This study presents a project that explores an innovative method for embedding generic skills in History in pre-service teacher education by using Minecraft, a virtual three-dimensional (3D) world and sandbox game. A Norwegian government report  (Meld. St. 28-2018) emphasizes the need for schools to focus not only on content-specific skills, such as historical knowledge, but also on generic skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. These skills have recently been highlighted as important core skills in the new Norwegian Curriculum to be implemented by 2020 (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2017).Teachers, and consequently student-teachers must therefore be equipped with a broad repertoire of methods and tools which facilitate an integration of subject-content knowledge and generic skills.

A didactic principle in teaching history is to enable pupils to draw on different perspectives, and to contribute to the pupil’s understanding on how people lived in the past (Seixas and Morton 2013). One way of doing this is by giving pupils tools for creating micro-histories about people and their environment in the past and engaging them in immersive experiences in using these environments (Dede, 2009). In the study presented here student teachers were given the task of creating models of industrial buildings along the river Aker in Oslo and create a role play of an realistic incident taking place during the industrial breakthrough and record this event on video.To accomplish this, the students had to acquire technical skills in Minecraft, detailed knowledge about the buildings, historical events connected with the buildings and create realistic dialogues. The overarching aim in this study is to explore the use of Minecraft in  a teacher-education context, and the social relations, processes and practices that emerge when using Minecraft in History. We have developed a pedagogical model that employs Minecraft for learning both content-specific and generic skills, but that takes the unique characteristics of the subject-specific content as the point of departure. In this paper we focus on how student-teachers use Minecraft as a tool for embedding both generic and content-specific skills in History.

Minecraft can be described as a digital lego, where the player gathers resources that function as building blocks and tools, and where building is only limited by imagination (e.g. new tools and building block can be created by skilled game players using programming and graphical rules). Minecraft has been rated the most popular digital game among 9–14-year-old children in Norway (NMA, 2018). It has been suggested that when used in an educational setting, Minecraft has the potential to motivate children for learning (Dikkers, 2015).Dikkers (2015) suggests that the game’s popularity may indicate a great educational potential, highlighting areas such as problem solving, motivation, engagement as well as curricular learning (Dikkers, 2015, p1.110-111). Furthermore, Callaghan’s (2016) study of Minecraft integration in secondary school reported high levels of student engagement  while attaining curricular goals. Through construction, Minecraft facilitates creativity, problem solving, and collaboration (Dikkers 2015; Callaghan 2016). However, our own research (Mørch, Eie, Mifsud 2018) indicated that student-teachers are sceptical towards Minecraft as it is perceived to be a game with “just fun and no learning”. Furthermore, Mørch et al (2018) report that although generic skills, such as problem solving and collaboration, were mentioned by the student teachers, they did not value these skills as highly as the domain specific skills. The higher value attributed to content-specific skills presents a challenge for games to enter the classroom. While it is important not to “watering-out” content specific skills, the value of generic skills needs to be considered if these are to find their place in school.

Learning and Teaching We adopt a socio-cultural perspective in our research and, drawing on the works of Vygotsky (1978, 1986) and later scholars in our analysis of data. This perspective focuses on the interdependence of tools and mediated actions (Wertsch 1998). From a socio-cultural perspective learning is viewed as social interaction mediated by artifacts. Meaning and purpose are given to tools by the socio-cultural context to which they belong (Wertsch 1998, p. 29), and therefore understanding the mediating role of tools is a prerequisite for understanding how they are used for learning purposes. In order to gain a deeper understanding of how Minecraft is used for integrating generic and content-specific skills, we study how the tool is used in classroom practice as well as how the student-teachers perceive the pedagogical possibilities of the tools. Case and Data collection Forty fourth-year student-teachers participated in the study. The student-teachers were divided into eleven groups of 3-4, and each group was assigned a factory to build. Student-teachers were given an introduction to Minecraft by graduate students studying technology-enhanced learning at a neighbouring university. The graduate students acted as mentors for the student-teachers in their Minecraft building. The student-teachers also went on an excursion along the river prior to starting their building. In addition to the excursion student-teachers used multiple resources to gather information, such as maps, architectural drawings and written sources, and were then given a two-week period to finish building, to create a script and record their role play. Data were collected by an open ended questionnaire (N=25/response rate of 63%) . The focus of the questionnaire and the interviews were to gain insight in the student-teachers’ perception of whether Minecraft could be used as a tool for teaching and learning history. Four student-teachers were further selected for follow-up interviews based on gender and previous Minecraft and/or gaming experience. In addition to questionnaire and interviews we also draw on the videos produced by the student-teachers. Student-teachers were also ask to report on their general gaming experience as well as previous experience in using Minecraft. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted in Norwegian and translated to English by the authors.

A preliminary finding indicates that the Minecraft-task given to the student-teachers was clear and motivating. Student-teachers highlighted the engaging element of learning historical knowledge about the buildings along Aker by reconstructing them in Minecraft. This required collaboration in several respects: 1) studying historical sources, 2) solving problems and building together, 3) script writing, 4) being creative in acting out the roleplay. Through making a video of their role-play, the student-teachers demonstrated mastery of content-specific knowledge, not just "facts" about the different factories, but in-depth understanding of power relations, factors of localisations, and the working and living conditions of the first industrial workers around the river Aker. Student-teachers underscored the importance of peer-to-peer learning, referring to building together in the same Minecraft-world, overseeing each others’ buildings, collaboration processes, and viewing each others finished role-play videos. Student-teachers also reported on the potential of Minecraft in combining content-specific skills with generic skills. An analysis of the videos indicated that the student-teachers themselves were creative in multiple stages: 1) the way they approached the task, 2) how they divided the work and collaborated in small “teams” of 2-3 (e.g. building team; scenario team), and 2) how they enacted their role plays. For example, the student-teachers did not have enough space to build a model of the Hjula Weavery close to the river and were forced to build away from the river. A dilemma emerged, the weavery was dependent on access to running water. The student-teachers came up with a solution to create a stream that branched off the main river. This and similar examples of creative ad-hoc solutions were observed in all the stages of the project. Creativity boosted student-teachers motivation and interest in the learning activity, which was much more time consuming compared to ordinary teaching of the same subject previous years.

Armstrong, V., Barnes, S., Sutherland, R., Curran, S., Mills, S., & Thompson, I. (2005). Collaborative research methodology for investigating teaching and learning: The use of interactive whiteboard technology. Educational Review, 57(4), 457-469. Callaghan, N. (2016). Investigating the role of Minecraft in educational learning environments. Educational Media International, 53(4), 244-260. Dede, C. (2009). Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning. science, 323(5910), 66-69. Dikkers, S. (2015). Why minecraft? Paper presented at the Teachercraft. Ludvigsen, S., & Mørch, A. (2010). Computer-supported collaborative learning: Basic concepts, multiple perspectives, and emerging trends. The international encyclopedia of education, 5, 290-296. Meld. St. 28 (White Paper 2018) (2015–2016) Fag – Fordypning – Forståelse — En fornyelse av Kunnskapsløftet. Retrieved from https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/meld.-st.-28-20152016/id2483955/ (28-01.19) Mørch, Eie, Mifsud 2018 Tradeoffs in Combining Domain-Specific and Generic Skills’ Practice in Minecraft in Social Studies in Teacher Education.In Proc. of Fifth International Workshop on Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age - CoPDA 2018 Castiglione della Pescaia, Italy, May 29, 2018 Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training 2017 Kjerneelementer – fag i grunnskolen og gjennomgående fag i vgo [Core elements - subjects in compulsory school and cross curriucual subjects upper secondary school] Retrieved from https://www.udir.no/laring-og-trivsel/lareplanverket/fagfornyelsen/kjerneelementer/ (28.01.2019). NMA (Norwegian Media Authorities) (2018) Rapport barn og medier [Report Children and Media]. Retrieved 18 January 2019 from http://www.medietilsynet.no/globalassets/publikasjoner/barn-og-medier-undersokelser/2018-barn-og-medier Seixas, P. and Morton, T. (2013) The Big Six. Historical Thinking Concepts. Nelson Education Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L.S, (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.