Gamification in Physical Education: Evaluation of Impact on Motivation and Academic Performance within Higher Education.

Alberto Ferriz-Valero,Ove Østerlie,Miguel García-Jaén,Salvador García Martínez

doi:10.3390/ijerph17124465

Abstract

Gamification is an innovative pedagogical approach to addressing problems related to social behaviour, student motivation and academic performance at different educational stages. Therefore, this research aimed to analyse its impact on the motivations and academic performances of university students. The research was carried out in the training of future teachers specialising in physical education during two academic courses. In total, 127 students participated in the study, divided into a gamified experimental group (n = 62) and a control group (n = 65). The participants completed a questionnaire to assess motivation in physical education before and after the intervention and performed a final exam to assess academic performance. The results indicated an increase in external regulation in the experimental group only. Furthermore, this group achieved significantly better academic performance. The findings of this study suggest that gamified implementation is beneficial for academic performance at the university stage, even though intrinsic motivation does not change. Furthermore, the nature of rewards or punishments, as characteristic of this pedagogical approach, could play an important role in the expected results, since external regulation increased significantly after the intervention.

Highlights

IntroductionIts use as an active methodology has been growing in recent years by creating a novel educational approach to address problems related to social behaviour and student motivation [1,2,3,4,5]
Gamification has been gaining in popularity within the educational field
Carrying out an intervention based on gamification is based on the idea that any student who participates in this type of proposal can more effectively develop a degree of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation or, of amotivation [50]

Summary

Introduction

Its use as an active methodology has been growing in recent years by creating a novel educational approach to address problems related to social behaviour and student motivation [1,2,3,4,5]. This emerging pedagogical approach is based on the utilisation of the potential of games in order to redesign methodological and didactic elements to increase motivation and adherence to the teaching–learning process, significantly changing the social behaviours of students to improve their academic performances [6,7,8].

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion