A principal walks by two classroom doors. From one door, she hears echoes of laughter, cheers, and class-wide celebration. The second room is silent, with students focused at their desks on workbook practice. Are both rooms learning? Yes. But who’s more engaged? More likely than not, the students behind door number one.
Each classroom has a unique time and place for whole-class lessons, small group work, individual practice, and assessment. But when appropriate, gamification can make even the most mundane topics exciting, engaging, and meaningful for students.
What is gamification in education?
In education, gamification involves incorporating game-like elements into instruction. Gamification allows students to practice skills in engaging ways that extend beyond traditional learning. Gamification in the classroom can occur digitally with online learning tools or offline with in-person activities, gamified lesson elements, or classroom review games.
Understanding the concept and purpose of gamification
Examples of gamification elements include completing challenges, unlocking problems, and earning classroom rewards, points, or badges after answering questions correctly. Gamification can also include personalization features like custom avatars or learning paths.
For example, instead of solving addition problems on a worksheet, gamification enables students to practice the same math fact fluency skills through gamified elements. This could happen with physical manipulatives, like rolling a dice or drawing cards from a deck to find the sum. Or it could take place online with practice that rewards students with tokens after they solve a problem correctly.
The result? Increased student engagement…and students who might even forget that they’re “doing math” because they’re simply having fun!
Does gamification improve learning?
There are many benefits of gamification, both for learning outcomes and classroom engagement.
Research and studies on the effectiveness of gamified education
Gamification emerged as a prominent motivating factor for students when researchers examined fourth-grade students’ learning behaviors and preferences. Gamification also increases classroom productivity and student engagement.
Additional research in Spain analyzed the impact of digital learning games in primary classrooms. Students who used the gamified tool ExploreLearning Reflex showed significant learning improvements, and researchers concluded that gamification promoted student progress.
“The impact of gamification on learning is very high. The research data shows performance improvements in one month of work equivalent to more than a year with traditional methodology. And here is the key– both the design of the software in addition to the gamification mechanisms available to teachers,” said researcher Dr. Fraga Varela.
The impact of gamification on student achievement and retention
Gamification in learning can promote goal setting and increase opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning. When students practice skills in ways that feel fun, they will be much more likely to be interested in solving similar problems in the future.
Benefits of gamification in the classroom
Gamifying education brings serious benefits to students and teachers. How does gamification benefit learning?
Improved learning outcomes
High-quality games motivate students and promote active learning across all subject areas. Gamified tools keep and hold students’ attention and boost motivation for continued learning. For example, when students used ExploreLearning Frax, a gamified fractions solution, they experienced significant math achievement gains in a short amount of time.Enhanced student engagement and motivation
Gamification makes learning fun! When students complete interactive and motivating games, they will be more engaged with the material. Elementary teachers found that game-driven learning, frequent rewards, personalization, and interactivity significantly increased student engagement and math enjoyment.Time-saving lesson planning and implementation for educators
When incorporating gamification in the classroom, teachers reap the benefits of engaged and on-task learners, which leads to decreased behavior distractions and redirections. Gamified tools can save teachers hours of prep time with pre-made supplemental resources and differentiated practice that meets the needs of each student.Increased collaboration skills
Gamification empowers students of all ability levels and fosters growth mindsets in the classroom. As students experience their achievements, they learn to celebrate their others’ successes and work together to reach goals. Offline extension activities can complement digital gamification and promote collaborative discussion to support learning.Effective tool for year-end (or year-round) review and assessment
Games are a great way to hold students’ attention and reinforce knowledge at the end of a unit or school year. Whether it’s a game show-style review or individual online practice, gamification keeps students engaged to help them retain information and solidify content before learning new skills.
Gamify your classroom today
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