Gamification in education is one of the examples of strategy that has been generating very positive results. It combines game reasoning with learning elements to develop students’ skills.
The incorporation of technology in education collaborated with the development of innovative teaching methodologies. Also, gamification seeks to encourage student participation and the development of skills and experiences necessary for life.
That’s why gamification in education has gained fame in the school environment. It collaborates with the development and participation of the student. Also, it offers external incentives that help in the process of knowledge acquisition and school reinforcement.
It benefits from the use of technology through tablets, smartphones, and computers to apply knowledge through interactive activities. This makes learning more dynamic, constructive, and attractive to students.
In this article, you will find out how gamification in education systems can help people develop skills and create a great environment for learning.
What is gamification?
Gamification in the pedagogical process means using logic, rules, and game design to make learning more attractive, motivating, and delightful.
The potential of gamification in education is large, as it develops socio-emotional skills that will make a total difference in learning. It is exciting to students to have the desire to be rewarded, and feel victorious.
By using game design in educational activities, the classroom becomes an attractive and challenging environment in the search for knowledge. In addition, there will be an increase in participation, improvement in creativity and autonomy, promotion of dialogue, and a focus on solving-problem situations.
10 Gamification in Education benefits for learners
1. Support teamwork
One of the greatest difficulties for teachers is to propose group activities, although the distribution of tasks within the team needs a unit fairly. Gamification in learning emerges as a solution to stimulate collective and collaborative action.
As the practice works with the idea of reward, students feel encouraged to overcome the proposed challenges and, therefore, they need to develop group work.
The results are very positive. From the group work point of view, gamification encourages collaborative action, respect, and empathy for the colleague. However, from an individual perspective, the student starts to recognize that his/her voice is important.
2. Make education more attractive
Going to class daily is not part of every student’s favorite schedule. After all, boring classes are far from the fun possibilities of games. Therefore, gamification in the school environment appears as an opportunity for a school to include an active teaching methodology.
In this practice, technological resources are not seen as enemies, but essential partners for the learning process. Bringing students closer to classroom content through technology and games is also a way to make teaching more attractive.
A good gamification strategy makes the learning environment more informal and effective. This leads to high levels of engagement because the student has fun while learning.
3. Give instant feedback on learning
There is a lot of talk about feedback in the work environment, while at school it usually appears through grades on final exams. As a professional, the student will never improve performance if he cannot discover along the way where and how he can improve.
Gamification practice is a great way to provide feedback on student performance. According to the logic of the games, the participant can only advance if he has correctly solved the challenge. And as the ultimate goal always involves a reward, he will quickly seek to develop his performance in educational games.
4. Offer a positive attitude towards learning
Disciplines such as Physics, Chemistry, and Math often frighten students because of their formulas and questions. The use of gamification can favor the students’ relationship and interest in any discipline, according to the improvement of results even in the least-loved subjects.
5. Give opportunity for multi-skills
Another benefit of using gamification at school is that it can combine pedagogical planning by acting as a channel to address multidisciplinary projects. Projects can also overwhelm the microenvironment of the classroom and include work with other groups and even the family or community.
6. Help develop analytical skills
Gamification helps create a learning process that allows students to practice real-life scenarios and challenges in a safe environment.
When students face with problem situations that require agile decision-making, the methodology makes them develop logical thinking and critical analytical skills to evaluate the best alternatives for solving the problem.
7. Develop socio-emotional skills
The possession of knowledge without a critical eye helps process information and make decisions. In addition, it helps work in teams and solves problems, so the agenda of teaching methodologies prepare students for the challenges.
Therefore, through gamification, it is possible to teach about these skills and discuss their application. Thus, along with these challenges, the teacher can help students to think about what emotions make them give up.
8. Increase student motivation
Goals, rules, feedback, and participation are 4 elements common to all games. Interestingly, they also push the motivation that comes with a good experience.
This explains why some young people can stay up all night playing games without noticing their fatigue, while 15 minutes in class makes most students bored. Therefore, gamification in learning can contribute to increasing student engagement, efficiency, and motivation.
9. Improve students’ communication skills
The elements present in a gamified practice from the first years of school increase the communication and socialization skills of students. Furthermore, gamification has even many success stories when used as a tool for language learning.
10. Prepare students for life
Gamification creates an environment that allows the student to develop many necessary life skills. Through games, students learn that mistakes are part of the way and develop the resolution to keep going to the next levels.
Optimism is also a feature of this methodology. Thus, games prepare children and teenagers for normal occasions, such as dealing with the competitiveness of the job market.
Also, gamification in the school environment helps students to have more organization, critical thinking, and strategic planning.
How to apply Gamification in Education?
Although it is not an easy task, it is possible to do gamification in a school without the use of technology. However, the process ends up more difficult.
There are already gamified tools on the market that can help you in this addition. Moreover, it provides an incredible experience for the entire school community (Managers, Teachers, and Students).
But if it’s not yet time to use a tool, the steps to implement gamification in education can be done in the order below, check it out:
- Define your pedagogical goal;
- Identify the class and the age of your students to better target the language;
- Have the learning objective very clear;
- Structure the models and evaluation moments for each step;
- Use game features during the journey, such as ranking, trophies, medals, and points;
- Ask students which prizes are interesting for them and then try to balance from the effort level.
Why does this tool help with better results?
Today’s teachers have been asking themselves a lot about what needs to encourage students. This is important, not only to understand the contents taught in the classroom but also to understand them completely. The answer continues exactly in the use of technology as a partner.
For this reason, gamification presents such good results. Thus, the tool improves education processes and increases engagement with information immediately since students will be on their terms. In other words, it is about stimulating the student’s interest with elements that he has already learned, that is, that is part of his daily life.
In addition, gamification in education allows the student to be the leader of their learning. By actively participating, the student feels more stable and confident. Thus. since the tasks are according to their level of knowledge and the teacher acts as a mediator and motivator.
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