Game designers and researchers have sought to create gameful environments that consider user preferences to increase engagement and motivation. In this sense, it is essential to identify the most suitable game elements for users' profiles. Designers and researchers must choose strategies to classify users into predefined profiles and select the…

Students frequently struggled with the mathematizing process -- forging connections between implicit and explicit mathematical thinking -- when solving a context-rich applied problem. The current research investigated how students interact with and leverage purposively designed "mathematizing" supports when solving applied math problems…

While studies of contextualized game-based language learning (CGBLL) have to date gained a growing scholarly interest, there is still a lack of systematic review synthesizing its research trends regarding theoretical foundations, learning contexts, research foci and findings. To address the gap, this study collected data from the Web of Science…

Recent research specifies that game-based learning effectively engages students in classroom activities. Although there has been a prominent upsurge in game-based teaching and learning, this area has not received significant attention within the context of Gulf nations. This study investigates the perceptions, motivations, and benefits of…

Research on the educational value of play tends to focus on active players, especially when evaluating novel interaction technologies. However, a long history of scholarship underscores observing communal practice as a primary means of enculturation and learning. This paper demonstrates learning opportunities available within a range of…

The application of gamified elements to PBL to promote student engagement has not been systematically described. Hence, we conducted a review based on Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage scoping review framework, involving research question identification, relevant study identification, study selection, data charting, and result collating and…

In recent years, there has been a lot of attention given to the trend of including game elements into non-gaming facilities. The usage of gamification in education is a massive benefit for motivation, user interaction, and social effects. The gamified elements such as points, badge, feedbacks, level, rewards, challenges, etc. have been used in…

Since the effectiveness of pedagogies relies heavily on the context they are practiced, scholars strive to revalidate them with different participants representing different disciplines, age, cultures and so on. In this regard, this piece of work was undertaken so as to reveal the impact of a digital game-based learning environment on the…

Reflection plays a critical role in learning. Game-based learning environments have significant potential to elicit and support student reflection by prompting learners to think critically about their own learning processes and performance. Stealth assessment models, used for unobtrusively assessing student competencies from evidence of game…

Stealth assessment in game-based learning environments has demonstrated significant promise for predicting student competencies and learning outcomes through unobtrusive data capture of student gameplay interactions. However, as machine learning techniques for student competency modeling have increased in complexity, the need for substantial data…

Adaptive expertise is a highly sought after, but difficult to achieve, outcome of mathematics education. Many teaching methods appear to support the development of adaptive expertise only in a small proportion of students. Game-based learning environments may be useful for supporting adaptive expertise. Therefore, we carried out a…

This study aimed to examine the impact of game and simulation-based learning environments on the success, concept knowledge, and attitude of prospective teachers regarding probability. The sample of the study consisted of 94 prospective mathematics teachers. The study was conducted in accordance with the quasi-experimental study design and the…

Background: Goal setting has been established in the literature as a critical component of self-regulated learning and for effective problem-solving. Yet, surprisingly little attention has been focused on goal-directed behaviour in digital game-based learning environments (GBLEs) despite their expanding use in educational contexts. Objectives: The…

This article draws on doctoral research into conferences for teacher professional learning and development (PLD). It outlines the literature on teacher PLD, and describes the process by which the collective, game-like activity, Plan D, was designed and prototyped. Plan D affords teachers the opportunity to design their own, bespoke, PLD…

In the last decade, game-based learning has received growing attention in educational contexts in general and science education in particular. A recent game trend, which has also found its way into STEM classrooms, is escape rooms. In this type of game, players have to work through several puzzles to achieve a specific goal (mostly to escape from…