Infinite Sci-ya!

: A proposed gamified activities

for Chemistry-7

Bolaño, Divine
Catulinan,Jasmin
Escaro, Ma Joyce Anne
Mempin, Missy
Ong, Krystal Claire
Introduction

Motivation is any process that builds and maintains learning behavior. It's vital
because students are unable to learn unless they are motivated. Learning is considered
as an active process that demands effort on the part of the learner in constructivist
theory (Driver, 1989). As a result, students must be encouraged to make that effort. In
reality, constructivist theory holds that if students are not motivated, no meaningful
learning can take place. Motivation would be essential for encouraging students to
participate in learning and would be required throughout the process until learning is
complete.Motivation becomes an essential pre-requisite and corequisite for learning.

Unfortunately, many science students are dissatisfied with their studies.This is

particularly challenging among adolescents,who often view science as a difficult and
boring topic that fails to engage them (Rennie, Goodrum, & Hackling, 2001). It also
indicates that motivation in school science classrooms tends to be less than most
effective, which can be expected to reduce the amount of meaningful learning that
occurs. As a consequence, one of the most significant issues for science education is
to address the issue of student motivation.

But what could be the reason why students get unmotivated? According to Jim
Wright (2013), one of the reasons is “The student is unmotivated because classroom
instruction does not engage”. In classroom settings, students can choose to respond to
a variety of reinforcing events—for example, watching the teacher, interacting with
peers, looking out the window at passing traffic. The fact is that classroom instruction
must always compete for student attention with other sources of reinforcement
(Billington & DiTommaso, 2003; Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005). There are two ways
that the instructor can increase the student’s motivation to attend
to classroom instruction: (1) by decreasing the reinforcing power of competing
(distracting) stimuli, and/or (2) by increasing the reinforcing power of academic
activities.

A number of studies in scientific education have revealed that the classroom

teacher can play an important role in affecting student motivation (Haussler & Hoffmann,
2002; Shymansky, Yore, & Anderson, 2004). It is therefore essential that research is
conducted to discover classroom practices that teachers may utilize to maximize
student motivation,which is the primary goal of the current study.

Motivation is important. It is the door to learning because motivation leads to

engagement, and without engagement learning is unlikely to occur. “Motivation is the
process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk, Pintrich, &
Meece, 2008) Studies conducted over the past few decades have indicated that there is
a general tendency for students’ motivation to engage with science, in and out of
school, to decrease during adolescence (Anderman & Midgley, 1997; Meece, 1991;
Vedder-Weiss & Fortus, 2012). Many potential reasons have been found for this
declining motivation for science, with some of the main culprits being various
environmental pressures on and expectations of students as they mature (Ames, 1992;
Mucherah, 2008; Song, Bong, Lee, & Kim, 2015; Vedder-Weiss & Fortus, 2013).
According to Alex Hobert (2023), Chemistry might seem boring to some because
of its focus on complex structures and abstract concepts. Some of the reasons are:
Complex Language, Abstract Concepts, Math-Intensive, Memorization, Theory
Overload, etc. However, it’s like deciphering a hidden code that unlocks the secrets of
the world’s composition. Finding the excitement in understanding matter’s behavior can
transform this perception.

Students find chemistry to be excessively abstract and mathematical, according

to Espinosa, Monterola, and Punzalan (2013). In line with Brickhouse and Carter
(1989), if students fail to comprehend a notion correctly, they frequently lose the
chemistry ideas. Through various hands-on activities that relate to the learners'
experiences, teachers should incorporate new instructional pedagogies (Reyes,
Espana, and Belecina, 2014). Gamification is a peculiar term which means the use of
game concepts to make learning and instruction more enjoyable (Kapp, 2012). An
educational game has been included in a scientific lecture to increase students'
emotional and behavioral involvement (Yousef et al., 2014). Gamification and
game-based learning have long been considered important components of science
education. According to predetermined regulations, students are required to compete in
educational games as part of the teaching process (Fitzgerald, 1997). On the other
hand, according to Bomia et al. (1997), student engagement also refers to a student's
willingness, need, want, and compulsion to participate in and succeed in the learning
process, which promotes higher level thinking for enduring understanding. According to
an investigation by Barab et al. (2007), the major objective of science education is to
help students develop the knowledge, abilities, and concepts necessary for navigating
the 21st century. It is well known that educational games can motivate students and
significantly increase their interest in their studies (Bogost, 2007; ZarraonandiaDiaz and
AedoRuiz, 2014). Another crucial aspect that needs to be studied in gamified learning
settings is the satisfaction of learners. In general, satisfaction can be thought of as the
fulfillment experienced when one's wants or desires are met (Saif, 2014). Through the
game, students can show that they have mastered the material they have learnt as well
as how to solve difficulties (Akkuzu & Uyulgan, 2016).

Gamification refers to the “use of game design elements within non-game

contexts” (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled & Nacke, 2011, p. 1). The central idea is to take the
‘building blocks’ of games, and to implement these in real-world situations, often with
the goal of motivating specific behaviours within the gamified situation. Many authors
see gamification as an innovative and promising concept that can be applied within a
variety of contexts (Werbach and Hunter, 2012, Zichermann and Cunningham, 2011,
Zichermann and Linder, 2013).

The contexts in which gamification has previously been implemented include the
following: work (Arai et al., 2014, Fernandes et al., 2012), education (Landers and
Landers, 2014, Shi et al., 2014), crowdsourcing (Liu et al., 2011, Mekler et al., 2015),
data-collection (Downes-Le Guin, Baker, Mechling, & Ruyle, 2012), health (Jones,
Madden, & Wengreen, 2014), marketing (Hamari, 2013, Hamari, 2015), social networks
(Farzan & Brusilovsky, 2011), and environmental protection (Gustafsson, Katzeff, &
Bang, 2009). Within all these contexts, it is expected that gamification can foster the
initiation or continuation of goal-directed behavior, i.e. motivation (Schunk, Pintrich, &
Meece, 2010).

Most gamification systems use reinforcement elements (points, levels, badges,

leaderboards, etc.) to promote engagement and motivation in users (Subhash &
Cudney, 2018; Dicheva et al., 2015). In this sense, the system follows a behaviourist
approach, since it impinges on people’s behaviour through rewards, reinforcement and
immediate feedback at the right time, just like in a Programmed Instruction (Skinner,
1958) aimed at enhancing second language learning.

According to Lopez Carrillo et al. (2019), the use of gamification in education has
grown quickly, encouraging students to become active learners and accomplish specific
goals. Gamification in education typically aims to increase students' focus, engagement,
and performance as well as to lessen their frustration and demotivation in educational
systems (Cózar-Gutiérrez & Sáez-López, 2016). It is clear that both students and
teachers in the educational environment have benefited from gamification through the
encouragement of productivity and the benefits it has to offer. Additionally, gamified
learning may benefit students in a variety of ways, such as through boosting learning
performance, improving training methods, or raising student motivation (Larson, 2020).

In the past few years, one technological trend that has been heavily focused on
by researchers in many fields, including education, is gamification. The use of
gamification in education utilizes gaming elements and aesthetics to enhance students’
motivation and promote learning. The core idea in gamification lies behind the logic that
the game elements’ motivational strength can be transferred in an educational context.
The implementation of gamification in science education has been an intriguing area for
many researchers as it is something familiar to students, and at the same time, it draws
their interest. Moreover, it can facilitate scientific thinking compatible with scientific
theories, methodologies, and learning strategies related to education and gamification.
(Michail Kalogiannakis, Stamatios Papadakis and Alkinoos-Ioannis Zourmpakis, 2021).

Gamification approaches are being widely used in education, which has

increased learning capacities like motivation and performance. It boosts the learner's
desire to enjoy their education and inspires them to succeed academically. The use of
gamification techniques in higher education makes tough activities simpler, and
students can exhibit effective performance in demanding courses or tasks. The major
goal of gamification is to understand how it could improve learning, especially in
academics or education. It has been shown that gamification is an effective method for
increasing students' motivation, which might have a positive impact on learning. The
study aim was attained using a mixed analytic strategy that integrated qualitative and
quantitative methods. Data is gathered using the GAMEX tool. The results demonstrate
that students who took part in gamified evaluation activities, such as escape rooms, did
better than those who employed traditional techniques in terms of interest, teamwork,
attention, activation, and absence of a negative effect on their education. (Qiaoling Li, 1
Xiufeng Yin, Weili Yin, Xia Dong, and Qingqing Li, 2023).

One of the most critical problems that science education faces is creating
negative emotions and experiences. They have a challenging time understanding
science courses resulting in increasing rejection and dropout rates. Teachers’ lack of
interest, knowledge of relative content, lack of pedagogy related to teaching science,
and a generally negative experience can also be shifted into their students .
Furthermore, enhancing the way students investigate and understand phenomena and
concepts while promoting active and scientific thinking is critical. Therefore, the
integration of gamification in science education has been significantly increased to
improve engagement, joyfulness, and motivation to support relevant activities that
contribute to science education. Gamifying science lessons by implementing gaming
mechanics and elements can potentially lift the obstacles science education faces,
increasing motivation,cognitive and metacognitive achievements, and students’
enjoyment.

Gamification is one of the techniques that we may see in this modern world.
Through the use of gamification students' interest can be enhanced in specific subjects
such as chemistry. "Still, link among the user’s characteristics, executed actions, and
the game elements is still an open question" (Blankman 2022). That's why the
researchers want to formulate/design gamified activities to improve the students'
participation and motivation in Chemistry-7. We will conduct an evaluation wherein we
will be able to measure the students' motivation towards learning chemistry, and Grade
7 students will be facilitated in games/activities about chemistry, and then assess the
proposed gamified activities in Chemistry-7. This gamified version is composed of
ranking and points that they can earn at the end of the said activity.

This study aims to design, develop, and evaluate gamified activities in

Chemistry-7. The research objectives are:

1. To measure the motivation of students towards learning Chemistry-7

2. To design and develop gamified activities in Chemistry-7
3. To evaluate the proposed gamified activities in Chemistry-7