Many teachers across the nation and the world are attempting to find innovative ways to have students learn and retain information more effectively. One of the biggest advances in education has to be the use of technology, and nothing has been more revolutionary than having smartboards, iPads, Chromebooks, and many other devices introduced into the classroom. As educators, it is our duty to be able to find ways to make learning fun and, most importantly, informative for the student, as it is our full-time job to learn in school.

One of the biggest concepts of teaching is using game-based learning (GBL). GBL involves using video game elements turning it into a game for students some examples are like Kahoot, Quizlet Live, Quizzes, and many more I will mention in my paper. Not to be confused with gamification which adds game like elements like points, awards to a lesson. GBL “describes an environment where the content of the game and the game itself improve the acquisition of skills” (Zabala-Vargas, 2021, p.5)

The video above highlights Travis Windleharth a senior researcher for Foundry10, an education research organization that expands ideas about learning and creates insight for educators. Windleharth discusses how children are widely engaging in video games. Windleharth mentions in 1:45-2:46 how gamification is a company, or a teacher brings game like structures like points or badges into a program like receiving a badge for finishing chores or fitness apps when you reach a goal and, in the classroom, receiving points for answering a question. Game Based learning is as Windleharth describes thinking about a game as a model of the real world highlighting that game-based learning has shown to have increased understanding and improved mental model of the material learned by using the game.

I have chosen this topic as in high school my school provided students like myself iPads and I would consider it a time where game-based learning began to grow rapidly with games like Kahoot, Jerpoady, and others began to develop at the time which became revolutionary for education and how there are many GBL tools today as a teacher now. Manar S. Altalibi found that in early childhood education “The significant overall effect of game-based learning on cognitive development, social development, emotional development, motivation, and engagement suggests that this approach can be a valuable tool for promoting positive child outcomes”( Altalibi, 2023, P9).

The video above examines game-based learning by Andre Thomas from the University of Texas A&M, a faculty member who runs “Live Labs” for learning interactive visualization experiences where he focuses on research, design, and prototyping of interactive learning experiences in the form of games. Thomas argues in 2:31 that a game has rules and an end state, which would be win or lose, having a definite end. Additionally, he states how Game-based learning is more of an intrinsic motivator for students as it gives students an objective of desire, which would be what they will be learning, whether it is math, science, or social studies, inside the game, and the desire to want to be better.(Thomas, 4:05-5:05) This very accurate with my students, When we are using games like Jeopardy, students are more attempting to become competitive with one another and win against other teams in my classroom, as there would be times when I did not reward them for winning. They still found it fun to hold on to a buzzer in class. In this section, I will discuss theories that support and correlate with game-based learning and explain why it has enhanced cognitive skills and academic success for many students.

Two educational theories that play a role in game-based learning (GBL) are Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation. Internal drivers drive intrinsic motivation; it is up to the individual to decide to complete the task of their own will. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is described as an external stimulus where the motive is a cost-benefit analysis (Morris, 2022). Essentially, students decide if the activity or task is worth doing if the reward is appealing to the individual. Depending on the game that is being played, students may not care too much about extrinsic motivation when they realize they get to be able to work with other team members to solve a solution that will evidently help their learning.

Zheng, K., Spence, D. R., & Cusick, J. (2022, June 1). Self-determination theory. Post Secondary Peer Support Training Curriculum. https://opentextbc.ca/peersupport/chapter/self-determination-theory/

Another theory tied to GBL is Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which was developed by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci and is a framework for studying our motivation and personality. The first video above is Edward Deci states, “important to think about types of motivation rather than the amount of motivation.” (The Brainwaves Video, 2017, 1:30-1:40). The picture above also represents the three components involved in SDT, which are autonomy, competence and connection or relatedness. Ryan and Deci describe these as:

(Competence) to engage optimal challenges and experience mastery or effectance in the physical and social worlds; (Relatedness) to seek attachments and experience feelings of security, belongingness, and intimacy with others; and (Autonomy) to self-organize and regulate one’s own behavior (and avoid heteronomous control).”(Ryan and Edward, 2000 p252).

GBL contains many of these three components from SDT for students to be able to be engaged for mastery for competence when playing a game, (relatedness) feelings of belongingness and attachments from a game as most students enjoy playing, and lastly autonomy students enjoying this game will be able to be able to be on your interest without seeking help. A study from Jean-Nicolas Proulx and Margarida Romero, “Learning Mechanics and Game Mechanics Under the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory to Foster Motivation in Digital Game-Based Learning,” found in their findings of SDT in GBL does bring forward evidence that play activity does contribute to enjoyment and motivation engagement. (Proulx and Romero, 2017). Thus, GBL can bring enjoyment and motivation, leading to better cognitive skills and academic success.

Cherry, K. (2024). Sociocultural theory: Examples and applications. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-sociocultural-theory-2795088

Another major theory in Game-Based learning is Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of cognitive development. The theory examines how many students can learn through socialization and play to become more likely to learn with peers around them, so many games with group activities will allow students to learn cooperatively from one another. This relates to many of the future game-based learning activities I will mention later in my paper, like Minecraft EDU allows students to learn together and build skills that will enable them to problem-solve the game and the lesson cooperatively rather than working on it on their own.

Game-Based Learning (GBT) may excite many students to play games in class may not always be the best teaching method to use in class. This section will examine the critics of GBT and why it still needs more room for improvement than we anticipated. The video above has a constructive take on game-based platform Kahoot from Jo Gakonga who argues that competition aspect brings the worst in players like giving those students the urges to win than learn, another critic is that the game give students a sour taste from not winning and not allow them to enjoy the game as much as the people in the top of the leaderboard are always going to be the same usual of players that will always win not motivating those lower level student.

To begin with, Margit Pohl, and Markus Rester are two who argue that GBL has its limitations and disadvantages rather than carrying positive outcomes. In their article “Interactive Game Based Learning: Advantages and Disadvantages” use a game titled Sustainable living (SuLi) The task of the game is to produce resources like oil, mentals, forest, and several others and produce them in a sustainable manner. Pohl, and Rester have several reasons of disadvantages to GBL in the classroom like having little systematic and conclusive research on GBL,

“The flow of playing a computer game hinders students to reflect about what they are doing… game. Students often only tried to improve their own scores, but avoided looking at the information about the state of the SuLi world. During the focus group which we conducted to analyze the usefulness of the game,”( Pohl, and Rester, 2009, pg 96)

Pohl and Rester bring valid reason to why GBL may not always be the best way to learn material in class, as the students will always be caught up with their personal score and ignore the key section of learning in the classroom. The authors conclude in the study that the game difficulty could also play a role in hindering student success having 11 out of 17 students argue the game was somewhat difficult to play. “Others said they did not care about the environment in the SuLi world”( Pohl, and Rester, 2009, pg 99) Many of the students were only entertain to making their island the most production of the game rather than be sustainable which is the entire goal of the game. This study helps understand how GBL should be implemented and that not every game like SuLi would be informative to others.

Additionally, Björn Berg Marklund and Anna-Sofia Alklind Taylor from the University of Skövde, Sweden argue in their article “Educational Games in Practice: The challenges involved in conducting a game-based curriculum” argue that integrating games requires teachers to orchestrate a myriad of complex resources. Marklund and Alklind examine 7th graders use games like Minecraft Edu where teachers can model and create their curriculum. However, the cons of usings a game like Minecraft use a block rather than sphere-like structures so it limits some visual resemblance if a teacher were to use a circle. Another disadvantage was the uncertainty of hardware reliability, and teacher who may not informed how to use Minecraft Education can create obstacle for the teacher having to then spent time working more to teach themselves and also preparing all computers have hardware that is capable of running Minecraft Education as the authors state using GBL like Minecraft “requires the teacher to be versatile as they both need to carry out the necessary preparations before gaming sessions, but also act as game administrators during them. “(Marklund and Alklind, 2016, PG.126-27) In a classroom where time is so limited everyday using technology can also have disadvantages than using standard practices like slides and notes. Marklund and Alklind concluded that “teachers found conflict between how the students used to playing the game at home, and how they were supposed to play it during the classroom…being distracted by game elements irrelevant to the taught subject matter.” (Marklund and Alklind, 2016, PG.132) Teachers also concluded that the games were too labor intensive, and unreliable. This perspective may help other teachers who may want to try Minecraft Education a warning that they will have to understand the platform more before proceeding and trouble shoot ways to make it more engaging and also most importantly informative for the students.

Lastly, in “Harnessing the power of game dynamics1: Why, how to, and how not to gamify the library experience” by Kim Boyhun examines how games dynamics matter discussing the design process of how a game is made. Many games have the opportunity to succeed or fail. Boyhun states that not all games are worth playing if a game is overcomplicated it can cause the user to limit their attention the goal is not to make GBL too game like as it will remove the goal of what the game is trying to do which is to teach students valuable skills. Kim states “a game that is organization-centered rather than user-centered can be worse than no game at all.”( Kim, Boyhun, 2012,pg3 ) Thus it can be difficult to find many games today that have a proper balance of user centered while also being educational for students to learn and understand in the long run.

The following video examines the practical use of using Game-Based Learning in a math curriculum in Northern Ireland at St.Peter’s and St.Paul’s Primary School. The game in use is known as Minecraft Education, a company owned by Microsoft which aims to build digital literacy skills, project-based learning and many more curriculums found on their website. The video above used Minecraft education to build collaborative, creative, and critical thinking skills for their students. The curriculum used in the video analyzed the use of Viking history, where students become Viking protagonists and children can get a sense of what it was to be a Viking, establishing settlements, ships, and raids. Additionally, the curriculum is student-led with teaching, facilitating, and scaffolding students into the right direction in learning. The game allows students to use problem-solving skills to learn how to play the game and help each other learn and literacy skills found in the video examines a student who would consider themselves reversed and found that Minecraft Education helped her communicate with others while using Minecraft Education

Furthermore, Mahlatse Nkadimeng and Piet Ankiewicz from the University of Johannesburg tested the use of Minecraft Education in a science curriculum in a junior High school to learn about atomic structure. Their main research question was: What are the affordances of Minecraft Edu for atomic structure in junior high school? The study examined 20 8th grade students along with separated into groups of students aware with prior experiences to the video game Minecraft. The study examined five lessons from installation of Minecraft Edu to learning of structures of models and molecules of atoms. Students were then interviewed with their learning experiences. The research concluded that “Minecraft Edu holds affordances for making abstract concepts (more specifically atomic structure) concrete and easier to understand by incorporating visuals which offer more detail and are appealing to junior high school students. “Minecraft Edu offers a stimulating and engaging learning environment compared to traditional classrooms as it is not as rigid and brings an element of enjoyment in science classrooms, thus doing away with the boring nature of science classrooms” (Nkadimeng and Ankiewicz, 2022, pg 617) The study also found that cognitive and racial constructivism influenced by Vygotsky was a key motivator for students development that help make content more engaging and entertaining for the students thus how it can make students academically successful.

Additionally, a literature review examined by Fernando Pumudu, & Salinda Premadasa wrote about the use of gamification and games-based learning(GBL) in educating generation Alpha (children born after 2010s). This literature review examined 34 primary educational-based learning studies between 2017-2021. The study found that many classes benefited from using gamification and GBL in their classes with math being most tested in their literature review. Pumudu and Premadasa find that the:

“study emphasizes the crucial role of educational technology in enhancing pedagogical, technical, and human resources to meet the unique educational needs of Generation Alpha, who have grown up in a digital age. Generation Alpha is heavily reliant on mobile devices and gaming, hence mobile and gamified learning will become an integral part of their educational cycle”( Pumudu and Premadasa,2024, pg 128)

This literature thus helps us see the future of education. In the age of technology, students have adapted, so should we as educators, to be able to have students become successful cognitively and academically.

Another game that also enhances learning in the classroom, from my own experiences, is Gimkit, which is explained by New EdTech Classroom in the video above. That is described as a game within a game as students entertainingly enjoy playing different modes that are constantly changing with updates an example is found in 13:51 titled "the floor is Lava" mode where the entire class works together to make sure they continuously answer questions to keep the floor blocks above the lava. The game is displayed on the teacher's screen, where the students can see if they are answering enough questions to gain more money. Where they have to invest in building more bricks, a staircase, and more options to keep the floor above the lava(14:33). The student's screen shows questions of the chosen topic being taught made by the teacher to answer to gain more blocks. Teachers have the option to increase the prices of bricks or staircases or even increase the level height if students find the game too easy and have to work faster to keep it from falling. I have used many game modes from Gimkit that allow for an enjoyable time for students to review content before a test, and students tell me how much it helped them be prepared for the test along with other game modes and Gimkit allows them to continue to review as questions will cycle through the question bank given.

Lastly, The video above will examine how Szabolcs Felszeghy uses Kahoot, a game-based platform that has students answer questions projected to the class from their own devices. The game has a leaderboard system to determine who is leading, creating a competitive environment in the classroom. The game has students gain intrinsic motivation as they are determined to beat peers in the classroom while also recalling content from the classroom. Felszeghy's article “Using Online Game-based Platforms to Improve Student Performance and Engagement in Histology Teaching” argues that Kahoot is able to improve student’s performance and engagement in graduate training. The study resulted in a significantly higher percentage of correct test scores from the previous year to the test group of students, and students were interviewed with the general impression of liking the use of the platform, concluding, “. Our study demonstrated that the introduction of gamification into dental and medical histology course stimulated learning and improved participant satisfaction.” (Felszeghy, 2019,pg 10). I like many teachers have also used Kahoot and have seen amazing results in students enjoyment and interaction to the game due to the competitiveness of wanting to win. Some can even attempt to give extrinsic rewards for the winner or top 3/5 winners of the game, which will excite many students. I remember using Kahoot when I was in high school, and when I brought it back to high school, I found many more games that are now more available for students to use. The past three scholarly articles have determined that through many age levels, game-based learning platforms have cognitively and academically influenced students' success in their grades and learning skills.

References

Alotaibi M. S. (2024). Game-based learning in early childhood education: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in psychology, 15, 1307881. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1307881

Cherry, K. (2024). Sociocultural theory: Examples and applications. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-sociocultural-theory-2795088

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01

Boyhun , Kim. (2012). Harnessing the power of game dynamics1: Why, how to, and how not to gamify the library experience. College & Research Libraries News, 73(8), 465-469. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.73.8.8811

Fernando, P. A., & Premadasa, H. K. S. (2024). Use of gamification and game-based learning in educating Generation Alpha: A systematic literature review. Educational Technology & Society, 27(2), 114–132. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48766166

Felszeghy, S., Pasonen-Seppänen, S., Koskela, A. et al. Using online game-based platforms to improve student performance and engagement in histology teaching. BMC Med Educ 19, 273 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1701-0

Gakonga , J. (2023, December). Why I Hate Kahoot! Some thoughts on a tool that everyone else seems to love!. YouTube. https://youtu.be/n_aLNWML1w8?si=VL4O1aKr6kIYY7HT

Marklund, B. B., & Taylor, A.-S. A. (2016). Educational Games in Practice: The Challenges Involved in Conducting a Game-Based Curriculum. Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 14(2), 122–135.

Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: a detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation. Psychological medicine, 52(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722001611

Nkadimeng, M., Ankiewicz, P. The Affordances of Minecraft Education as a Game-Based Learning Tool for Atomic Structure in Junior High School Science Education. J Sci Educ Technol 31, 605–620 (2022). https://doi-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/10.1007/s10956-022-09981-0

Pohl, M., Rester, M., Judmaier, P. (2009). Interactive Game Based Learning: Advantages and Disadvantages. In: Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Applications and Services. UAHCI 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5616. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02713-0_10

Proulx, Jean-Nicolas & Romero, Margarida & Arnab, Sylvester. (2016). Learning Mechanics and Game Mechanics Under the Perspective of SelfDetermination Theory to Foster Motivation in Digital Game Based Learning. Simulation & Gaming. 48. 17. 10.1177/1046878116674399.

Zabala-Vargas, S., García-Mora, L., Arciniegas-Hernández, E., Reina-Medrano, J., Tomás, U. S., & Colombia, B. (2021). Strengthening Motivation in the Mathematical Engineerin Teaching Processes—A Proposal from Gamification and Game-Based Learning. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 16(6), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i06.16163

Gamification vs. Game-Based Learning: What’s the Difference? YouTube. (2024). https://youtu.be/elJVk_Ro4VU?si=ZUDYtCbz61vGXiz1

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Minecraft Education. (2020). Teaching STEM across the Northern Ireland Curriculum with Minecraft. YouTube. https://youtu.be/7p68vwoeJcI?si=brwQxPQgmhIoGEsC

New EdTech Classroom. (2021a, March 22). Gimkit Tutorial for Teachers. YouTube. https://youtu.be/8tjqibXEsDM?si=NsYonWeXQK9gTuFl