The effect of gamification on young mathematics learners’ achievements and attitudes

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of gamification on fifth-grade students’ academic achievements and attitudes towards mathematics course. For this purpose, the teaching process of the “fractions” as a subject of the mathematics course is equipped with gamification elements. The quasi-experimental design is preferred as the research design. Achievement test and attitude scale were used as data collection instruments. The participants of the study consisted of fifth-grade students (n = 46). The Pyramidal Design Model was preferred as the gamification design model in this study. Elements of this model were adapted to the class level of participants in this research. As a result of the study, a remarkable statistical difference was observed in the achievement test in favor of the experimental group. However, no major difference was observed in the attitude scale results. This study contains suggestions for the educational use of gamification based on research findings.

Keywords

• Gamification
• Educational technology
• Gamification elements and design
• Gamification in mathematics education

References

1. Abramovich, S., Schunn, C., & Higashi, R. M. (2013). Are badges useful in education?: It depends upon the type of badge and expertise of learner. Educational Technology Research and Development, 61(2), 217-232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-013-9289-2
2. Ar, N. A. (2016). The effects of gamification on academic achievement and learning strategies usage of vocational high school students (Publication No 423538) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Sakarya University Institute of Educational Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
3. Barata, G., Gama, S., Jorge, J., & Gonçalves, D. (2013, October). Improving participation and learning with gamification. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Gameful Design, Research, and Applications - Gamification ‘13 (pp. 10-17). New York, NY: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583010
4. Berkling, K., & Thomas, C. (2013). Gamification of a software engineering course and a detailed analysis of the factors that lead to its failure. Paper presented at the 2013 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning, 525-530. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICL.2013.6644642
5. Beyhan, N., & Tural, H. (2007). İlköğretim matematik öğretiminde oyunla öğretimin erişiye etkisi. Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Buca Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, (21), 37-48. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/deubefd/issue/25430/268316
6. Bozkurt, A., & Genç-Kumtepe, E. (2014). Oyunlaştırma, Oyun Felsefesi ve Eğitim: Gamification. Akademik Bilişim 2014,5-7 Şubat.
7. Brewer, R., Anthony, L., Brown, Q., Irwin, G., Nias, J., & Tate, B. (2013). Using gamification to motivate children to complete empirical studies in lab environments. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 388-391). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2485760.2485816
8. Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç-Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö., Karadeniz, Ş., & Demirel, F. (2018). Bilimsel Araştırma Yöntemleri (24. Baskı). Pegem.

9. Cozar-Gutierrez, R., & Saez-Lopez, J. M. (2016). Game-based learning and gamification in initial teacher training in the social sciences: An experiment with Minecraftedu. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 13(2),1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-016-0003-4
10. De-Marcos, L., Dominguez, A., Saenz-de-Navarrete, J., & Pages, C. (2014). An empirical study comparing gamification and social networking on e-learning. Computers & Education, 75(6), 82-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.01.012
11. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining “gamification”. In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning future media environments (pp. 9–15). Tampere, Finland: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040
12. Dominguez, A., Saenz-de-Navarrete, J., de-Marcos, L., Fernandez-Sanz, L., Pages, C., & Martinez-Herraiz, J. (2013). Gamifying learning experiences: Practical implications and outcomes. Computers & Education, 63, 380 - 392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.020
13. Dursun, Ş., & Dede, Y. (2004). Öğrencilerin matematikte başarısını etkileyen faktörler: matematik öğretmenlerinin görüşleri bakımından. Gazi Üniversitesi Gazi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 24(2). http://www.gefad.gazi.edu.tr/tr/pub/issue/6759/90924
14. Fidan, A. (2016). Effect of gamification in teaching programming with scratch on student engagement (Publication No 445164) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Uludağ University Institute of Educational Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
15. Gökkaya, Z. (2014). Yetişkin eğitiminde yeni bir yaklaşım: oyunlaştırma. Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 11-1(21), 71-84.
16. Gonzalez, C. S., Gomez, N., Navarro, V., Cairos, M., Quirce, C., Toledo, P., & Marrero-Gordillo, N. (2016). Learning healthy lifestyle through active videogames, motorgames and the gamification of educational activities. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 529-551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.052
17. Haaranen, L., Ihantola, P., Hakulinen, L., & Korhonen, A. (2014). How (not) to introduce badges in online exercises. SIGCSE ‘14 Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on computer science education, 33-38. https://doi.org/10.1145/2538862.2538921
18. Hacısalihoğlu-Karadeniz, M. (2017). Geleneksel çocuk oyunlarının matematiğe uyarlanması ve uygulanması sürecindeki kazanım ve problemlere genel bir bakış. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 25(6), 2245-2262. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/kefdergi/issue/31577/357336
19. Hamzah, W. M. A. F. W., Ali, N. H., Saman, M. Y. M., Yusoff, M. H., & Yacob, A. (2015). Influence of gamification on students’ motivation in using e-learning applications based on the motivational design model. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 10(2), 30-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v10i2.4355
20. Hanus, M., & Fox, J. (2015). Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation, social comparison, satisfaction, effort, and academic performance. Computers & Education, 80, 152-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.019
21. Karatekin, İ. (2017). The use of gamification in teaching foreign language vocabulary for beginners (Publication No 472341) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Çağ University Institute of Social Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
22. Kim, J. T., & Lee, W. H. (2015). Dynamical model for gamification of learning (DMGL). Multimedia Tools and Applications, 74(19), 8483-8493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-013-1612-8
23. Kingsley, T. L., & Grabner‐Hagen, M. M. (2015). Gamification. Journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 59(1), 51-61. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.426
24. Kiryakova, G., Angelova, N., & Yordanova, L. (2014). Gamification in education. Proceedings of 9th International Balkan Education and Science Conference.
25. Kumar, B., & Khurana, P. (2012). Gamification in education-learn computer programming with fun. International Journal of Computers and Distributed Systems, 2(1), 46-53.
26. Lee, J. J., & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in education: What, how, why bother?. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2), 146.
27. Li, C., Dong, Z., Untch, R. H., & Chasteen, M. (2013). Engaging computer science students through gamification in an online social network based collaborative learning environment. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 3(1), 72-77. https://doi.org/10.7763/IJIET.2013.V3.237
28. Lister, M. (2015). Gamification: The effect on student motivation and performance at the post-secondary level. Issues and Trends in Educational Technology, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_itet_v3i2_Lister
29. Mekler, E. D., Brühlmann, F., Opwis, K., & Tuch, A. N. (2013). Do points, levels and leaderboards harm intrinsic motivation?: an empirical analysis of common gamification elements. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on gameful design, research, and applications, (pp. 66-73). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2583008.2583017
30. O’Donovan, S., Gain, J., & Marais, P. (2013). A case study in the gamification of a university-level games development course. In Proceedings of the South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists Conference (pp. 242-251). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2513456.2513469
31. Önal, N. (2013). Ortaokul öğrencilerinin matematik tutumlarına yönelik ölçek geliştirme çalışması. İlköğretim Online, 12(4), 938-948. http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr/index.php/io/article/view/1360
32. Polat, Y. (2014). A case study: Gamification and its effect on motivation of learners of English (Publication No 358356) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Çağ University Institute of Social Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
33. Sağlık, E. (2017). The impact of gamified game-based vocabulary teaching on success and motivation (Publication No 454559) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Bahçeşehir University Institute of Educational Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
34. Şahin, M. (2015). The effect of gamified game based learning on students’ achievements and attitudes towards science (Publication No 414602) [Unpublished master’s dissertation, Bahçeşehir University Institute of Educational Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
35. Sezgin, S., Bozkurt, A., Yılmaz, E. A., & Van der Linden, N. (2018). Oyunlaştırma, Eğitim ve Kuramsal Yaklaşımlar: Öğrenme Süreçlerinde Motivasyon, Adanmışlık ve Sürdürebilirlik. Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, (45), 169-189. https://doi.org/10.21764/maeuefd.339909
36. Sümer, M. (2017). Integrating gamification into open and distance learning (Publication No 486284) [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Anadolu University Institute of Social Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
37. Torun, F., & Duran, H. (2014). Çocuk hakları öğretiminde oyun yönteminin başarıya, kalıcılığa ve tutuma etkisi. Adıyaman Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2014(16), 418-448. https://doi.org/10.14520/adyusbd.653
38. Turgut, M. F., & Baykul, Y. (2015). Eğitimde Ölçme ve Değerlendirme (7. Baskı). Pegem.
39. Turgut, Y. (2014). Verilerin kaydedilmesi, analizi, yorumlanması: nitel ve nicel. In A. Tanrıöğen (Ed.), Bilimsel Araştırma Yöntemleri (pp. 193-247). Anı.
40. Uğurel, I., & Moralı, S. (2008). Matematik ve Oyun Etkileşimi. Gazi Üniversitesi Gazi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28(3), 75-98.
41. Umay, A. (2002). Öteki Matematik. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 23(23), 275-281. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/hunefd/issue/7815/102648
42. Werbach, K., & Hunter, D. (2012). For the win: How game thinking can revolutionize your business. PA: Wharton Digital Press.
43. Wood, L. C., & Reiners, T. (2015). Gamification. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (pp. 3039-3047). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch297
44. Yıldırım, İ. (2016). Development, implementation and evaluation of a gamification based curriculum for the lesson of ‘teaching principles and methods’ (Publication No 422970) [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Gaziantep University Institute of Educational Sciences]. Turkey CoHE Thesis Center.
45. Yıldırım, İ., & Demir, S. (2014). Oyunlaştırma ve Eğitim. International Journal of Human Sciences, 11(1), 655-670. https://doi.org/10.14687/ijhs.v11i1.2765