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Analyzing the Impact of a Gamification Approach on Primary Students’ Motivation and Learning in Science Education

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Learning in the Age of Digital and Green Transition (ICL 2022)

Abstract

Various scientific fields, including education, have heavily focused on the independent educational level; students find it hard to understand scientific concepts leading to negative emotions and demoralization from continuous learning. Various scientific fields, including education, have heavily focused on gamification to promote motivation and engagement. We developed and tested, on a small sample of 5th-grade students, a gamification environment based upon self-determination and problem-based learning that incorporated a complete learning process about the concept of coagulation in order to gain insight into students’ views about this specific gamification environment, its gaming mechanics and its potential in learning, following a mixed-method approach. Our findings show promising results in learning outcomes, motivation and student engagement. Additionally, valuable results were showed cased regarding students’ perceptions regarding game elements’ motivational aspects and willingness to continue learning in similar gamification environments. This study, despite its shortcomings, gives valuable insight into the limited gamification research in science education.

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Papadakis, S., Zourmpakis, AI., Kalogiannakis, M. (2023). Analyzing the Impact of a Gamification Approach on Primary Students’ Motivation and Learning in Science Education. In: Auer, M.E., Pachatz, W., Rüütmann, T. (eds) Learning in the Age of Digital and Green Transition. ICL 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 633. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26876-2_66

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