THE EFFECT OF GAMIFICATION INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH ON STUDENTS' LEARNING ENGAGEMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of gamification instructional approach on secondary school students’ learning engagement in Mathematics in Ogidi Education Zone of Anambra State. The study adopted a pretest-posttest non-randomized group quasi-experimental research design. The population consisted of 2,918 senior secondary school two (SS2) students in the 29 public secondary schools within the zone. A sample of 186 SS2 students (85 males and 101 females) was drawn from two coeducational schools using multistage sampling procedures. The instrument for data collection was the Students’ Engagement in Mathematics Scale (SEMS), adapted from Micela, Karen, and Sara (2015), with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.709. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students taught Mathematics using the gamification instructional approach had significantly higher mean learning engagement scores than those taught using the expository method (F = 86.32, p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the learning engagement scores of male and female students taught using gamification (F = 0.31, p > 0.05), indicating the approach is gender-friendly. However, a significant interaction effect between teaching method and gender on students’ learning engagement was observed (F = 0.597, p < 0.05). Based on these findings, it was recommended that Mathematics teachers should be trained in the use of gamification to enhance student engagement and that school administrators should provide the necessary instructional materials to support this approach.