The Potential and Pitfalls of Classroom Gamification – Manal Al Ashkar
The rapid development of technology nowadays, especially with the dominance of artificial intelligence, has imposed new challenges on traditional teaching methods. One of these challenges is integrating new innovative approaches into the learning environment to enhance students’ engagement and motivation. One of the most innovative approaches that gains a lot of attention from all educators and teachers is gamification. Gamification is the process of integrating game-design elements into non-game contexts to engage students in everyday class. It includes incorporating leaderboards, badges, and points into daily class activities to make them enjoyable and effective. This approach promises to transform the class into an interactive and dynamic space. However, like any educational tool, adopting gamification in the learning environment encompasses a set of advantages and potential drawbacks. This article sheds light on the multifaceted world of gamification in education, explaining how it can both enrich and complicate the learning experience for students and teachers.
One of the most compelling advantages of gamification in class is increased engagement and motivation. Integrating leaderboards, points, and badges into class activities makes learning more enjoyable and engaging for students. This leads to better motivation for the subject matter and makes the learning process more dynamic and exciting. Gamification in class also leads to improved retention and understanding. To be honest, gamified activities reinforce explained concepts and thus make it easier for students to retain a good memory of what is explained in class. Personalized learning is another upside of gamification. Most gamified activities can be tailored to individual learning interests, needs, styles, and abilities. Here, teachers can use adaptive gamified quizzes that are tailored according to a student’s proficiency level. For example, once a student answers correctly, he/she will move into a more challenging question and onwards. In case, he/she gets an incorrect answer, the platform provides additional resources or rephrases the question in a more comprehensible way. Another merit of gamification is that encourages collaboration and social interaction as most gamified activities request students to work in groups or teams. Accordingly, this helps them develop their communication and collaboration skills. Gamification also nurtures a growth mindset as it helps students overcome their fear and feelings of embarrassment when they end up with failure. It mostly creates an environment where failure becomes not only acceptable but also fun as they often accept failure and think of ways to achieve success in their next trials. Instant feedback is another favorable aspect of gamification. Most students get to know their mistakes right on the spot and work on correcting them instantly. Last but not least, developing soft skills is another merit of gamification most gamified activities require problem-solving skills, critical thinking and creativity.
Even though gamification is very important to the learning environment, educators should be aware of some of its drawbacks. In the first place, overemphasis on competition may create a stressful environment, where some students feel unwelcome and thus prefer to stay away. In addition, gamification might divert students’ attention and let them forget about the primary roles or educational goals of the lesson. Another point that educators should be aware of is equity in access to the required technology for gamified learning activities. What is worse is that some students tend to focus more on winning the games and getting awards rather than focusing on the material itself. Also, gamification often requires careful planning and resources for most educators as it is not simple to create quiz-based activities that are fun and targeted. Doing this often requires a lot of time and effort on behalf of the teacher. Finally, gamification might not match all learning styles, needs, and interests. For example, some auditory students might struggle if they are not given oral instructions.
In light of the above, we understand the prominence of gamification in education as it is a powerful approach to creating a friendly engaging environment that caters their diverse learning styles. However, if educators don’t plan carefully and tactfully for the implementation of gamification, they may end up facing a lot of challenges that lead to undesirable outcomes
Employment status
_ Editor and translator of scientific researches at Dhad International Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences
_ Accredited trainer at Dhad International Center for Audit and Correction
_ Researcher at Dhad International Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences, and has already published four articles
_ Translator and editor of scientific research at International Knowledge Academy for Cognitive Development.
_ Senior Director of Education for Lebanon at International Teachers Association
_Peer reviewer at Asian Journal for Education and Social Studies
_ Peet reviewer at Archives of Current Research
_ Trainer, team speaker and ambassador of education at Layal Global Innovative Learning Hub
Educational Qualifications
_Ph.D. student in management of educational institutes at International Academy for Training and Research
_ BA in Education from Lebanese University in 2005.
_ Diploma in Educational Sciences issued by International Academy for Training and Research
_ Training Masters in Educational Management issued by International Academy for
Training and Research in April 2022.
_ Autism Specialist Course at International Teachers Association
_ 220-hour SEN Diploma Course at International Teachers Association
_ Medical English Diploma issued by International Teachers Association i
_ TEFL/TESOL Diploma
_ TOT certified by International Academy for Building Capacity s