SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION SUPPORTED BY GAMES IN CLASSROOM

Even though sustainability development is a concept that is increasingly present in the educational programs at all levels, the quest for profit maximization and wealth accumulation from a short-term perspective remains in many cases as the cornerstone on which many subjects are funded. This legacy still promotes individualistic behaviors among students, who find it difficult to integrate the sustainability development awareness in their decision making and academic activities, since its treatment at classroom is mainly made from a theoretical perspective, and with scarce integration with the traditional assessment criteria used to measure students performance.

This paper analyses the use of games as an educational tool aimed at promoting reflection about the sustainability problems that arise when individualistic behaviors appear in the economic activities. By using games, students take and active role in the learning process, which make them to identify and reflect who their individual decisions may negatively impact in the collective benefit of the classroom. Therefore, students may reflect on the need to take decisions aimed at balancing today and tomorrow results, in all the economic, social and environmental dimensions