Nama : Nur Husniyah Binti Zulkifly

Angka Giliran : 2018212350141

Nombor Kad Pengenalan : 991021-03-5692

Kumpulan/Unit : PISMP JUN 2018 TESL G

Kod dan Nama Kursus : TSLB3173 Research

Nama Pensyarah : Madam Kalaimathy Irene A/P George Richard

Tarikh Hantar : 15th April 2022

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pelajar.
 TEACHER TRAINEES’ PERCEPTION IN USING BLOOKET TO IMPROVE PUPILS’
VOCABULARIES DURING REMOTE LEARNING

Nur Husniyah Binti Zulkifly

PISMP TESL June Intake 2018
Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Bahasa Antarabangsa
husniyah10-711@epembelajaran.edu.my

Abstract
This study entitled “Teacher Trainees’ Perception in Using Blooket to Improve Pupils’
Vocabularies During Remote Learning” is based on the experiences of the teacher
trainees Practicum Phase 2 in 2021 whereas teacher trainees were challenged to
conduct classes remotely due to the pandemic Covid-19. The purpose of the study was
to find out the relationship between issues faced by the teacher trainees in improving
pupils’ vocabularies using Blooket with their perception in using Blooket to improve
pupils’ vocabularies during remote learning. The researcher analysed the finding of the
data by the percentage and the mean derived from the questionnaire given to gain the
result. Teacher trainees’ opinions concerning the issues and their perceptions were also
gathered through interview sessions conducted. Based on the 20 respondents of the
questionnaire and the 5 respondents of the interview, interpretations were drawn. The
analysis of the findings showed that the issues faced by the teacher trainees did not
affect their perception towards the use of Blooket in improving pupils’ vocabularies
during remote learning. This interpretation was drawn based on the respondents’ views
in both methodologies used. Teacher trainees find that the Blooket is effective to be used
in improving pupils’ vocabularies during remote learning despite having some challenges
in the implementation of the gamification method in an online class.

1.0 Problem Statement

This new shift in the delivery method which is remote learning has impacted the
education system, the teachers and the pupils. The need to adapt with the new
technological practices is accentuated for both teachers and pupils in order to ensure
education is not left behind. Gamified learning has been widely utilised and it is found

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effective in teaching vocabulary in many studies. Nevertheless, research studies upon
the issues or concerns in the implementation of Blooket in teaching vocabulary affects
the teachers’ perception of the usage of Blooket during the remote learning were seldom
discovered. Numerous studies highlighted the advantages of gamified learning but there
are not many exposures on the challenges or issues concerning the teachers in
implementing this method during the remote learning. A study by Mohd, Ehsan & Tan
(2020) stated that even though the teachers perceived gamified learning positively in
teaching vocabulary to pupils, the challenges in implementing it to teach vocabularies
such as teacher preparedness and the time consumption in designing the material are
also reported. Thus, this issue raises the significance of the research objectives to
investigate the relationship between the teacher trainees’ perception of using Blooket in
teaching vocabulary and the challenges faced by teachers in using Blooket during
remote learning to teach vocabulary. By connecting the gaps, recommendations of
solutions regarding this issue can be developed.

3.0 Research Objectives and Research Questions

3.1 Research Objectives
The overall objectives are divided into two, which are:
1. to explore teacher trainees’ perception towards the use of Blooket as the
teaching tool to improve pupils’ vocabulary
2. to investigate the challenges experienced by the teacher trainees in
conducting Blooket in vocabulary lessons during remote learning

3.2 Research Questions

The key research questions are as followed:
1. What is the teacher trainees’ belief in using Blooket to improve pupils’
vocabulary acquisition?
2. What are the challenges faced by the teacher trainees in using Blooket
during remote learning to improve pupils’ vocabulary?

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4.0 Review of Literature
Gamification has been broadly studied and gradually implemented as teachers are
striving to meet the 21st century learning needs. Several studies have proven that
gamified learning is effective in improving pupils’ vocabulary (Micheal & Lisa, 2019).
Blooket is one of the well-developed gamified learning platforms that includes
multimodality elements such as visuals, audio and linguistics which can be considered
as a great tool for long-term memorization of information (Jeffrey & Rajiv, 2018). Blooket
allows a set of information that may include the words and pictures to be presented in a
gamified learning form to elicit a quick response. These beneficial elements embedded
in Blooket serve the common purpose of an educational objective which is to facilitate
vocabulary mastery. According to Stuart Webb (2020), learning through gamified
learning such as Blooket can improve learners' ability to use the words in communication
and contribute to implicit and explicit vocabulary knowledge. In addition, Blooket is also
adopted to boost pupils’ motivation especially during remote learning which affects their
intrinsic motivation to join the online session. As stated by Xiaoqiong & Xianxing (2008),
implementing gamified learning will enhance the learner's intrinsic motivation in which it
is undeniably essential in teaching that can make the vocabulary lesson more engaging
during remote learning.
This is supported by Kapp (2012) whereas he mentioned that game-based
mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking serve the purpose of captivating people to
motivate their action and promote active learning. With the presence of the motivation in
joining the learning process and active learning through the use of Blooket, this will
increase the potential of enhancing pupils’ vocabulary acquisition by captivating their
interests. In short, Blooket is beneficial to be implemented in the teaching and learning
process in order to enhance pupils’ vocabulary mastery as well as increase the pupils’
motivation in acquiring new vocabulary.
However, several challenges have been discovered faced by the teachers in
implementing Blooket during vocabulary teaching. Smiderle et al. (2020) mentioned that
gamified platforms such as Blooket are helpful in enhancing pupils’ vocabulary but there
are some drawbacks such as it is a bit time-consuming to prepare the gamified materials
and the senior teachers are struggling to adapt with this trend. Other than that,
Zainuddin et al. (2020) also uncovered some challenges in implementing gamified
learning such as the instructional design and technical problems that may occur. It was
stressed that some schools may face classroom issues and technological infrastructure

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such as non-working computers or power outages and poor internet connection. This
causes a problem for the teachers to implement gamified learning in the lesson for the
unavailability of internet connection to access the gamification platforms. Thus, these
barriers were recognised as challenges in using Blooket to teach vocabulary.

5.0 Methodology
The design adopted for this study is survey research. The survey was carried out among
TESL teacher trainees in Kuala Lumpur. Triangulation method is employed in the data
collection for this research whereas the questionnaire is the primary instrument and
interview is the secondary instrument. The questionnaire comprises 3 sections. It was
distributed online through a Google Form. The first section contains general information
of the respondents. Meanwhile, the second section comprises questions that are related
to the teacher trainees’ belief in using Blooket for vocabulary teaching. Finally, the last
section is regarding the challenges in using them during remote learning. The questions
in Section Two and Section Three use 5 points Likert Scale as the indicator for
respondents’ answers. The data was analysed through Statistical Product and Service
Solutions (SPSS) software statistically. On the other hand, 5 respondents among
representatives of TESL teacher trainees were selected for the interview session. This
semi-structured interview was conducted to gather details that are related to the
research questions as mentioned above. The data obtained was analysed using
thematic analysis. This research adopted a semi-structured interview to allow
interviewees to articulate their views that are rich and quotable in order to acquire
precise perspectives on their perceptions on using Blooket to improve pupils’ vocabulary
and the challenges faced in implementing it during remote learning.

6.0 Research Findings

6.1 Findings on Research Question (1)
What is the teacher trainees’ belief in using Blooket to improve pupils’
vocabulary acquisition?

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 6.1.1 Analysis of the Questionnaire

Based on Table 4.1, the high mean score in item B1 (4.60µ), B2 (4.50µ) and B3 (4.67µ)
suggest that most of the respondents have a positive perception of using Blooket to
improve pupils’ vocabulary. Item B1 has a mean score of 4.60 which indicates high
agreement from the respondents that perceive Blooket as an effective teaching tool for
vocabulary teachings. Blooket enable the pupils to comprehend and memorise the
meaning effectively in a short period of time. Sangtupim & Mongkolhutthi (2019) reported
that pupils are satisfied with the use of gamified application in vocabulary learning as it
helps them remember vocabulary effectively within less time than traditional methods.
Hence, 23.3 % and 63.3% of the respondents agree and strongly agree with the
statement in item B1. Besides that, the mean score of item B2 is 4.50 which signifies that
the respondents agree that Blooket can boost pupils’ motivation in learning vocabulary.
This denotes that most of the respondents agree that the utilisation of Blooket is efficient
and it can be used to improve pupils’ motivation to learn vocabulary. The use of colourful
and funny pictures can increase pupils’ curiosity (Harisanty et al., 2020). Hence, Blooket

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makes the vocabulary lessons more engaging and enjoyable for the pupils due to the
function that allows instructors to insert pictures in the application. Other than that, the
mean score for item B3 is 4.67. This shows that the respondents agree that teachers’
knowledge and skills need to be taken into consideration too as those aspects play a
major role in the effectiveness of Blooket in improving pupils’ mastery of vocabulary. The
total mean score from all three items is 4.59. Thus, it can be concluded that the majority
of the respondents have positive perception towards the use of Blooket to improve
pupils’ vocabulary during remote learning.

6.1.2 Analysis of the Interview

Table 4.2 shows that 80% of the respondents perceive Blooket positively in terms of its
effectiveness in helping pupils to learn vocabularies. Blooket enables the pupils to
picture the vocabulary better and interpret the meaning of the words by referring to the
pictures provided. Thus, it can be recognized that many respondents figured that Blooket
is an amazing tool to provide visuals to help pupils in comprehending the vocabularies
exposed during remote learning. The second emerging theme of the interview analysis is

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motivation whereas 2 out of 5 interviewees reckon that using Blooket has boosted their
pupils’ motivation in learning vocabularies during remote learning. Some of the
responses denote that their pupils become focus which helps to create an engaging
remote learning climate. Nevertheless, one of the respondents (20%) doubted the
effectiveness of using Blooket for vocabulary teachings. It was mentioned that Blooket
will be helpful for the pupils to memorise but the effectiveness of this method depends on
how the teachers present and convey it through the application. Referring to the findings,
it can be seen that most of the respondents have a positive perception towards the use
of Blooket to improve pupils’ vocabularies during remote learning.

6.2 FIndings on Research Question (2)

What are the challenges faced by the teacher trainees in using Blooket during
remote learning to improve pupils’ vocabulary?

6.2.1 Analysis of the Questionnaire

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Based on the table above, item C4 (3.87) is identified as having the highest mean score.
This denotes that the majority of the respondents have faced this challenge in the
implementation of Blooket for vocabulary teachings during remote learning. This
proposes that most of the respondents agree that pupils often struggle to participate and
join the Blooket room. Next, item C5 (3.83) is at the second-highest in which it signifies
that the majority of the respondents have difficulties in teaching abstract vocabularies
using Blooket. Other than that, item C2 has the lowest mean score (3.17). The quality of
the mean score is at the average scale that suggests the respondents are neutral
towards this item. However, the mean score still inclines towards a high agreement to
the statement because the frequency of the respondents who agree (12) and strongly
agree (2) are higher than the respondents who disagree (9) and strongly disagree (1)
regarding the preparation of Blooket requires a lot of resources. Based on the data, it
can be said that nearly half of the respondents have faced an issue in preparing Blooket
as it requires a lot of resources while other half does not have any issue in getting the
resources needed to prepare the Blooket. Figure 4.4 below shows the ranking of the
issues faced by the respondents based on the mean score.

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 6.2.2 Analysis of the Interview

The first theme is the preparation process of Blooket. This theme has been mentioned
twice (2) whereas interviewee A said that she needs extra resources and time in
preparing the course contents to use Blooket. Interviewee D also mentioned that double
preparation has to be done for the vocabularies that have multiple meanings such as the
word, “bat” in order to avoid confusion as it may affect pupils’ mastery of the vocabulary.
The second emerging theme is the implementation of Blooket which has the highest
frequency (4). Interviewee B shared that she faced difficulty in utilising Blooket to convey
complex information. This is due to the limited functions availability such as the
unavailability to insert animations or short video. So, she needs to explain in detail after
the Blooket session to avoid any misunderstandings which may take a bit of time during
the Google Meet session. Interviewee C also mentioned that Blooket consumes high
usage of the internet which has caused some of her pupils unable to reload the pictures
prepared in the Blooket. On top of that, she also figured out that it is difficult to teach
abstract vocabularies because it requires more explanation. This issue is also brought
up by Interviewee E whereas she said it is time-consuming to select right pictures to
describe the vocabularies. It will be harder for complicated vocabularies such as
adverbs. Therefore, it can be concluded that most of the interviewees have experienced
some challenges in implementing Blooket to teach vocabularies during remote learning.

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7.0 Conclusion, Implications and Recommendations
This study has uncovered that teacher trainees generally have a positive perception
towards the use of Blooket to improve pupils’ vocabulary during remote learning. The
teacher trainees agreed that Blooket are an effective online gamification tool in teaching
vocabularies during remote learning and it is also perceived as to be helpful in boosting
pupils’ motivation to pay attention and participate during the lesson. Nonetheless, this
research also has acquired enlightenment on the challenges faced by the teacher
trainees throughout the process of implementing Blooket for vocabulary teachings during
remote learning such as pupils struggling to join the Blooket room, high data
consumption, time consuming and extra resources are needed.
Some recommendations can be conducted to overcome the challenges faced.
Firstly, teacher trainees and teachers can attend a workshop as a platform for them to
share their ideas in using Blooket to teach vocabulary during remote learning. This can
allow them to share their concerns, ideas and solutions throughout their sharing
sessions which can help them to optimise the use of Blooket in vocabulary teachings as
well as to overcome any issues that they faced. This can be done through Professional
Learning Community (PLC) or teacher professional development program. Apart from
that, school administrators can also provide necessary support for teachers such as
sufficient resources, facilities or holding a workshop with parents to introduce them to
gamified learning such as Blooket. This will help the teachers in the implementation of
Blooket in their teaching during remote learning which positively impacts pupils’ learning
experience and improves the school's image (Naylor & Nyanjom, 2020). Cooperation
between stakeholders will ease the implementation of gamified learning concepts which
enable the pupils to experience enjoyable learning as well as motivate them to
participate well during remote learning that can improve their performance.
An implication of this study is the identification of several challenges faced by the
teacher trainees in implementing Blooket during remote learning despite the positive
perception teacher trainees have towards the use of Blooket in teaching vocabularies
during remote learning. If the situation keeps being neglected, teacher trainees might
change their mind towards the use of Blooket for vocabulary teachings. Hence, this
study will lead to the possibility of the future researcher to invent new ideas or an
innovation to counter the issues. By taking necessary steps, it can ensure the teachers
earn the opportunity to apply this gamification method effectively to improve their pupils’
vocabulary acquisition especially during remote learning.

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8.0 References
Harisanty, D., Srirahayu, D., Kusumaningtiyas, T., Anugrah, E., & Permata, I. (2020). The
Utilization of Flashcards in Children Information Literacy Development. Library
Philosophy and Practice (e-journal).
Jeffrey & Rajiv. (2018). Gamification: A cognitive-emotional view. Journal of Business
Research, 304-314.
Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: game-based methods
and strategies for training and education.
Michael & Lisa. (2020). The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis. Educational
Psychology Review. 32. 77-112. 10.1007/s10648-019-09498-w.
Mohd, Ehsan & Tan. (2020). Game-based learning platform and its effects on present
tense mastery: Evidence from an ESL Classroom. International Journal of
Learning, Teaching and Educational Research.
Naylor, D. & Nyanjom, J. (2020). Educators’ emotions involved in the transition to online
teaching in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development.
Sangtupim, N., & Mongkolhutthi, P. (2019). Using Quizlet in vocabulary learning:
Experiences from Thai high school students. The 8th LITU International
Graduate Conference Proceedings, (pp. 213-226).
Smiderle, R., Rigo, S. & Marques, L. (2020). The impact of gamification on
students’learning, engagement and behavior basedon their personality traits.
Smart Learning Environments 7(1), DOI:10.1186/s40561-019-0098-x.
Webb, S. (2020). The Routledge Handbook Of Vocabulary Studies. New York:
Routledge.
Xiaoqiong & Xianxing. (2008). Using film to teach EFL students English language.
Changing English, 235-240.
Zainuddin, Samuel, C., Shujahat & Corinne, P. (2020). The impact of gamification on
learning and instruction: A systematic review of empirical evidence. Educational
Research Review.

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