The effect of a gamified learning segment in a high school conceptual physics classroom on student engagement, motivation, and measures of learning

Abstract

Students often struggle learning physics concepts, in large part due to the lack of engagement and motivation in many science classrooms. Students who are focused in and engaged with the material tend to believe that they understand the concepts better than those who are uninterested. This study primarily investigated the effect of gamifying a learning segment using Classcraft on student engagement, motivation, and perception of physics. The study also examined the effect of gamifying different portions of the instructional sequence, as well as the effect on performance on formative and summative assessments. Students played Classcraft while learning about Newton's 2nd Law while their time on-task was observed. Then, they answered survey questions, participated in an interview, or participated in a focus group to share their experiences. The results indicated that playing Classcraft while learning about physics did increase student time on-task and perception of engagement. However, what motivated students remained largely unchanged. Lastly, there was also not a substantial difference in direct measures of learning on summative assessments but there did appear to be a difference on formative assessment performance.