Gender Differences in Italian Teachers' Readiness and Attitudes Towards Game Integration in the Classroom

A survey of 2,623 Italian teachers, predominantly secondary-level and concentrated in Southern Italy, examines how teachers' readiness and attitudes toward integrating games into classroom instruction vary by gender. The sample is 81.9% female, with a mean age of 44.7 years, and the study draws on the TPACK-G framework, which measures game-related content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge alongside pedagogical intention. Findings indicate that these competencies are strongly intercorrelated and most closely tied to teachers' personal gaming habits, game experience, and intention to use games, while teaching experience and school grade show only weak associations.

Teachers report their greatest confidence in game content knowledge (M = 3.00) and their least in game pedagogical knowledge (M = 2.14), despite a high pedagogical intention (M = 2.89) and limited personal gaming experience (M = 2.30). Playing games is generally occasional, with analogue board and card games the only format in which players outnumber non-players. Fifty-six percent of teachers use games occasionally in their teaching, while only 22.4% use them regularly.

Gender differences are statistically significant on several measures: men report higher game knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and digital gaming frequency, while women express a slightly stronger intention to use games pedagogically. However, effect sizes are small (r ≤ .13), so these differences are best understood as slight tendencies rather than substantial divides. The authors conclude that individual factors such as gaming habits, experience, and intention shape engagement with game-based learning far more than school grade or teaching experience.

The authors frame these results as indicative rather than conclusive, given the convenience sampling, self-reported data, a floor effect in several gaming-habit measures, the small male subgroup (n = 480), and a cross-sectional design that precludes causal inference. Their practical recommendation is that gender should not drive separate training programmes. Instead, it should be treated as one of several individual dimensions within adaptive, personalised professional development built on each teacher's existing profile.