Exploring the impact of gamified flipped classroom instruction on secondary school students' disaster education

Abstract

Radical advancements in technology has opened new horizons for gamification and flipped classrooms, giving rise to ever-changing and radically evolving emerging technologies. Flipped learning and gamification could be a potential solution to enhance the learning achievements, motivation, and engagement of students in a contemporary educational context. However, several gaps and problems have been found; these need further investigation before successful implementation can be achieved. For instance, one problem is the lack of motivation among students regarding conventional pre-class quizzes in the flipped class context. There is also a lack of previous studies addressing the incorporation of the gamification concept into flipped-classroom practice, particularly in the Science of Natural Disaster subject; only a few studies have examined the use of gamification to assess students' formative assessments. Apart from that, the elaboration of all four types of engagement in the context of gamification implementation together with the three of perceived needs to be satisfied based on SDT (Self-Determination Theory). To address these gaps, this study aimed to merge the notion of gamification into the flipped classroom context to produce a so-called gamified-flipped classroom. This pedagogy was implemented in experimental science classes, particularly for disaster-related topics. At the same time, it helped to promote effective learning performance among students through gamified formative quizzes as well as enhanced learning motivation and engagement. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed for data collection in all three iterative studies. The quantitative data was collected through a post-test only design or formative assessments and post-questionnaire surveys. For qualitative data, personal interviews were utilized. The three iterative studies found that students' learning performances with gamified flipped instruction improved and were significantly different than those of non-gamified and traditional classroom instructions (p < .05). The study found that quiz competitions before and after lectures motivated students to compete with one another, which in turn led to better scores and performance. The survey and interviews results confirmed that participants from different intervention groups (i.e., gamified flipped learning, flipped learning, and gamified learning) achieved a significant level of motivation as their innate psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness were satisfied. The study also discovered that students from different pedagogical interventions, not only gamified flipped classrooms, were positively engaged emotionally, behaviorally, cognitively, and agentically. Thus, it can be concluded that integrating the gamification concept into the grading system by adding challenges, incentives, points, and rewards to quiz questions promoted a more engaging and enjoyable experience for learners, particularly as formative assessments were used before or after the completion of each topic. The continuous advancement of technology will require students to learn more to keep up with it. Therefore, the instructor should be well-trained in a variety of contemporary instructional pedagogies (e.g., gamified learning, adaptive learning, inquiry-based learning) and the most recent trends in digitalization such as augmented and virtual reality, emotion sensors, learning analytics, and smart desks. In this way, the teachers would be able to implement the right instructions and technologies at the best times and at appropriate places.