Game Experience of Primary and Preschool Pedagogy Students in a Gamified Mathematics Class

Abstract

The paper presents a quasi-experimental study using gamification in Seppo during a mathematics course for primary and preschool pedagogy students. The aim of the investigation was to examine students’ game experience and their motivation during the game. The research tools were the Gameful Experience Scale [GAMEX] and the Game Experience Questionnaire (developed by the authors). The participants were 32 second-year students. The results show that students’ enjoyment and the feeling of creativity was high, but their activation, absorption in the game and feeling of dominance were low. Students’ self-reports show that they liked the game’s story, the teamwork, and the diverse nature of the assigned tasks. The perceived stress during the game was also relatively low. There was a strong negative correlation between enjoyment and perceived stress. The elements that contributed most to perceived stress were the difficulty of the tasks, the lack of time, and the competition between teams. The motivating elements mentioned frequently by the students were teamwork, collecting game money, and reaching higher levels of the game. A prevailing pattern among the students involved being influenced by both internal and external motivation throughout the course of the game. For one-third of the students, motivation increased at the beginning and decreased at the end of the game, while nearly another third’s motivation increased at the end of the game. Students preferred the version of the game with physical movement in the building and enjoyed the freedom of selecting the difficulty of the tasks when the game did not restrict the advancement to a higher level.