Gamification as a strategy for promoting child involvement: A study on spatial orientation in the 1st CEB

Abstract

We' are living in an era of strong change that misaligns offerings, processes and interests. In the field of education, it is urgent to find strategies that foster the revitalization of energies capable of triggering student involvement and thus improving efforts, skills and behaviours facing the challenge. Within the scope of initial teacher education, more specifically in Supervised Teaching Practice, this study was carried out with the purpose of evaluating gamification as a positive impact driver design in the involvement of children in a spatial orientation class, with effects on school outcomes. It was based on the Gamification Framework [7]. With a mixed methodological approach and a study case, we used disparate data collection instruments: participant observation of the trainee teacher who performed the pre-test, the post-test and the multimodal narratives, sustained in dialogues and interactions of the children recorded during the sessions, an interview with the teacher and, for a better understanding of the results, an interview with two specialists, one being an Internet Risk specialist and the other an Educational Technology expert. The project involved 21 1st grade children from a 1st CEB School. Among other results, there was an improvement in student involvement. Regarding spatial orientation, the promotion of lateralization ability and the ability to locate spaces were stood out, taking into consideration reference points and to identify the position of figures present in a grid through their coordinates. The analysis of the results raises some questions concerning the humanist paradigm.