Szörényi Sára előadadása at the PME 47 conference

Higher academic success is associated with higher levels of overall engagement (Lei et al., 2018). High engagement is closely related to the experience of flow. According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it (1990)." Research suggests that flow and engagement can be increased by gamification, although there are numerous studies with inconclusive or negative effects (Zainuddin et al., 2020).

In this study, we investigated the impact of gamification on a Number Theory course attended by first-year pre-service mathematics teachers. We gamified half of the course (N=72) by implementing a point-based system, augmented by additional game elements to make the course motivating for all player types defined in Bartle’s taxonomy. The other half of the course, the control group (N=83), took the course the regular way. The students of the gamified group could gather points by completing tasks on a weekly exercise list, actively taking part in the lectures and practices and on two written midterms. We measured the two groups’ dropout rates, levels of engagement, and performance on the midterm and exam.

The experimental group had an 8% higher score on the first midterm and a 15% higher score on the second midterm compared to the control group. The dropout rate in the experimental group was 17% and it was 45% in the control group. At the end of the course, a qualitative survey was conducted to assess the students’ engagement levels based on the SCARF model. It was found that the student’s level of engagement was higher towards the gamified Number Theory course compared to other university courses. Based on these findings we believe gamification can be an effective tool to decrease dropout rates and increase students’ engagement, while maintaining a high level of knowledge.