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Motivating students to become self-regulatory learners: A gamified mobile self-regulated learning approach

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Abstract

Self-regulatory learning skills are recognized as an essential factor motivating students to learn. The lack of self-regulatory learning skills could reduce students' learning performance. Therefore, engaging students in making learning plans, executing the plans, and reflecting on their learning remains a challenge for teachers. To address this problem, this study proposes a gamified mobile self-regulated learning approach which provides multiple gamified rewards to motivate students’ self-regulatory learning skills. Gamified elements were integrated into students' self-regulated learning stages to guide them in efficiently exploring how to achieve their goals and making deep learning reflections. To investigate the effect of this proposed approach on students' learning outcomes, two classes of students were recruited to conduct the experiment. The learning approach was used by the experimental group (N = 22) while the conventional mobile self-regulated learning approach was used by the control group (N = 22). Both groups of students' performance on the mathematics learning achievement test, SRL learning sheets, and goal-achieving intentions were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the gamification mechanism improved the students' learning achievement as well as their goal-setting and reflection performance. However, the students who used the proposed approach reached similar monitoring performance as those students who learned without gamification. This study confirmed the feasibility of introducing a gamification mechanism into self-regulated learning, and revealed how to apply multiple game elements in instructional activities to enhance students' learning intentions.

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Funding

This study is supported in part by the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan under contract number NSTC 111–2410-H-152 -006 -MY2 and NSTC 111–2410-H-011 -007 -MY3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Yi-Chun Chen & Chiu-Lin Lai

  2. Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan

    Gwo-Jen Hwang

  3. Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

    Gwo-Jen Hwang

  4. Graduate Institute of Educational Information and Measurement, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung City, Taiwan

    Gwo-Jen Hwang

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  1. Yi-Chun Chen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yi-Chun Chen and Chiu-Lin Lai. Project administration were performed by Chiu-Lin Lai and Gwo‑Jen Hwang. Methodology and supervision were performed Chiu-Lin Lai and Gwo‑Jen Hwang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yi-Chun Chen and Chiu-Lin Lai. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chiu-Lin Lai.

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Appendices

Appendix 1. Goal-setting sheet

figure a

Appendix 2. Monitoring sheet

figure b

Appendix 3. Reflection sheet

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Chen, YC., Hwang, GJ. & Lai, CL. Motivating students to become self-regulatory learners: A gamified mobile self-regulated learning approach. Educ Inf Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12462-z

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