions, Game-based curriculum, Mental health, Refugee children, Syrian Refugees",

author = "Selcuk Sirin and Plass, {Jan L.} and Homer, {Bruce D.} and Sinem Vatanartiran and Tzuchi Tsai",

note = "Funding Information: This project was supported in part by Mr. Enver Yucel (Bahcesehir Ugur Foundation), by Cerego, Inc. (Andrew Smith Lewis), and by Microsoft Turkey (Asli Arbel and Eyupcan Keskin). We thank the graduate student volunteers at New York University (Patrick O{\textquoteright}Malley, Rabia Yalcinkaya, and Esther Sin) and at CUNY Graduate Center (Ay{\c s}enur Benevento, Teresa Ober, Maya Rose, and Anna Schwartz) who helped develop the Turkish language learning materials and the outcome measures. We also thank Essum Aslan (Urfa Bah{\c c}e{\c s}ehir Koleji), {\'I}smet Gokkan, and Mustafa Madenli at Bahcesehir Koleji. Finally, we thank Eyyubiye Municipality, Turkey, for their local support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",

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Digital game-based education for Syrian refugee children: Project Hope

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Keywords

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