ABSTRACT
Gamification refers to the utilization of game elements and game-design techniques in non-game contexts. This technique has gained grounds in the area of business and marketing but still remains explorable in the field of education, particularly in physics education. Elements of a video game, namely: points, badges, leaderboards, rules and levels, when incorporated in a classroom gives it a gamified structure. This research explored the effects of a gamified environment to the motivation of high school students in physics. The study is anchored on the self-determination theory which claims that humans are inherently active, inquisitive and self-motivated even without external reward. However, extrinsic motivators can be converted to intrinsic motivators if they are “meaningful, pleasurable and consistent with a person’s worldview. To determine if gamification has effect on the student motivation in physics, overall means of pre-survey and post-survey student responses to the Physics Motivation Questionnaire II (PMQII) were compared as well as the individual means for the five factors of motivation indicated in the 25-item questionnaire. A paired-sample t-test was done to deter-mine if there was significant difference between the individual component of student-motivation. Results revealed that with the utilization of the gamified instruction, career motivation, grade motivation and self-efficacy were increased. However, there was no statistical evidence that the intrinsic motivation and self-determination of the students were increased. This suggests that while gamification causes positive effects on some aspects of student motivation, some care should be taken when incorporating gamification elements to classroom setting.
