Teachers’ Perspectives on Gamification in Education

Conference: The European Conference on Education (ECE2020)
Title: Teachers’ Perspectives on Gamification in Education
Stream: Design, Implementation & Assessment of Innovative Technologies in Education
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
C. Alexander Scherb, University Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Romina Posch, University Koblenz-Landau, Germany

Abstract:

Over the last two decades, digital games have become increasingly popular in society. Many adolescents and a growing number of adults play digital games on their computer, console, smartphone or tablet. Gamification, which stands for the usage of game-elements/-principles outside of games, has become a widespread term. Technologies such as Classcraft.com give teachers a framework for the implementation of gamification in the classroom and encourage them to use gamification-elements, coupled with the prospect of improved learning outcome. However, we know little about teacher's perspectives on gamification in educational contexts. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to determine why and in which situations teachers use gamification-elements in class. According to the “Theory of Planned Behaviour” and the “Concerns-Based Adoption Model”, we developed and validated items specifically tailored for the use of gamification to gain insights into teachers’ teaching practices. In addition, we employed the "Motivations of Play" to evaluate whether teachers who are motivated by different gaming aspects have a different approach to use gamification in learning environments. The results of a qualitative pre-study indicate that the majority of teachers frequently use gamification in class even if they have not yet heard of the term "gamification" itself. Teachers emphasize that the use of gamification is first and foremost beneficial whenever topics are by nature "more boring than fun" (e.g. photosynthesis). Furthermore, teachers proposed a wide range of situations in which the use of gamification elements is valuable. The full results will be presented at the conference.

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