Gamification
F. Sedighi Motlagh; M. Roshanian Ramin; H. Khademii
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Mathematics is one of the main subjects of the primary school and requires special attention; so, to improve the progress of mathematics, the role of motivational factors, especially attitudes towards mathematics, should be considered, and teaching methods should create interest ...
Read More
Background and Objectives: Mathematics is one of the main subjects of the primary school and requires special attention; so, to improve the progress of mathematics, the role of motivational factors, especially attitudes towards mathematics, should be considered, and teaching methods should create interest in this lesson. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of examining the impact of game-based education on the attitude and learning of mathematics among primary school female students.Methods: The research method in this study was a quasi-experiment of the pretest-posttest design with the experimental-control groups. The statistical papulation included all female students of the first-grade of primary school in the academic year 1401-1402 in Mallard. The research sample was selected by using the available sampling method. Thus, from among the primary schools of Mallard, the girls' primary school of Iran2 was selected, and from among four classes in the first-grade of this school, two classes were selected; then, the students of these two classes (62 students) were sorted by the average math score from low to high, then from above two people were selected and one person was randomly assigned to the experimental group and one person was assigned to the control group. The research tool consisted of five non-digital games that designed and implemented by the researchers. First, the pretest of learning math and the test of attitudes to math lessons were given to both groups; then the topics (familiarity with numbers, addition of numbers, and familiarity with the single-decimal table) were taught in the classroom by the researcher in five sessions of forty-five minutes (with the pretest and posttest session, a total of 7 sessions) in the experimental group via games. At the same time, these topics were taught in the control group in five sessions of forty-five minutes (with a pre-test and post-test session of 7 sessions) in a traditional and common way implemented by the class teacher; then, posttest was administered. The data collection tool in the research included the Aiken math attitude questionnaire, which covered three sub-scales (enjoying math lessons, fear of math and valuing and caring about math lessons). Reliability of the questionnaires were 0.887, 0.841, 0.912, respectively. Second tool was the researcher-made mathematics learning test. The validity of this test was confirmed by the first-grade teachers and reliability was obtained as 0.81 with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to analyze data and covariance analysis was used in the inferential statistics section.Findings: The data analysis indicated that the use of the game would influence the attitude and mathematical learning of the first-grade female students, and therefore, the main hypothesis of the research as “game-based education would have an effect on improving the attitude and mathematical learning of the first-grade female students” was confirmed. Other research hypotheses were confirmed at a meaningful level of 0.001.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that students learn and remember lessons better via applying games and they enjoy this way of learning more and become more active and dynamic, and the learning process would accelerate.
Educational Technology
M. Ranjbarfard; M. Zandvakili
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Today, the presence of computers in training classes has been expanded. Therefore, preparing appropriate software and games as well as conducting research to examine their impact on education and their comparison with the traditional teaching method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) ...
Read More
Background and Objectives: Today, the presence of computers in training classes has been expanded. Therefore, preparing appropriate software and games as well as conducting research to examine their impact on education and their comparison with the traditional teaching method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) is essential. However, a game-based and a professional software-based teaching method as compared to the traditional teaching method has not been evaluated from the perspective of the students including various aspects, such as motivation, satisfaction, interaction, pleasure and learning. This study aims at making a comparison between the evaluation of various teaching methods, including game-based , professional software-based , and traditional teaching method. The evaluation of each of these three methods has been conducted from the perspective of the students in one of the courses of the field of Financial Management, using measures such as pleasure and interaction.Methods: First, the theoretical framework and the research hypothesis were determined based on the literature on three teaching methods, including game-based and professional software-based, and traditional teaching methods. The statistical population of this study comprised of 70 individuals who were undergraduate students of the course of technical analysis at the Financial Centre of Iran as well as at the Association of Stock Exchange Brokers. The selection of this course was due to the possibility of running all the three teaching methods in the time period of conducting this research. The evaluation data for each of these teaching methods were gathered, using a separate closed questionnaire (totally 3 questionnaires) with 5-point Likert scale. The questionnaires of the traditional and software teaching methods were distributed after 3 sessions of the classes had passed and the questionnaire of the game-based teaching method was distributed after 14 days of running the game (this was one of the time periods defined in the game). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS and Excel. The paired t-test was used to analyze the differences in the evaluation of the three teaching methods at the significance level equal to 0.005. The normality of data was tested and confirmed by using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test before running the paired t-test. Findings: In the comparison of professional software-based with the traditional teaching method at the significance level of 0.000 and t= 6.454, it can be said that professional software-based teaching was better. In the comparison of game-based with traditional teaching method at the significance level of 0.000 and t=6.097, it can be said that game-based teaching method was better. In the comparison of professional software-based with game-based teaching method, at the significance level of 0.000 and t=4.861, it can be said that game-based teaching method was better. The mean for game-based teaching method was significantly much higher than that of the other teaching methods. This means that based on their ability, the students were more satisfied with the game-based teaching method; they regarded this method more interactive; they have enjoyed this teaching method more than the others; and this teaching method has increased their motivation, and they have regarded it more effective in their learning.Conclusions: With respect to the significant difference in the evaluation of the game-based teaching method compared with other two teaching methods, it is recommended that the educational institutes, teachers and developers of computer games pay more attention to game-based teaching method and gamification with the teaching objectives. At least, based on the subject and content of the course, besides the traditional method (face-to-face and PowerPoint) which is a common method in teaching, use of a combination of various teaching methods including game-based professional software-based teaching method along with the traditional method can be beneficial and increase the level of satisfaction, learning, motivation, capability, interaction and pleasure of the students. Lack of teaching games relevant to academic courses was one of the main challenges of this research. As a result, it was impossible to study the effect of game elements (such as leaderboards, scores, medals, …) in teaching through game-based method. Due to the impossibility of running educational games related to academic courses in the time period in which the research was being conducted, the spatial scope of the research was limited to two organizations in Tehran province and it was impossible to gather data from other educational institutions and in other classrooms for the other courses.
Educational Technology
M. Ghasemi arganeh; S. Pourroostaei Ardakani; A. Mohseni Ezhiyeh; R. Fathabadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Pillars of civilization of any society is based on the system and structure of education; and without any doubt health, comprehensiveness and efficiency of the education system of that society depends on the scope, breadth, diversity and quality of comprehensive educational ...
Read More
Background and Objectives: Pillars of civilization of any society is based on the system and structure of education; and without any doubt health, comprehensiveness and efficiency of the education system of that society depends on the scope, breadth, diversity and quality of comprehensive educational programs and educational services that are offered to students in regular schools or special classes. We have often seen students who are very similar in terms of learning ability and talent; but there are many differences in their academic achievement. We see these differences not only in school learning but also in other non-academic activities. This aspect of human behavior is related to the field of motivation. Psychologists often see motivation as a process that is involved in motivating, directing, and sustaining behavior. Motivation is the basis of human behavior and the most important factor of various behaviors and in fact the driving force of human activities and their directing factor. Gamification is currently one of the techniques that can increase motivation. Gamification is a new method that has been translated as ‘playmaking’ in some sources and means the use of playful elements and thoughts in areas that are not the nature of the game. Gamification has been one of the topics discussed in recent years, which can be used to increase efficiency and user interaction. Properly applied gamification in educational environments will lead to better learning of users. This study investigates the impact of gamification on educational motivation for mentally disabled students. Methods: This research utilizes a quasi-experiment research method through which pre andpost-tests are organized for two groups of students, i.e., control and experimental. The reserach population covers all mentally challenged students in Kermanshah Providence in Iran. The experiment sample consists of 32 students selected using a convenience sampling method. They randomly formed two groups of 16 as control and experimental. The experimental group was taught by game-based instructions, whereas the control received ordinary lessons in the classroom. For this, a 20 sessions (ordinary and game-based) course were designed for both groups of students. Harter motivation test was used in this research to collect data from the students. The collected data was analyzed using a one-way analysis of covariance. Findings: In the descriptive statistics section, the studied variables were analyzed using statistical index tables, mean and standard deviation; and in the inferential statistics section, the research hypotheses were analyzed using analysis of covariance. According to the results, game-based education has a positive impact on educational motivation for mentally disabled students and the effect size of the Eta squared in research is 0.49 on the internal motivation and 0.51 is the external motive. Conclusions: According to the findings of the analysis of covariance, gamification-based teaching methods have a positive effect on internal and external academic motivation (p <0.01). It is concluded that motivation plays a key role in learning, specifically if the students with mental disabilities join game-based educational environments.
Game-based Education
M. Shafaei
Abstract
Background and Objective:Currently, different teaching techniques and methods are used in teaching architectural design. Holding architecture education conferences at the national level shows the attention of experts and researchers to the importance of this issue. In recent years, critical, participatory ...
Read More
Background and Objective:Currently, different teaching techniques and methods are used in teaching architectural design. Holding architecture education conferences at the national level shows the attention of experts and researchers to the importance of this issue. In recent years, critical, participatory teaching methods or techniques such as questions and answers to increase student motivation have been considered by researchers and architecture teachers. But holding architectural design courses in a workshop (practical) for many hours, repetition and uniformity of techniques such as one-day sketches, individual and collective corrections, and architectural design training become a tedious task for teachers and students. This becomes a serious challenge for young teachers who do not have enough teaching experience. It seems that game-based teaching method can increase students' motivation and increase their learning rate. In this regard, the purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of game-based education on game learning, participation and students' feelings about the benefits of one (bachelor) architecture design course. Extensive research on architecture education shows the importance of this subject. The main approach of these research studies is student-centered education. Many researchers have emphasized the collaboration between student and teacher. The main goal of these studies is enhancing architecture students’ motivation and learning. Nowadays, there is a support for digital game-based education. Therefore, the goal of this study is investigating the role of game-based education (not only digital games) in enhancing learning, collaboration and the students’ feeling about the usefulness of the subject matter. Methods: Here, the experimental method has been used. Statistical population includes students of architecture design 1-B.A. The sample size is 51 students organized in 3 groups. The game-based method was used in the experimental group. The second group (control group 1) was trained through “project correction with other students as reviewers”. The third group (control group 2) was trained through “individually project correction”. All students were assessed by MBI-SS questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the semester. Findings: The results obtained through comparing the frequency of answers. It was concluded that game-based education through pantomime, verbal games and figural games could have a positive role on enhancing “learning”, “collaboration” and “students’ positive feelings about the architecture education”. Conclusion: The present study, in line with participatory education and teacher-student interaction, showed the effect of game-based education on promoting student motivation. Although in today's world, teaching architecture through computer games is discussed, this research does not limit learning by games to just computer games. Demonstration, speech, writing and drawing games can be included in architectural design education according to the teacher's creativity and the fit of the game with the subject and stimulate students' interest in architectural design and according to the research literature, cause long-term (long-term) learning.
