The use of educational games in inclusive education: building a state of the art

Abstract

Special education is a teaching modality aimed at providing educational support to students with disabilities (physical, intellectual, visual, and auditory), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and High Abilities/Giftedness. It seeks to ensure that all students have access to quality education, promoting school inclusion through pedagogical practices adapted to diverse needs. Special education values students’ individuality and uses diversified strategies to facilitate learning. This state-of-the-art research was carried out with the purpose of mapping academic studies that discuss games as a didactic strategy in special education. In this sense, the proposal of this study is to question: how do master’s dissertations, doctoral theses, and scientific articles address the importance of educational games from the perspective of special education? The methodology adopted in the article consisted of qualitative analysis through a bibliographic review on the topic of study. The state-of-the-art review was developed using primary data obtained from the CAPES Theses and Dissertations Database and the SciELO Brazil indexer. The following descriptors were used: Inclusive education, games, and teaching. After establishing inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 works were selected: one doctoral thesis, 13 master’s dissertations, and six scientific articles. As a result, it was possible to verify that the incorporation of games, especially digital games, presents favorable outcomes in promoting inclusive education. The analyzed studies highlighted the need for continuing professional development courses to prepare teachers to work in Inclusive Education.