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Adaptive scaffolding and engagement in digital game-based learning

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Abstract

Educational games are becoming increasingly prevalent. Recently, adaptive game-based learning to accommodate diverse learners has received considerable attention. The current study aims to explore the effect of adaptive scaffolding from a multidimensional engagement perspective. A total of 61 students from a Taiwan secondary school studied Newton’s laws in a computer-based interactive game environment. The students were assigned to either a fixed scaffolding group or an adaptive scaffolding group to test the effect of adaptive scaffolding. The findings suggest that adaptive scaffolding can have a significant effect on students’ learning performance and engagement. The study offers significant implications for the design and integration of adaptive scaffold to promote learning engagement in digital game-based learning.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science and Technology Council in Taiwan through the contract number MOST 108-2511-H-018-017-MY3. The authors would like to thank Yu-Kai Zhang for providing invaluable support in the development of the game. The authors also extend gratitude to the reviewers for their thoughtful feedback and valuable insights, which greatly helped in improving the manuscript’s scientific rigor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, No.1, Jin-De Road, Changhua, Taiwan

    Ching-Huei Chen

  2. Program of Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA

    Victor Law

  3. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA

    Kun Huang

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  1. Ching-Huei Chen
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  2. Victor Law
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Correspondence to Ching-Huei Chen.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Access to the original data used in the present study in anonymized form is granted by an application to the study's first author. This study involved only voluntary participation. We obtained informed consent from all the participants, who were also informed that they could stop participating at any time and that whether or not they participated in the study would not affect their course grades. All the information collected from this study is kept confidential.

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Chen, CH., Law, V. & Huang, K. Adaptive scaffolding and engagement in digital game-based learning. Education Tech Research Dev 71, 1785–1798 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-023-10244-x

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